Revenue Management: #7 Revenue Recongition in Construction & Real Estate Industry
If you are in the construction or real estate business, you are used to long project timelines and progressive invoicing to keep up with your billing. But when does revenue get recognized? Will it happen when the contract gets signed? At different milestones or only at the end of the project? Each phase has its own pace, and the revenue needs to be tracked carefully throughout the end.
How do long-term projects and contract-driven businesses recognize revenue?
Revenue Recognition Scenario in Construction & Real Estate
With long-term projects and multiple deliverables in place, construction and real estate businesses often stretch the process across months or even years. Revenue recognition in these industries is less about timing and more about progress.
Long-Term, Multi-Phase Projects
Construction projects often span many months or years. Recognizing revenue based solely on billing milestones (say 30% upfront, 40% midway, and 30% on completion) doesn't reflect the actual progress or value delivered. Companies must track and report revenue based on performance progress, not payment terms.
Example: $5,00,000 real estate development, $1,00,000 recognized after land acquisition, $2,00,000 during construction in progress and remaining during handover.
Percentage of Completion Method
This industry often uses the percentage of completion method, where revenue is recognized based on the cost incurred or work completed relative to the entire project. Misjudging this percentage can result in misstated finances.
Example: For a $1 million project, if 40% of the work is completed, $4,00,000 is recognized regardless of its payment terms.
Retainage Clauses
In construction, it's common for clients to withhold a portion of the contract until completion. Although the work is completed, the revenue may remain deferred depending on the contract terms.
Example: 10% of the $2,00,000 contract is retained as a deposit. That is, $20,000 will be kept as deferred revenue until completion.
Change Orders and Delayed Delivery
Projects might include design, foundation, electrical, plumbing, and landscaping. Each component might have a separate delivery schedule and must be tracked as a performance obligation. When the scope changes during the progress, companies must reassess the total contract value and the revenue allocation accordingly. On the other hand, if the project execution is postponed, all the revenue earned will remain deferred even if an upfront payment was made.
Example: If a client makes a $5,00,000 upfront payment but the work is delayed, the entire amount will stay in deferred revenue until the obligations are fulfilled.
Proper recognition in this space depends more on accurately tracking project progress and billing terms. It's hard for any business to track all these manually, as any deviation in this might lead to the risk of under- or over-recognition. Sometimes, automated recognition rules may not fit a construction contract, specifically when project timelines are uncertain, milestones don't follow a uniform schedule, or the scope frequently changes.
Businesses may prefer manual revenue recognition to mitigate the risk of miscalculation or inappropriate revenue recognition. This ensures revenue is recorded only when specific deliverables are actually completed.
Scenario:
A construction company signs a $600,000 contract to build a commercial warehouse. The client pays the full payment upfront, but the contract specifies that revenue will only be recognized at key stages of the project completion and not based on the period.
Project stages are defined as:
Site Preparation & Foundation: $100,000
Structural Framework: 30% of contract value
Roofing & Utilities Installations: 40% of the contract value
Interior Finishing & Handover over: Remaining balance
Revenue Recognition with Zoho Billing
Zoho Billing enables businesses like the one above to create flexible revenue recognition rules tied to the project progress and with several deliverables.
Companies rely on manual revenue recognition in most construction projects because project timelines and deliverables are often unpredictable. Manual recognition ensures revenue is recorded only when specific milestones are completed. Automated rules like the percentage of completed or scheduled milestones can still be configured where timelines are more predictable, but manual recognition remains the default approach in this industry. In such cases, rules don't need to be pre-configured; the revenue is recognized manually when the milestone is completed.
Reports in Zoho Billing
At the end of the project, recognition happens only at milestone completions based on the manual entry made by the project management team.
Recognised Revenue Report:
Phases | Completion Date | Recognized Revenue |
Site Preparation & Foundation | 15/Jan/2025 | $100,000 |
Structural Framework | 10/Mar/2025 | $180,000 |
Roofing & Utilities Installation | 25/May/2025 | $240,000 |
Interior Completion & Handover | 30/Jul/2025 | $80,000 |
Total Recognized |
| $600,000 |
Deferred Revenue Report:
Month | Deferred Amount |
Jan 2025 | $500,000 |
Feb 2025 | $500,000 |
Mar 2025 | $320,000 |
Apr 2025 | $320,000 |
May 2025 | $80,000 |
Jun 2025 | $80,000 |
Jul 2025 | $0 |
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 | $600,000 | $100,000 | $0 | $180,000 | $0 | $240,000 | $0 | $80,000 | $600,000 | $0 |
Zoho Billing can efficiently handle change orders, as revenue is recognized manually (Manual Recognition Method). It also allows contract amendments and dynamic revenue reallocation based on project alignment.
Best Practices for Construction & Real Estate Firms' Revenue Recognition
- Break Down Phases as Obligations: Identify architecture and construction as distinct deliverable components.
- Use Percentage of Completion Metrics: Set the base recognition based on cost or time progress, not on the invoicing period.
- Handle Change Orders: Adjust the revenue schedule dynamically when the scope of the project changes.
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
Filters in audit logs
Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce a few recent enhancements we've made to Bigin. We'll go over each one in detail. Previously, there were no filters available to narrow down data in audit logs. Now, we've introducedEnhanced help options in Bigin
Greetings, We're excited to introduce a new enhancement to Bigin's Help section: a comprehensive Help Options panel that brings together all your support resources in a single, well-organized space. Previously, the Need Help? menu provided only a limitedZoho FSM API Developer Needed
Hi, I’m looking for a developer with experience using Zoho FSM APIs. Scope: Connect WordPress website booking form to Zoho FSM Check availability (date, time, region) Create Work Orders + Service Appointments automatically Notify both customer and schedulerRevenue 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 automatedThis mobile number has been marked spam. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com
Bom dia, estou tentando colocar o número 11 94287-6695 e esta com erro "This mobile number has been marked spam. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com" pode me ajudar, por favor?Feature Request: Ability to Set a Custom List View as Default for All Users
Dear Zoho CRM Support Team, We would like to request a new feature in Zoho CRM regarding List Views. Currently, each user has to manually select or favorite a custom list view in order to make it their default. However, as administrators, we would likeItems Serial Tracking Issue
We enabled Zoho Items inventory tracking then disabled it after some time now we want to enable it again When I check the missing serial number reports I see one item But I cant see any option to Add the serial numbers Where and how to add the serialComposite Services and Account Tracking
I am looking to garner support/request the ability to make composite services. A quick search in the forums brings up multiple requests for this feature. I fail to see why an item is mandatory while services are optional. I also would like to see theZoho Payroll integration with Zoho Books - unable to match multiple bank feeds to one wage payment
For one employee's wage, I make two partial payments. Those bank feed transactions come into Zoho Books via bank integration. I make one pay-run for the month in Zoho Payroll and that comes into Zoho Books via the Zoho integration. Zoho Books doesn't let me match multiple bank feed transactions against a single wage item. Please fix urgently. I can't complete my books because of this.Add Checkbox Selection & Bulk Actions to Delivery Challans Module
Hi Zoho Team, I’ve noticed that in the Sales Orders module, there are checkboxes beside each entry that allow users to select multiple records for bulk actions such as print, email, or delete. However, in the Delivery Challans module, this option appearsCan't be able to check-in in laptop
even after giving location access still i can't be able to check-in in laptop.Compensation Cess on Coal ₹400 per tonne. ?????
The compensation cess rate varies by the type of product. And the cess is calculated based on the value of the product without GST. Coal, for example, comes with a cess of ₹400 per tonne. That means that if you sell 2 tonnes of coal that have a value7 month over zoho book purchase but still not immpliments Golive
7 month over zoho book purchase but still not immpliments Golive one problems zoho team short out then other problems come still very poor mangments and immliments team . struggling with the templates in ZOHO Books. Especially with the placement of someAverage Costing / Weighted Average Costing
Hello fellow maadirs. I understand Zoho Books uses FIFO method of dealing with inventory costing, but do you guys have any plans to introduce average costing? We indians need average costing. It's part of our culture. Please. I beg thee. Thanks.SMS to customers from within Bigin
Hi All, Is there anyone else crying out for Bigin SMS capability to send an SMS to customers directly from the Bigin interface? We have inbuilt telephony already with call recordings which works well. What's lacking is the ability to send and receiveHow to update/remove file in zoho creator widgets using javascript API
Hi Team, I have developed a widget which allows inserting and updating records I have file upload field with multiple file upload. Now while doing insert form record, I am using uploadFile API to upload files for that record. I am using updateRecord APIParent & Member Accounts (batch updating / inheritance)
Hello, I find the Parent Account functionality very useful for creating custom views and reports, but was wondering if I can also carry out batch editing on all members (aka children) of a Parent Account at the same time. Alternatively, can I set members to automatically inherit the values of the parent? For example: We have a chain of supermarkets that buy our products. These supermarkets are all members of a Parent Account in our CRM. We release a new product and all of the member stores wish toEdit Legend of Chart
I would like to edit the legend of the chart. Every time I enable the legend, I get a very unhelpful (1), and when I try to type to change to what I would desire, nothing happens, which is very frustrating. I've gone through your online tutorials and nowhere can I find a legend settings button. This seems a simple fix, where can edit the legend? Thanks.Extended timeouts for APIs beyond 40secs for to accomodate LLMs
A 40 second max response time for API calls is fine when connecting to most services, however is unsuitable when dealing with LLMs (ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini) where the response timing is very uncertain. Is there any way to increase this? It would be greatDeletion of Zoho Account
To whom it may concern, Good day, My account has been created incorrectly in Zoho and I am not able to join my Company's Zoho account - attached screenshot for your kind reference Alphatronmarine - Portal Kindly advise procedure to delete this currentWorkflow for deposit to bank account
Hello, Is it possible to make a workflow when a deposit is made to your bank account which is coupled to Zoho books? I want Zoho to sent an email each time a deposit is made to our bank account via a workflow. Regards, StevenMarking Retainer invoice paid through Deluge
Hey Everyone, We have a scenario where we are collecting deposit payments on our website. Now, in zoho books, we need to create a retainer invoice and mark it as paid automatically using deluge just like we can mark normal invoices as paid. I have triedExport Invoices to XML file
Namaste! ZOHO suite of Apps is awesome and we as Partner, would like to use and implement the app´s from the Financial suite like ZOHO Invoice, but, in Portugal, we can only use certified Invoice Software and for this reason, we need to develop/customize on top of ZOHO Invoice to create an XML file with specific information and after this, go to the government and certified the software. As soon as we have for example, ZOHO CRM integrated with ZOHO Invoice up and running, our business opportunitiesCreate a new record in custom module vi custom button
I have zoho books premium plan . I have 2 custom modules in zoho books. 1. Goods Receipt 2. Delivery Order, I need to select multiple records from Goods Receipt and create a new Delivery order from these multiple records. (like multilple sales order intoProfile date settings
At present I have "EEE, MMMM dd, yyyy" but this takes an exessive amount of column space, we should be able to input our own format. I would like to use "EEE, MMM dd, yy" - a much shorter version of the above but with the same abbreviated info, requiringDelivery Method Field in Sales Order Module
In Books and in Sales orders, the "Delivery Method" field seems to allow for anything to be entered and it seems to store those entries for future use. When you chose to convert a sales order to a purchase order, the related field is now called "ShipmentEditing / Removing stages for pipeline
Hello, I'm trying to create a new pipeline. I created a new stage and made an error when entering the probability. How can I edit fields in stages that I created? Can I delete these stages from "Add Stages" list?Dynamically Filter User Lookup in CRM Subform
We have a subform called Pricing Calculator in the Zoho CRM Opportunity module and need some assistance. Current Setup: First column: Picklist (Level) Second column: User Lookup field When a Level is selected, we want the User lookup to display only userschange time zone
can't seem to figure out how to change the time zone of the projectBigin iOS app update: Built-in telephony and RingCentral support
Hello everyone! We are excited to introduce Built-In Telephony and RingCentral support in the latest iOS version(v1.11.13) of the Bigin mobile app. Once the integration is completed on the Bigin desktop site(bigin.zoho.com), you can choose the Built-InAdd Image or Update Image API - for Items Module
I am trying to add new Items to Zoho Inventory from Zoho Creator. I achieved this using Zoho Inventory Create Item API, but how to add or update the item image from Zoho Creator to Zoho Inventory Item Module?Introducing Booking Pages—a topping for your Calendar Scheduling needs!
Greetings, We're here with a new topping for Bigin! Let's dive into the details. What does this topping do? Scheduling appointments with customers is one of the most common challenges small businesses face on a daily basis, as it often involves frequentDebugging `try` blocks : Tip
I find it annoying that if one line inside a `try` block has an error, the Deluge arser points the beginning of the block to the location of the error. BUT, if you temporarily comment out the initial `try {`  The parser goes through the whole block and[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 areUse approval workflow comments in record scripts
Greetings, i'm running an approval workflow for my records, during approval/rejection there is a step where comments are entered. i want to add there comments to the record and to use them in various deluge scripts like sending emails and so on. howZOHO Store
Not able to make a payment We are using Zoho One, and we are from India. The payment currency, which shows for us, is in USD. But the system says we can choose Country/Region India if it shows INR only. Attaching screenshots for more info.Support Migration into Aliases in Zoho Mail
Hello Zoho Mail Team, How are you? We are in the process of migrating some of our users from Google Workspace (Gmail and Google Drive) to Zoho. During this process, we noticed that Zoho Mail currently only supports migration into a primary mailbox andAPI for Z Workdrive Flow Make-Integromat ?
We are zoho workdrive fans Also we would like to have an api to work with Zoho Flow or with Make better known by its old name INTEGROMAT Is it planned and when? 3 months -6 months or more?Apps Pane no longer visible
I have read all the info and help and nothing works, I do not have a "show apps" anywhere and I can no longer see my Apps pane in the left hand side of mail, please advise how to get this backCanvas View - Print
What is the best way to accomplish a print to PDF of the canvas view?Next Page