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. 
  

Up Next: Revenue Recognition in EduTech & Online Training Platforms

Previous: Revenue Recognition in the Professional Services Industry

• 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'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

• Client Script | Update - Client Script Support For Custom Buttons

  Hello everyone! We are excited to announce one of the most requested features - Client Script support for Custom Buttons. This enhancement lets you run custom logic on button actions, giving you greater flexibility and control over your user interactions.

• Mandatory field via deluge code

  I would like to ask you if it is possible to make a field mandatory via deluge script. For example, if I have a decision box and I click on it then I want a single line field to be mandatory. If uncheck the decision box then to do the single line as optional. I think it is not possible to do that and I have to do it via validation in 'on validate' field. 

• Revenue Management: #1 What does it mean to "recognize" revenue?

  Earning revenue isn't just about collecting cash from your customers. It's about recording the income correctly and consistently. Revenue recognition is the process of deciding when and how to record revenue in financial statements so that they reflect

• Power of Automation :: Auto-Populate Integration Field in Projects with CRM Account Data

  Hello Everyone, A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate

• Zoho Forms and ChatGPT - populating a field using AI.

  I have a form where I would like the user to enter a response or query, and have another field populated using AI. For example, user enters Field 1, AI populates Field 2 in response. I want to be able to wrap some additional instruction text around the

• campo tag para api

  debo conectarme a una api de zoho inventory y ocupo tomar el campo tag para poder asi jalar el articulo que cuente con el campo correcto en tag ejemplo que tag existen carro y avion que cuando busque los articulo con tag carro arroje solo estos por mas

• Connecting Zoho Inventory to ShipStation

  we are looking for someone to help connect via API shipStation with Zoho inventory. Any ideas? Thanks. Uri

• Uploading file as attachment to Zoho CRM

         Hi,   I am trying to attach a file to a Zoho CRM contact using Zoho Flow. Right now, I try to do it through the “Upload File” field in Zoho CRM (In my screenshots, it’s called Téléchargement du fichier 1).   Here is what I tried:   Case 1: Webmerge document The Flow is called “Custom Function” (see screenshot 101).   Step  1: Creating a Webmerge document (screenshot 99)   Step 2: I use “Update module entry” to upload the created file. I upload Webmerge’s “Document” in my “Téléchargemet du

• Zia Answer Bot - Create Ticket

  Surprisingly, the current iteration of Zia will try to answer a question and unless you have "transfer to SalesIQ chat" enabled, it won't create a ticket for the user or offer them a method to create a ticket. We don't want it to create chats for us,

• meassure leads phases

  Hi, I need to create a table to meassure the time that a lead stay in blueprint phases. the phases are first contact, second contact, lead spam, contacted, appointment. any idea? I have attached an example

• Zoho Desk API Documentation missing a required field

  We are trying to create a section using this information. Even after preparing everything based on that page, we still get an error. The error we get is this: {"errorCode":"INVALID_DATA","message":"The data is invalid due to validation restrictions","errors":[{"fieldName":"/translations","errorType":"missing","errorMessage":""}]}

• In the Custom Module I have 500 Records , this 500 record only want to view to the specific user only example user A ,

  In the Custom Module, I have 500 Old records that should only be visible to a specific user, for example, User A. Any new records created from today onwards should be visible to Record owner in the Custom Module. Pls help how i achive this .

• Invoice template, how to change the text under "Notes" and "Terms and Conditions"

  In "Invoice templates", there are two text/info sections at the bottom:"Notes" and "Terms and Conditions". It is possible to change the names of these two headings, but how is it possible to change/alter the text under it. As a standard it says "Thank you for your business" under Notes - I need to change it into something different- How? Thank you.

• How to reply to thread via API

  We have built a webapp for our customers that uses the Zoho Desk API to enable each customer to view their full list of tickets, view individual tickets and raise new tickets. The Zoho Desk API doesn't have the ability to reply to a ticket/thread. Replies

• Sending merged mail templates for signatures fail since today

  We have ZOHO one, we use merge templates in CRM to edit in ZOHO Writer, and from there send it for signature through zoho sign. This all worked up until today, suddenly we read in the log that the merge is succesfull but the sending for signature failed.

• Feature Request - Make Lead List Larger and Adjustable

  Hi LandingPage team, I recently started using LandingPage and I am happy to share my feedback to help improve the app. I've noticed on the Leads page, there is no option to make the columns wider. It would be great if the comlumns expanded to fit the

• Zoho Projects - Pin Recent Projects

  Hi Projects Team, It would be great if I could "pin" projects on the Recent Projects list in Zoho Projects. We have some internal projects which we regularly have to add time and some regular client projects. It would be great if I could pin those projects

• ZDK Error

  I get this error when trying to trigger a CRM Function from Client Script: Uncaught (in promise) ZDKError: {"code":"NOT_ACTIVE","details":{"api_name":"activate_client_from_prospect"},"message":"api is inactive for the given custom function","status":"error"}

• "Disbursing product components in phases, monitoring them, and displaying only the final product."

  i have a product composed of multiple components, and these components will be delivered to the customer in batches. However, the final invoice should only show the finished product. How can I issue (or release) the components and track their delive

• Followed Subtasks doesn't show up in the Subtasks Section

  I have a task assigned to me now in the same task, there's a subtask and I am added as the follower on that task Even though I am a follower I still don't see that in the subtasks section The view permission for the profile is Related It's supposed to

• Tip #39- Strengthen account security with Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) – ‘Insider Insights’

  Securing your organization's data begins with verifying that only the correct individuals have access to it. One of the simplest yet most effective ways to accomplish this is to enable Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) within Zoho Assist. MFA introduces

• Automate timeout chat tracking with Workflows in SalesIQ

  With our feature-packed Nova release, Workflows has become one of the most powerful tools in Zoho SalesIQ. They let you automate follow-up actions when key events occur, such as when a chat ends, a visitor leaves a bad/good rating, or a lead is updated.

• Mass edit / Mass update products

  Hi, Is there any way to mass update or bulk edit product fields in Zoho Inventory?

• Automatic Verification of IMAP Integration Status

  Our sales staff have their O365 email integrated with CRM, over time this integration requires re-authentication via the UI. I can manually check the integration status by accessing Settings -> Channels -> Email -> Email Sharing -> "Configuration Type"

• Tip of the Week #68– Share and access files faster with Zoho WorkDrive extension.

  Have you ever wasted time searching for the right file to attach to your emails—or worried whether the right people could access it? Without proper sharing settings, files might end up inaccessible to teammates or, worse, visible to people who shouldn’t

• CV-Library: The Newest Source Booster in Zoho Recruit!

  We’ve expanded your sourcing toolkit — CV-Library, one of the UK’s largest and most trusted online job boards, is now available as a Source Booster in Zoho Recruit. This gives recruiters instant access to millions of UK-based candidate profiles, all without

• Zoho AI Translate Task as Rest API

  I cant find any docs on how to use Zoho AI Translate Task from a rest api call https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/ai-tasks/translate.html I am working on a custom Widget and I dont think I can execute zoho deluge ai translate task from a custom widget.

• Is there the possibility to book less than 250 customer portal users?

  If you use the Creator, which is included in Zoho ONe, you can create a customer portal and give access to a maximum of 3 external people / customers, right? On the Creator website I saw that you can add 250 users for 100€/month. However, we don't need

• Display Parts custom fields in the Work Order

  Hello, I see that is it possible to add custom fields in the Parts module. Would it be possible to also add those custom fields in the Work Order Module under Parts? This would be very useful for customer who want to showcase more information about parts.

• Unable to edit Saved Estimates

  We are facing issue with editing the price or discount for a saved estimate for nearly 1 week.

• Translation Blueprint & Picklists with Custom Values

  Hello everyone, I downloaded the translation file and I'm not finding the blueprint transitions. Does this means that the transitions cannot be translated? Also, the picklist values to be translated in the document are not the same that are actually used the in module. For exemple, for my lead module, the picklist values for Lead Status are : Not-contacted, contacted, junk and lost lead. In the translation document (English to French), this is what I see: PicklistValues.Leads.Lead_Status.Contact

• How to create a custom sales signal?

  I want to create a custom sales signal for a custom module. is it possible to create one? If anyone know please let me know

• Multi-line address lines

  How can I enter and migrate the following 123 state street Suite 2 Into a contact address. For Salesforce imports, a CR between the information works. The ZOHO migration tool just ignores it. Plus, I can't seem to even enter it on the standard entry screen.

• Only show products in offers based on lead source

  We work with several lead sources, each with their own products and different pricing. For example, one product might have two or three different prices. Sometimes, when creating a quote, the wrong product is accidentally selected. Is there a way to only

• Narrative 7 - The importance of data sharing

  Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system - BTS Series Narrative 7 - The importance of data sharing Definition Data sharing requires a commitment to preserving the integrity and dependability of shared data throughout its entire lifecycle. This

• TrueSync regularly filling up my local disk

  Seems that WorkDrive's TrueSync randomly starts filling up my local hard drive space. None of the folders have been set as "Make Offline" but still it seems to randomly start making file offline. The settings of the app is so minimal and is of no real

• How can you re-push non failed submission through the integrations again?

  Hi, I can see there is an option the 'Re-push' failed integration submissions from Zoho Forms. Is there a way to do this for all submissions? We've just re-built an integration so things go into different fields and we would like to re-push everything

• Check out in Meetings

  Why there is no check out in Meetings of Zoho CRM, very difficult to track

• Issue with Zoho Projet

  Zoho Project on all the cellphones of my customer is crashing. He has mixed brands (Samsung and Pixel). Everything is fine on website and mobile website. Could not reproduce the issue in workshop using Samsung/Pixel/iPhone Uninstallation of Zoho Project

• SecurePass email English language issue -- please hire someone to correct the English language issues sprinkled throughout your interface

  I wrote previously about some incorrect English in your SecurePass offering. After about six months it was corrected. I have never revoked permission before today and just discovered another language mistake that was not corrected. When you revoke a SecurePass

• Next Page