Revenue Management: #6 Revenue Recognition in Professional Services Industry
If you run a consulting firm, agency, or any service-based business, you have a situation where you have signed the contract, maybe even sent the invoice, and have received some initial payments. So, can you consider this as revenue? What if the project spans several months? What if there is a revision or unplanned scope creep in?
How do service-based businesses recognize revenue for time, materials, and milestones?
Revenue Recognition Scenarios in the Professional Services
This can happen to any service-based firm, like legal advisors, consultants, marketing agencies, and IT services providers, as they don't sell physical goods. Instead, they provide time, expertise, and deliverables with different timelines. This means, the revenue is recognized as work is performed and not when the invoices are sent. Here are some of the common scenarios that a service-based company faces:
Time & Material Billing
Many firms work on time and material contracts, where billing is based on hours logged. In contrast, fixed-fee projects promise a set scope for a lump sum. Revenue must be recognized based on the work delivered, not simply how much time has passed or been billed.
Example: A consultant bills $150/hour. If 40 hours are worked in April, $6000 is recognized for that month.
Bundled Services
Like SaaS, A contract might include onboarding, implementation and support. Each has a different timeline and must be recognized separately. Without clear performance obligations, firms risk misstating their revenue.
Example: A network provider sells routers, installs them, and provides support for a one-year period for $50,000. Here, the revenue earned by routers is recognized immediately; revenue from installation will be recognized as and when it is done. However, the revenue for support will be recognised only at the end of the year.
Milestone-Based Deliverables
Some contracts are milestone-based. Even if the client pays upfront or monthly, revenue must be recognized only when the milestone is met. This leads to uneven revenue patterns and complex tracking.
Example: A $20,000 marketing strategy contract has different stages, starting with $500 for discovery, $10,000 for planning, and $5000 at the time of delivery. Revenue aligns with each milestone.
Different Start Date
There can be cases where the client pays upfront for a project that begins after a few weeks. The revenue cannot be considered recognized until the project begins, and it will be deferred until the actual start date.
Example: $10,000 was paid in June for a project that starts in August. The revenue will have to be maintained as a liability/deferred until August.
Scope Changes & Goes for Rework
Projects often evolve with new tasks, changes in timeline, or even the entire deliverable gets changed. These contract modifications require updated revenue allocation and potentially re-recognition of previously booked revenue.
Example: A legal advisory firm signs a six-month contract for $60,000. After two months, the clients expanded the scope by adding training and doubling the reviews from the earlier contract, which required reallocating revenue for the remaining months.
Since service delivery isn't always linear, tracking obligation completion is essential. Manually doing this for a large-scale contract is going to be close to impossible.
Scenario:
A digital consultancy service signs a contract for $60,000 with a client that includes $10,000 worth of an upfront discovery workshop. Additionally, System implementation is planned for $30,000 and will take three months to complete. Technical assistance will be offered at $20,000 for six months.
Zoho Billing for Professional Service Revenue Recognition
Zoho Billing allows professional services firms to configure revenue recognition rules tailored to the contract's stages and services.
For the scenario above, the rule could be set as follows:
| For Discovery Workshop | For Implementation | For Technical Assistance |
Recognition Frequency | Once | Monthly | Monthly |
Recognition Method | Daily | Evenly Distributed | Evenly Distributed |
Recognition Time | Period Start | Period Start | Period Start |
Once configured, Zoho Billing will take care of recognizing the revenue automatically.
It recognizes $10,000 after the discovery sessions are done. For implementation, $10,000 will be recognized per month for the next three months. For technical assistance, $3,333 per month will be recognized, which sums up to $20,000 for the committed six-month period.
Reports in Zoho Billing
If you look at the Revenue Recognition reports after two months in Zoho Billing, you can find,
i) Recognized Revenue Report
Two months into the engagement, the discovery workshop is over, two months of implementation have been delivered, and two months of technical assistance have been rendered.
Component | Recognized Revenue | Description |
Discovery Workshop | $10,000 | Fully recognized |
System Implementation | $20,000 | $10,000/month for two months |
Technical Assistance | $6666 | $3333/month for two months |
Total Recognized | $36,666 | Revenue earned in two months |
ii) Deferred Revenue Report
The remaining revenue in deferred is for pending implementation and assistance services that are to be done.
Component | Deferred Amount |
System Implementation | $10,000 (one month left) |
Technical Assistance | $13,334 ($3333/month x4) |
Total Deferred | $23,334 |
iii) Revenue Waterfall Report
Month | Discovery Workshop | Implementation | Assistance | Total |
Month 1 | $10,000 | $10,000 | $3,333 | $23,333 |
Month 2 | --- | $10,000 | $3,333 | $13,333 |
Month 3 (upcoming) | --- | $10,000 | $3,333 | $13,333 |
Month 4 (upcoming) | --- | --- | $3,333 | $3,333 |
Month 5 (upcoming) | --- | --- | $3,333 | $3,333 |
Month 6 (upcoming) | --- | --- | $3,333 | $3,333 |
Best Practice for Professional Services Revenue Recognition
- Define Deliverables Clearly: Break work into explicit deliverables/obligations to know how it will be delivered.
- Match Revenue with Service Period: Use time-based or milestone-based rules depending on the service to be recognized.
- Reassess on Scope Changes: The system should be equipped to automatically understand contract changes and recognize scheduled changes when the project terms shift.
- Manual Revenue Recognition: It is best to use Manual Revenue Recognition based on completion for long-term milestone-based projects.
Topic Participants
Hari Hara Sudhan. S
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'sCommunity 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 youCommunity 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 mostIntroducing: 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
Admin asked me for Backend Details when I wanted to verify my ZeptoMail Account
Please provide the backend details where you will be adding the SMTP/API information of ZeptoMail Who knows what this means?CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive
Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage filesTimeline Tracker
Hi Team, I am currently using Zoho Creator – Blueprint Workflows, and I would like to know if there is a way to track a timeline of the approval process within a Blueprint. Specifically, I am looking for details such as: Who submitted the record Who clicked[Free Webinar] Zoho Creator webinars - Learning Table and Creator Tech Connect Series in 2026
Hello everyone, Wishing you all a wonderful new year! May 2026 and the years ahead bring more opportunities, growth, and learning your way 🙂 We’re excited to kick off the 2026 edition of the Learning Table Series and Creator Tech Connect Series ! LearningReply and react to comments
Hi everyone! We're excited to bring to you a couple of new features that'll make your sprint process simpler. A cloud application brings with it an array of social media features that can be efficiently used in your organizational setup. As an agile scrumRestrict Users access to login into CRM?
I’m wanting my employees to be able to utilize the Zoho CRM Lookup field within Zoho Forms. For them to use lookup field in Zoho Forms it is my understanding that they need to be licensed for Forms and the CRM. However, I don’t want them to be able toHow to set page defaults in zoho writer?
hi, everytime i open the zoho writer i have to change the default page settings to - A4 from letter, margins to narrow and header and footer to 0. I cannot set this as default as that option is grayed out! so I am unable to click it. I saved the documentWhere is the settings option in zoho writer?
hi, my zoho writer on windows has menu fonts too large. where do i find the settings to change this option? my screen resolution is correct and other apps/softwares in windows have no issues. regardsModule Customisation - Lookup function not available
Good evening, Within my business, I can have multiple customers, who have multiple mobile assets. When I set these assets up, I enter information such as vehicle registration, Vehicle identification number (VIN), Unit number, YOM, in addition to others.zoho click, and nord VPN
Unfortunately, we've been having problems with Zoho Click, where essentially the line cuts off after about a minute's worth of conversation every time we are on VPN. Is there a way we can change this within the settings so it does not cut the line offZoho Calender
a) does the clanender in zoho project allow you to see the name of the event in the celnder view, it currently says either "Task (1) or "Milestoen (1)" b) Alternatively does the calender in Zoho project integrate with zoho calender?I Need Help Verifying Ownership of My Zoho Help Desk on Google Search Console
I added my Zoho desk portal to Google Search Console, but since i do not have access to the html code of my theme, i could not verify ownership of my portal on Google search console. I want you to help me place the html code given to me from Google searchMatching ZOHO Payments in Banking
Our company has recently integrated ZOHO Payments into our system. This seemed really convenient at first because our customers could pay their account balance by clicking on a link imbedded in the emailed invoice. Unfortunately, we can't figure out howTeam Gamification
Would love to motivate, engage and encourage our team with our social media posts. Would like to include Gamification features of Social Media in Zoho Social or Marketing Automation. And also bring in Social Advocacy tools/tracking/management to these,Power up your Kiosk Studio with Real-Time Data Capture, Client Scripts & More!
Hello Everyone, We’re thrilled to announce a powerful set of enhancements to Kiosk Studio in Zoho CRM. These new updates give you more flexibility, faster record handling, and real-time data capture, making your Kiosk flows smarter and more efficientNew Enhancements to Zoho CRM and Zoho Creator Integration
Hello Everyone, We’ve rolled out enhancements to the Zoho Creator and Zoho CRM integration to align with recent updates made to the Zoho Creator platform. With enhancements to both the UI and functionality, This update also tightens access control byWork Type - Limitation
Hello, I'm setting up work types and have noticed, a limitation on the parts area to 10 lines. Can this be increased to 20 or greater? In addition to this, when I attempt to add the work type to a work order, the correct labour hours doesn't flow through.Emails sent through Bigin are not posting in IMAP Sent folder
I have set up my email to work from within Bigin using IMAP. I am using IMAP so I can sync my email across multiple devices - phone / laptop / desktop / iPad / etc. I want all my emails to populate my email client (outlook & iphone email) whether orAdding Default Module Image into mail merge field
As with most people finding their way to these forums i have a specific requirement that doesn't seem to be supported by Zoho I have created 2 custom modules to suit my purpose 1 is an inventory type module that lists aluminium extrusions, and all relevantTurning the page for Zoho SalesIQ: 2025 to 2026
As we wrap up 2025, we would like to take a moment to reflect on what we set out to achieve this year, what we’ve delivered, and where we’re headed next. What we focused on in 2025 This year was all about strengthening the core of engagement and AI, makingStage-probability mapping feature in custom module
Hi, I'm building a custom module for manage projects. I would like to implement the stage-probability feature that Potentials has. Is this possible?Temporary Outage in Zoho Cliq Affecting US Users – July 23, 2025
We experienced a service disruption in Zoho Cliq that impacted core functionality for users in the US region. The issue occurred between Jul 23, 2025, 06:54:00 PM IST and 07:13:13 PM IST, lasting approximately 19 minutes. To restore service stability,Why Sharing Rules do Not support relative date comparison???
I am creating a Sharing Rule and simply want to share where "Last Day of Coverage" (Date field) is Greater than TODAY (Starting Tomorrow). However, sharing rules don't have the option to compare a date field to a relative date (like today), only to StaticZoho Cliq not working on airplanes
Hi, My team and I have been having this constant issue of cliq not working when connected to an airplane's wifi. Is there a reason for this? We have tried on different Airlines and it doesn't work on any of them. We need assistance here since we are constantlyProblem with Workdrive folders
I'm having a problem a problem accessing files in a Zoho work drive folder when using the Zoho writer app. The problem folder appears grayed out in the Zoho work drive window in both the online and writer application. However I can open the folder inSend Supervisor Rule Emails Within Ticket Context in Zoho Desk
Dear Zoho Desk Team, I hope this message finds you well. Currently, emails sent via Supervisor Rules in Zoho Desk are sent outside of the ticket context. As a result, if a client replies to such emails, their response creates a new ticket instead of appendingMulti-currency and Products
One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each.Create an Eye-Catching Announcement Widget for Your Help Center
Hello Everyone! In this week’s edition, let’s explore how to keep your customers updated with exciting news in the Help Center. See how ZylkerMobile wowed their customers by bringing updates right to their portal. ZylkerMobile, the renowned brand forSend Whatsapp with API including custom placeholders
Is is possible to initiate a session on whatsapp IM channel with a template that includes params (placeholders) that are passed on the API call? This is very usefull to send a Utility message for a transactional notification including an order numberCustomer Management: #6 Common Mistakes in Customer Handling
Managing customers doesn't usually fall apart overnight. More often, slight gaps in the process slowly become bigger problems. Incidents like missed follow-ups, billing confusion, and unhappy customers will lead to revenue loss. Many businesses don'tZoho Desk iOS app update: UI enhancement of picklist and multi picklist fields
Hello everyone! We have enhanced the UI of the picklist and multiselect picklist fields on the Zoho Desk iOS app to provide a more refined, efficient, and user-friendly experience. We have now supported an option to Search within the picklist and multiselectZoho Desk iOS app update: Revamped scribbles with Apple pencil kit
Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce a revamped Scribble experience, rebuilt from the ground up using Apple PencilKit for smooth strokes, proper scaling, and seamless image uploads. Please update the app to the latest version directly from the AppZoho Desk Android app update: Norwegian language support
Hello everyone! In the most recent Android version of the Zoho Desk app update, we have brought in support to access the app in Norwegian language. We have introduced the Norwegian language on the IM module of the Zoho Desk app as well. Please updateField Description is very small
Hello, The field Description in the activity is very small. Why don't try open a new window, or a bigger popup, or increase the width of the "popup". Example:Is it possible to roll up all Contact emails to the Account view?
Is there a way to track all emails associated with an Account in one single view? Currently, email history is visible when opening an individual Contact record. However, since multiple Contacts are often associated with a single Account, it would be beneficialFunction #53: Transaction Level Profitability for Invoices
Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! We have previously provided custom functions for calculating the profitability of a quote and a sales order. There may be instances where the invoice may differ from its corresponding quote or sales order.Payment Vouchers
Is there any Payment Vouchers in Zoho? How can we create payment for non-trade vendors, i.e. professional fees, rent, and payment to commissioner income tax?API in E-Invoice/GST portal
Hi, Do I have to change the api in gst/e-invoice portal as I use zoho e books for my e-invoicing. If yes, please confirm the process.When I click on PDF/PRINT it makes the invoice half size
When I click PDF / Print for my invoice in Zoho Books, the generated PDF appears at half size — everything is scaled down, including the logo, text, and layout. The content does not fill the page as it should. Could someone advise what causes Zoho BooksSearch by contain letter in a column
Hello, everyone I need a filter function that searches by letter in a cell, and it should be a macro. To clarify further, if I have a column with several names and I chose a search cell and what I want is search by a single letter, for example, "a" thenNext Page