Revenue Management: #2 How to compute revenue?

Revenue Management: #2 How to compute revenue?

 

In our previous post, we discussed the revenue recognition standards under IFRS 15 and ASC 606 and the five-step model. Now, let's examine three distinct business scenarios to see how the standards and model work in practice. This will help you understand the timeline and values, as well as the challenges that lie behind them. 

​
Scenario 1: One-time Product/Service Delivery

Imagine a custom furniture maker who takes an order in January and is paid $5000 up front for a handcrafted wall hanging that will be delivered in March. Applying the five-step logic from the previous post, the performance obligation here is fulfilled only when the wall hanging is delivered. That means the $5000 sits on the balance sheet as unearned/deferred revenue until March (promised delivery), and computation for a one-time product or service is simple. Record $5000 as recognized revenue in March in one short.

Service

Handcrafted Wall Hanging

Month

Deferred Revenue

Recognized Revenue

January

$5000

$0

February

$5000

$0

March

$0

$5000

 

Scenario 2: Subscription-based Services

Let's picture an online training application that charges $120 for a 12-month training, paid upfront in January. The seller's obligation is to provide sessions once a month. The computation here is straightforward. $120 / 12 = $10 per month. Recognition happens each month as the service is delivered throughout the subscribed period.

Service

Online Training Application

Months

Deferred Revenue

Recognized Revenue

January

$110

$10

February

$100

$20

March

$90

$30

April

$80

$40

May

$70

$50

June

$60

$60

July

$50

$70

August

$40

$80

September

$30

$90

October

$20

$100

November

$10

$110

December

$0

$120

 

Scenario 3: Hybrid Model

Consider a marketing agency that sells a $5000 package made up of two components: a $2000 website redesign, which will be completed in two months, and $3000 of social media management spread across six months. Under the five-step approach, there are two obligations, and while recognizing the revenue, recognize each portion as its obligation is satisfied.

​

While computing, $2000 is recognized fully in the second month as and when the website goes live, and $3000 will be divided for the six months and recognized at $500 per month. 

Service

Website Redesign

Social Media Management

Months

Deferred Revenue

Recognized Revenue

Deferred Revenue

Recognized Revenue

January

$2000

$0

$2500

$500

February

$0

$2000

$2000

$1000

March

 

 

$1500

$1500

April

 

 

$1000

$2000

May

 

 

$500

$2500

June

 

 

$0

$3000

 

The Real Challenge in Revenue Recognition

While these examples are easy to follow individually, businesses rarely operate with just one recognition rule or pattern. A software company might bill monthly for some services and yearly for others, and sell one-off onboarding sessions. A manufacturer might deliver large contracts in milestones while earning recurring revenue for maintenance contracts.
​
So, a single business may have a recognition period that is monthly, yearly, or sometimes quarterly. One can recognise revenue at the start of a specific service, and the other may decide to do it at the end of the period.   
AlertDifferent recognition periods, billing cycles, start and end dates, upgrades and downgrades, and other contract amendments can easily make revenue recognition a nightmare for business stakeholders.
That's why businesses use revenue management tools like Zoho Billing to automate the calculation and gain accurate, detailed, and meaningful insights. These tools encapsulate the five-step model framework into repeatable calculations, so every contract is treated consistently and in compliance with global standards.

The next post'll show how a revenue management tool helps you configure recognition settings and turn these computations into audit-ready reports. 





      • Sticky Posts

      • Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

        Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's

      • Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

        Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you

      • Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

        Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most

      • Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

        Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides

        • Recent Topics

        • Does Zoho Writer have Dropdowns

          I want to add a drop down field in Zoho writer. Is this possible?

        • Facturation électronique 2026 - obligation dès le 1er septembre 2026

          Bonjour, Je me permets de réagir à divers posts publiés ici et là concernant le projet de E-Invoicing, dans le cadre de la facturation électronique prévue très prochainement. Dans le cadre du passage à la facturation électronique pour les entreprises,

        • Connecting Multiple WooCommerce Stores to a Single Zoho Marketing Automation Account

          Is it possible to connect multiple WooCommerce stores to a single Zoho Marketing Automation account?

        • Service Title in Service Report Template Builder

          I am currently working on the Service Report Template Builder in Zoho FSM. I have created three separate service report templates for different workflows: Preventive Maintenance Report Requested Service Report Installation Report My issue is that I cannot

        • Update: New Security Admin Role

          Hello Zoho Directory Admins! This post is to highlight the recent role and permission changes introduced as part of the security enhancements. Previously, Helpdesk Admins had the security permissions and were responsible for managing the security configurations

        • Client Script | Update #14 - Client Script Support for Quick Create

          Hello Everyone! We are back with another exciting and highly awaited update in Client Script! Over the past months, many of you shared your insights and requests, asking for the power to extend Client Script functionality to Quick Create forms. This capability

        • Empty folders are now appearing in the sidebar...

          ...and the folder list is now auto-collapsed by default with no way to change. Neither of these recent updates are useful or user-friendly. ==================== Powered by Haiku https://www.haiku.co.uk ====================

        • Upload from Zoho Creator File Upload field to OpenAI Vector Store

          I’ve struggled for quite a while to get this working properly. For a long time we relied on Azure Functions as a workaround to handle file transfers between Zoho Creator and OpenAI Vector Stores. It worked, but added unnecessary infrastructure and complexity.

        • Career site URL - Suggestion to modify URL of non-english job posting

          Hi, I would like to suggest making a few modification to career sites that are not in english. Currently, the URL are a mix of different languages and are very long. It makes for very unprofessional looking URLs... Here is an example of one of our URL

        • I'd like to suggest a feature enhancement for SalesIQ that would greatly improve the user experience across different channels.

          Hello Zoho Team, Current Limitation: When I enable the pre-chat form under Brands > Flow Controls to collect the visitor’s name and email, it gets applied globally across all channels, including WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. This doesn't quite align

        • The Social Playbook - February edition: Why moment marketing works (and how brands use it)

          Imagine the final season of your favorite series is about to drop. Your entire feed is talking about it. Trailers everywhere. Fan theories. Hype at 100%. Now your go-to burger place launches a limited-edition meal box themed around that series—custom

        • PDF Attachment Option for Service Reports

          Hello Team, I would like to check with you all if there is an option to attach PDF documents to the service reports. When I try to attach a file, the system only allows the following formats: JPEG, JPG, and PNG. Could you please confirm whether PDF attachments

        • Manage Every Customer Conversation from Every Channel inside Zoho SalesIQ

          Your customers message you from everywhere. But are you really able to track, manage, and follow through on every conversation, without missing anything? With interactions coming in from websites, mobile apps, and messaging platforms like WhatsApp and

        • Approvals in Zoho Creator

          Hi, This is Surya, in one of  my creator application I have a form called job posting, and I created an approval process for that form. When a user submits that form the record directly adding to that form's report, even it is in the review for approval.

        • Cliq Bots - Post message to a bot using the command line!

          If you had read our post on how to post a message to a channel in a simple one-line command, then this sure is a piece of cake for you guys! For those of you, who are reading this for the first time, don't worry! Just read on. This post is all about how

        • Depositing funds to account

          Hello, I have been using Quickbooks for many years but am considering moving to Zoho Books so I am currently running through various workflows and am working on the Invoicing aspect. In QB, the process is to create an invoice, receive payment and then

        • 【Zoho CRM】営業日のロジックに関するアップデート

          ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 今回は「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中から、営業日のロジックに関するアップデートをご紹介します。 本アップデートにより、ワークフローにおける営業日の計算方法が改善されました。 週末などの非営業日にワークフローのトリガーが発生した場合でも、 「+0」「+1」「+2 営業日」といった設定が、意図どおりに正確に動作するようになりました。 営業日に基づくワークフローでは、日付項目を基準に「何営業日後に処理を実行するか」を指定します。

        • Merged cells are unmerging automatically

          Hello, I have been using Zoho sheets from last 1 year. But from last week facing a issue in merged cells. While editing all merged cells in a sheet became unmerged. I merged it again, but it again unmerged. In my half an hour work I have to do this 3-4

        • Introducing Built-in Telephony in Zoho Recruit

          We’re excited to introduce Built-in Telephony in Zoho Recruit, designed to make recruiter–candidate communication faster, simpler, and fully traceable. These capabilities help you reduce app switching, handle inbound calls efficiently, and keep every

        • Just want email and office for personal use

          I am unclear as how to how I would have just a personal email (already do have it and love it) and get to use docs, notebook, workdrive etc. In other words mostly everything I had a google. I find gocs can be free with 5gb and so can mail with 5gb. Are

        • Unable to change the "credentials of login user" option when creating a connection

          I want to create a new Desk connection where the parameter to use 'credentials of login user' is set to YES. I'm able to create a new connection but am never given the option to change this parameter. Is this a restriction of my user profile, and if so,

        • Show backordered items on packing slip

          Is it possible to show a column on the Packing Slip that shows number of backordered items when a PO is only partially filled? I would also like to see the Backordered column appear on POs after you receive items if you didn't get ALL of the items or partial amounts of items. And lastly, it would be nice to have the option of turning on the Backordered column for invoices if you only invoice for a partial order. -Tom

        • Zoho Sheet for Desktop

          Does Zoho plans to develop a Desktop version of Sheet that installs on the computer like was done with Writer?

        • Zoho CRM Community Digest - January 2026 | Part 1

          The new year is already in motion, and the Zoho CRM Community has been buzzing with steady updates and thoughtful conversations. In this edition, we’ve pulled together the key product enhancements, Kaizen learnings, and helpful discussions from the first

        • Zoho CRM Feature Requests - SMS and Emails to Custom Modules & Time Zone Form Field

          TLDR: Add Date/Time/Timezone form field, and be able to turn off auto timezone feature. Allow for Zoho Voices CRM SMS Extension to be able to be added to custom modules, and cases. Create a feature that tracks emails by tracking the email chain, rather

        • Introducing Bigin's Add-in for Microsoft Outlook

          Hello Everyone, Email is an important way to communicate with customers and prospects. If you use Outlook.com for emails and Bigin as your CRM, the Outlook Add-in helps you connect them easily so you can see your Bigin contact details right inside Outlook.com.

        • Ask the Expert – Zoho One Admin Track : une session dédiée aux administrateurs Zoho One

          Vous administrez Zoho One et vous vous posez des questions sur la configuration, la gestion des utilisateurs, la sécurité ou encore l’optimisation de votre back-office ? Bonne nouvelle : une session Ask the Expert – Zoho One Admin Track arrive bientôt,

        • Zoho Commerce

          Hi, I have zoho one and use Zoho Books. I am very interested in Zoho Commerce , especially with how all is integrated but have a question. I do not want my store to show prices for customers that are not log in. Is there a way to hide the prices if not

        • Will be possible to create a merge mail template for products?

          Hi, we would need to create a mail merge template for products (native) module. Will be possibile? or do you have a smart solutions to merge products data with a mail merge? thanks Chris

        • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

          The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest update

        • How to Associate Zoho Projects in Zoho CRM

          Hi I need script for associating projects in zoho projects to particular Account in zoho CRM side. It can be done manually but I need the automation for this process. There are no api regarding associating a project in zoho crm account. Need assistance

        • Add Claude in Zoho Cliq

          Let’s add a real AI assistant powered by Claude to your workspace this week, that your team can chat with, ask questions, and act on conversations to run AI actions on. This guide walks you through exactly how to do it, step by step, with all the code

        • Need to set workflow or journey wait time (time delay) in minutes, not hours

          Minimum wait time for both Campaigns workflows and Marketing Automation journeys is one hour. I need one or the other to be set to several minutes (fraction of the hour). I tried to solve this by entering a fraction but the wait time data type is an integer

        • Editing Item Group to add Image

          I did not have the image of the product when the Item Group was created. Now I have the product image, and would like to associate/add to the Item Group. However the Item Group Edit functionality does not show/allow adding/changing image. Please hel

        • Composite Product (kit) - Dynamic Pricing

          I am setting up Composite Products for item kits that I sell. I also sell the items from the kit individually. Problem is when pricing changes on an individual part, the Composite Product price does not change meaning when the cost of item # 2 in the

        • Urgent: Slow Loading Issue on Zoho Commerce Website

          Dear Zoho Support Team, I am experiencing slow loading times on my Zoho Commerce website, which is affecting its performance and user experience. The issue persists across different devices and networks. Could you please investigate this matter and provide

        • Zoho Books - France

          L’équipe de Zoho France reçoit régulièrement des questions sur la conformité de ses applications de finances (Zoho Books/ Zoho Invoice) pour le marché français. Voici quelques points pour clarifier la question : Zoho Books est un logiciel de comptabilité

        • New in Office Integrator: Download documents as password-protected PDFs

          Hi users, We're excited to introduce password-protected PDF as a download option in Zoho Office Integrator's document editor. This allows you to securely share your confidential information from within your web app. Highlights of the password-protected

        • Sales IQ - Zobot en multilangue

          Bonjour, J'ai un Zobot installé sur mon site depuis longtemps. J'ai ajouté plusieurs langues, dans la configuration et dans le générateur de bot sans code Pourtant, le Chat continue à s'afficher en Francais. Comment enclencher le multilangue en front

        • Streamlining E-commerce Photography with AI Background Tools

          Hey Zoho Community, I’ve been messing around with ways to make product images less of a headache for fashion brands on Zoho Commerce. You know how boring generic backdrops can get, and how much time traditional photoshoots eat up, right? I tried out this

        • Next Page