Revenue Management: #4 What if there are uncertainties in project or service delivery?
Our previous post taught us how Zoho Billing makes life easy for businesses with its automated revenue recognition rule. However, certain businesses have more challenges that an automated system cannot handle, and there are certain situations where automated revenue recognition is not feasible. For example, construction services paid in advance but with uncertain start dates can make the revenue recognition rule look inappropriate. Some manual interventions are needed to handle this scenario.
Manual revenue recognition in Zoho Billing helps you handle these uncertainties. It is used when the timing and amount of revenue cannot be determined accurately through automated rules. This is common in industries such as construction, where project completion is tied to milestones that may occur at irregular intervals.
Example 1:
Imagine a construction firm signs a $50,000 contract to renovate a commercial building. The client pays the entire amount upfront, but the agreement specifies that the revenue will be recognized only as key project stages are completed. Each milestone carries a defined value or percentage of the total contact, say,
Design & Approval Phase: $5000
Demolition & Site Preparation: 30% of the total contract value
Structural & Roofing Work: 40% of the total contract value
Interiors & Handover: 100% of the remaining
Milestone | Recognition | Completion Date | Amount Recognized |
Design & Approval | Fixed Cost | 12/Jan/2025 | $5000 |
Demolition & Site Preparation | 30% of the total contract | 20/Feb/2025 | $15,000 |
Structural & Roofing Work | 40% of the total contract | 25/Apr/2025 | $20,000 |
Interior & Handover | 100% of the balance | 30/Jun/2025 | $10,000 |
Total Revenue Recognized= $50,000 | |||
The company ensures that its financial statement accurately reflects real project progress by only reporting revenue when each phase is completed, rather than relying on an automated schedule that may not match the actual work done.
If you look at the revenue recognition report, it will show up like this,
i) Recognized Revenue Report
At the end of the project,
Month | Recognized Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $5000 |
Feb 2025 | $15,000 |
Mar 2025 | $0 |
Apr 2025 | $20,000 |
May 2025 | $0 |
Jun 2025 | $10,000 |
Total Recognized | $50,000 |
ii) Deferred Revenue Report
As the project progresses, deferred value gets recognized.
Month | Deferred Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $45,000 |
Feb 2025 | $30,000 |
Mar 2025 | $30,000 |
Apr 2025 | $10,000 |
May 2025 | $10,000 |
Jun 2025 | $0 |
iii) Revenue Waterfall Report
Billing Date | Total Billed | Jan 2025 | Feb 2025 | Mar 2025 | Apr 2025 | May 2025 | Jun 2025 | Recognized Revenue | Deferred Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $50,000 | $5,000 | $15,000 | $0 | $20,000 | $0 | $10,000 | $50,000 | $0 |
The project owner ensures that revenue is recorded accurately only after each milestone is completed, and this is done manually without any specific frequency.
Example 2:
A software consulting firm signs a $120,000 contract to implement an in-house ERP solution with a client. The client pays the amount upfront, but the project involves phases that don't follow uniform timelines/deadlines.
The defined timelines are,
Requirement Analysis & Resource Planning: $10,000
System Customization: 25% of the total contract
Testing & QA: 35% of total contract
Deployment & Support: Remaining contract value
Milestone | Recognition | Completion Date | Amount Recognized |
Requirement Analysis & Planning | Fixed Cost | 15/Jan/2025 | $10,000 |
System Customization | 25% of the contract value | 10/Mar/2025 | $30,000 |
Testing & QA | 35% of the contact value | 25/May/2025 | $42,000 |
Deployment & Support | 100% of the balance | 30/Jul/2025 | $38,000 |
Total Revenue Recognized= $120,000 | |||
When you look at the revenue recognition report for this software deployment, it will show up as follows,
i) Recognized Revenue Report
At the end of the deployment,
Month | Recognized Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $10,000 |
Feb 2025 | $0 |
Mar 2025 | $30,000 |
Apr 2025 | $0 |
May 2025 | $42,000 |
Jun 2025 | $0 |
Jul 2025 | $38,000 |
Total Recognized | $120,000 |
ii) Deferred Revenue Report
As the development progresses, deferred value gets recognized.
Month | Deferred Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $110,000 |
Feb 2025 | $110,000 |
Mar 2025 | $80,000 |
Apr 2025 | $0 |
May 2025 | $38,000 |
Jun 2025 | $38,000 |
Jul 2025 | $0 |
iii) Revenue Waterfall Report
Billing Date | Total Billed | Jan 2025 | Feb 2025 | Mar 2025 | Apr 2025 | May 2025 | Jun 2025 | Jul 2025 | Recognized Revenue | Deferred Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $120,000 | $10,000 | $0 | $30,000 | $0 | $42,000 | $0 | $38,000 | $120,000 | $0 |
Manual revenue recognition is critical when automated rules don't serve the purpose. As we saw through construction and IT consulting examples, Zoho Billing allows businesses to recognize revenue at the right amount and time, ensuring financial statements remain aligned with real project progress.
While we learn the manual recognition process, we will explore these specific industry types in future posts and provide a detailed walk-through of how these businesses record their earnings.
Our next post will start with the SaaS industry, where revenue recognition follows a very different pattern. Unlike milestone-based revenue recognition, SaaS depends more on a recurring billing cycle.
Stay tuned as we explore revenue recognition for SaaS businesses in a few days.
Topic Participants
Hari | Zoho Billing
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
Zoho CRM - Widgets | Update #3 : Introducing SDK V1.5 along with new ZDK Methods and ZRC Support
Hello everyone! Widgets in Zoho CRM just got a big upgrade! With the release of SDK v1.5, developers can now create more immersive widget experiences. This update elevates Widget development with new ZDK methods for easier interactivity and ZRC supportUnusual activity detected, account blocked
I am unable to send emails and am getting the error "Outgoing blocked: Unusual activity detected. To unblock your account, please and submit a request. Learn more.". I am unsure as to why this is happening since all my activity is legitimate, mainly confirmationUnable to Send Emails – Outgoing Mail Blocked (Error 554 5.1.8)
Description: Hello Zoho Support Team, I am facing an issue with my Zoho Mail account ( admin@osamarahmani.tech ). Whenever I try to send an email, I get the following error: 554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked I would like to clarify that I have not doneIssue connecting Zoho Mail to Thunderbird (IMAP/SMTP authentication error)
Dear Zoho Support, I am trying to configure my Zoho Mail account on Thunderbird, but I keep getting authentication errors. Account: info@baktradingtn.com Domain: baktradingtn.com Settings used: IMAP: imap.zoho.com, Port 993, SSL/TLS, Normal Password SMTP:Payment issue with Mail Lite plan – personal NIF not accepted as payment info
Hello, I have already contacted Zoho Support by email regarding this, but since I haven’t received any reply yet, I’m sharing it here as well to see if the community can help. I’m facing a payment issue for my Mail Lite plan. I have a personal accountCustomer payment alerts in Zoho Cliq
For businesses that depend on cash flow, payment updates are essential for operational decision-making and go beyond simple accounting entries. The sales team needs to be notified when invoices are cleared so that upcoming orders can be released. In contrast,Figma in Zoho Creator
Hi Team, I’m creating a form using Figma and would like to know how to add workflows like scheduling, custom validation, and other logic to it. Can anyone help me understand how to set this up for a Figma-based Creator UI form?Restore lost Invoice!
Some time ago I tried to Upgrade from Invoice to Books. I not upgraded and staid n Invoice. Now i tried again and first i deleted the old trial of books. But now all is gone, PLEASE HELP!! i have no backup and i have to have at least 7 years data retention by law.Zoho Desk Down
Not loadinglookup and integrated forms
I might be misunderstanding things but I wanted to integrate our zoho crm contacts into creator. I imagined that when I used the integration it would mirror into creator. It did brilliant. BUT We have a ticket form in creator that we want to use a lookupPartially receive PO without partial Bill?
Most of our inventory is pre-paid. Let's say we purchase 30 pieces of 3 different items for a total of 90 pieces. It is common for our supplier to send us the items as they are ready. So we will receive 30 pieces at a time. How can I partially receive2 users editing the same record - loose changes
Hello, I'm very new to Zoho so apology if this has been addressed somewhere i can't find. I have noticed the following: If we have 2 users put an inventory item in edit mode at the same time: say user1 click on edit and user2 while user1 is still in edit,How to get the Dashboard page to be the first page when you open the app
So when it opens on a tablet or phone it opens on the welcome page, thanks.How I set default email addresses for Sales Orders and Invoices
I have customers that have different departments that handle Sales Orders and Invoices. How can i set a default email for Sales Orders that's different than the default email for Invoices? Is there a way I can automate this using the Contact Persons DepartmentsFormula fields not refreshing until page is reloaded
I need help/advice about the formula fields and how I can refresh the information in real-time. We have two formula fields on our deals page which show calculated prices: One formula is in a subform which calculates the subform total + 1 other field amountHow can I setup Zoho MCP with Chat GPT
I can set up custom connections with Chat GPT but I cat an error when I try to set it up. The error is: "This MCP server can't be used by ChatGPT to search information because it doesn't implement our specification: search action not found" Thoughts?API ZOHO CRM Picket list with wrong values
I am using Zoho API v.8. with python to create records in a custom module named "Veranstaltung" in this custom module I've got a picket list called "Email_Template" with 28 Values. I've added 8 new values yesterday, but if I try to use on of those valuesGroup Emails
I have synced Zoho CRM to Campaigns but there are certain email not synced. showing it is Group Emails, but this email ids belongs to different individuals. please provide a solution as i nedd to sync the same.Enable Password Import option in ulaa browser
Dear Ulaa Team, I noticed that the Ulaa Password Manager currently offers an option to export passwords, but not to import them. This limitation poses a challenge for users like me who have stored numerous credentials in browsers like Chrome. Manually"Is Zoho CRM customer" vs "Is linked with Zoho CRM"
Recently while building a Flow, I was setting up a Decision action following a Zoho Invoice Fetch record action. There were 2 choices that I had not seen as something I could manually action in Zoho Invoice: "Is Zoho CRM customer" and "Is linked withClient Script | Update - Introducing ZRC: Simplified HTTP request library
Hello Developers! Are you tired of juggling different methods to make API calls? Are you confused with multiple syntaxes and version restrictions? Have you ever wished for one simple way to make all API calls in CRM? We heard you :) Here comes ZRC (ZohoSelection Filed for Data Export section
Hi FSM Team, I hope you are all doing well. I would like to share an idea for future development based on my experience. Currently, in FSM, we can only download up to 5,000 records at a time. If the development team could add a selection option to chooseText wrap column headers in reports?
Is it possible to auto wrap column headers so that a longer multi-word header displays as two lines when the column is narrower than the width of the header title?What if I dont see contacts on the left side list
My CRM does not show the contacts tab. In order to create list this is needed and I cant find it.Comments Vs. Replies
I'm curious as to the difference between a "Reply" and a "Comment" on a ticket. It appears that "Replies" are what's used to determine response time SLA's and there are also used to automatically re-open tickets. I'm just trying to understand the key differences so I can educate both our clientele and our back-end users on which function/feature to use to better improve the ticket lifecycle. If anyone has any insight it would be appreciated. Thanks!Transitioning to API Credits in Zoho Desk
At Zoho Desk, we’re always looking for ways to help keep your business operations running smoothly. This includes empowering teams that rely on APIs for essential integrations, functions and extensions. We’ve reimagined how API usage is measured to giveResetting auto-number on new year
Hi everyone! We have an auto-number with prefix "D{YYYY}-", it generates numbers like D2025-1, D2025-2, etc... How can we have it auto-reset at the beginning of the next year, so that it goes to D2026-1? Thanks!Can you prevent closing Ulaa window when the last tab is closed (inadvertently)?
Most browsers have started to bring this feature in to prevent closing their windows when the last tab is closed (inadvertently). I hope Ulaa should get this in too.Microsoft Phone Link
Does anyone know if you can use Microsoft Phone Link to make calls through Zoho?Voip Phone system that integrates with Zoho
Just checking to see if anyone could tell me what phone system they are using with Zoho that is on the list of systems that integrate with Zoho. I use Vonage and have been with them for quite a few years but their service has really gone down hill andRemoving Related Modules Lookup Fields Assignment / Relationship
Issue: When creating a related list, I accidently selected module itself creating a circle reference. See attached. Situation: I wish to relating a custom module called "Phone Calls" to Leads and Contacts. Outcome: 1) I either want to remove the this[Product Update] TimeSheets module is now renamed as Time Logs in Zoho Projects.
Dear Zoho Analytics customers, As part of the ongoing enhancements in Zoho Projects, the Timesheets module has been renamed to Time Logs. However, the module name will continue to be displayed as Timesheets in Zoho Analytics until the relevant APIs areKaizen #210 - Answering your Questions | Event Management System using ZDK CLI
Hello Everyone, Welcome back to yet another post in the Kaizen Series! As you already may know, for the Kaizen #200 milestone, we asked for your feedback and many of you suggested topics for us to discuss. We have been writing on these topics over theSeriously - Create multiple contacts for leads, (With Company as lead) Zoho CRM
In Zoho CRM, considering a comapny as a lead, you need us to allow addition of more than one contact. Currently the Lead Section is missing "Add contact" feature which is available in "Accounts". When you know that a particular lead can have multiplecan I link a contacts to multiple accounts
can I link a contacts to multiple accountsFree webinar! Digitize recruitment and onboarding with Zoho Sign and Zoho Recruit
Hello, Tired of being buried in onboarding paperwork? With the integration between Zoho Sign and Zoho Recruit, a powerful applicant tracking system, you can digitize and streamline the entire recruitment and onboarding process, all from one platform.Open Activities view.
I really like the new views for the open and closed activities inside the deals. But when you are in the tab view instead of the column view you can only complete and edit the open activity there isn't the 3 dot option to be able to delete the activPotentially Outdated and Vulnerable Chromium Engine Installed by Ulaa Browser Installer
I just installed Ulaa Browser a few minutes ago. Whats My Browser page shows I am using an outdated Chromium engine meaning I might be vulnerable for security exploits that might have got fixed in the new version.Potentially hardcoded list of Browsers to import from (after Ulaa Setup)
I have just installed Ulaa Browser and found that the list of browser to import data is potentially hardcoded ones rather than looking at the system. I do not have FF, IE and Edge is not my default itself. I would appreciated if Ulaa detected my browsersFrom Layout to Code: Finding Custom Field IDs in Zoho Projects.
Hello everyone! Ever found yourself wondering how to get the API names and IDs of custom fields in Zoho Projects while working on custom functions? Here’s a simple and effective way to do it! This method makes it super easy to locate the right field detailsNext Page