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

• How to Initiate WhatsApp Message on SalesIQ?

  I've just activated a Business WhatsApp phone number through SalesIQ because of its touted omnichannel chat approach. Sounds exciting. I understand that when a customer sends me a WA message, I can reply to it on SalesIQ and keep the chat going, perfect.

• Episode IV:Handling User Inputs in custom functions

  Hi Everyone, We've been exploring custom functions which help in performing advanced automation tasks. Custom functions enable you to achieve possibilities based on your organization's requirements. Custom functions require user inputs that allow the

• Set a lead as non-marketing if they opt out of email marketing

  I'm gathering Lead data via an enquiry form and wish to give them the option to opt out of marketing emails (which we send from Marketing Automation) whilst retaining the ability to send them non-marketing emails - so the email opt-out field doesn't work.

• Set up multiple IMAP email addresses

  Hi, I just started using CRM and its great, but I just found out I can only add one imap email address for incoming mail in the included salesinbox ...this is ridiculous. All companies have different email such as sales@domain, info@domain , personal@domain

• Zoho Recruit to Zoho People integration

  In the mapping of field from Zoho Recruit to Zoho People i am unable to map all fields What can i do

• Zoho Recruit > Career Site > Customisation

  Hi All I have created multiple career site to represent my different organization In my Quanta Media career site > I set it with the with Quanta Malta view In my job opening : Quanta Malta view 2 job opening In my URL for quanta media https://lri.zohorecruit.eu/jobs/Quanta-Malta

• Formatting Blueprint Stages (buttons)

  Is there a way to format Blueprint transition buttons in Creator like background colour, text colour etc.

• Disable Default Value in Multi-Select field

  Hello, Is there a way to disable the default value feature when setting up a custom Multi-Select field? When creating tickets I would like it so there isn't a value pre-selected in the multi-select custom field that was created.

• How to set custom business hours for different teams in Zoho Desk?

  Hi Zoho Team and Community, I’m trying to set different business hours for multiple departments in Zoho Desk. For example, our tech support team works 24/7, while our billing team is only available from 9 AM to 5 PM (Mon–Fri). Is there a way to assign

• Zia Auto Tag Keyword Clusters

  Is there a way to remove a keyword from a keyword cluster? We're finding that Zia auto-tag is tagging things incorrectly based on some words that don't really make sense.

• Centralized Domain Verification in Zoho CRM Plus

  Hi Team, I have a suggestion regarding Zoho CRM Plus. It's quite frustrating to verify the same domain separately for each application within the suite. It would be really helpful if you could introduce a centralized admin console—similar to what's available

• HOw do I make a refund?

  I have a client that needs a refund. I see a refund history in the Report area... but where do I go to make a refund?

• Creating a work order for dispatch

  We currently uses ZOHO for CRM and Intuit Field Service for creating Work orders and dispatching. This is causing double entry and is not efficient use of time.  I would like to use ZOHO for all customer related activities so can you tell me if you can :  Create a work order that we could manipulate to meet our needs.  Also if you could then dispatch that would be ideal. Thank you

• "code": "500","description": "Account not exists", mail api

  I have been through all the steps and have a functioning Oath access_token etc etc... I then GET https://mail.zoho.com/api/organization And get my zoid then GET http://mail.zoho.com/api/organization/<hidden>/accounts and get the account details, which

• Residual Formatting in Text Boxes After Undoing Pasting of Formatted Text

  Hi, guys! I have another problem to report. Actually, I have been aware of this for many months, possibly years, but I have been too lazy to report it to you. My apologies! Let's say you've pasted a formatted string into a text box. You change your mind

• Feature Request: Stripe Terminal Integration

  I would like to request the addition of Stripe Terminal integration to Zoho Books, which will help process in-person payments. While Zoho Books already supports online payments through Stripe, extending this functionality to include Stripe Terminal would

• Customer Parent Account or Sub-Customer Account

  Some of clients as they have 50 to 300 branches, they required separate account statement with outlet name and number; which means we have to open new account for each branch individually. However, the main issue is that, when they make a payment, they

• Improved Security in SAML/OIDC Sign-in Redirection Flow

  To enhance the security of our authentication system, we’ve made a change to how SAML and OIDC sign-in redirections are handled. This update resolves a potential open redirection vulnerability and adds an extra layer of protection during the sign-in process.

• GA4 data

  Hi, I have data being pulled from GA4 into numerous tables. There are a few major errors in the source data. Eg for a period of time GA4 reported ecommerce sales that were $98 as $9,800 and $42 as $4,200. It's not happening now but my historical data

• Ask the Experts: Five-hour live Q&A session with Zoho WorkDrive product experts

  Have questions about WorkDrive 5.0? Let’s talk! We recently launched Zoho WorkDrive 5.0, packed with powerful updates to help your team work smarter, stay secure, and get more value from your business content. From content-centric workflows and AI-powered

• Allow the usage of Multi-Select fields as the primary field on "Layout Rules"

  We want to force our users to enter some explanation strings when a multi-select field has been utilized. I can't understand the reason for the usage restriction of Multi-Select fields as a primary field. This is a simple "Display hidden mandatory field

• Lost Search Box with new UI Design

  I would like to suggest bringing back the Search Box in the new Zoho Project UI.  I use the search feature a lot and having to click the magnifying glass to type for a search is one extra click that we did not have with the old UI.

• Adaptación de zoho books a la nueva regulación de facturación electrónica

  La facturación electrónica será obligatoria para todas las empresa en España en 2025, en Francia probablemente también e imagino pronto en todos los países europeos. Ya en 2024 todas las empresa grandes tienen que utilizar el sistema de facturación electrónica.

• ZOHOBOOK Sales_QUOTE: To Add Discount At Each Line Item Table

  Hi, Our quote need to display with discount at each line item level as well. Try to edit template, >CUSTOMISE>EDIT TEMPLATE> Table, I can see template view with discount column, but when hit SAVE the template, view in PDF the discount column not shown.

• How to account for vat with postponed VAT accounting

  Hi everyone, looking for some help with postponed VAT accounting, I use DHL express for my imports and they used to pay the VAT for me and then invoice me. I could then log this as a bill and the VAT element from import was recorded as input VAT, all

• Weekly Automation Trigger for Equipment Calibration Reminder

  Dear Team, I’m currently working on an automation in the Equipment module. The goal is to track calibration schedules for tools — all of which require regular calibration. I’ve created an automation that sends email reminders for tools that are due for

• Want to use Zoho Books in Switzerland. CHF support planned?

  Hi, We're a Swiss company using other Zoho suite software and I discovered Zoho Books and other accounting SaaS when looking for an accounting tool. Do you intend to cover Switzerland and CHF based accounting anytime soon? Roy

• ADDDATE formula using 2 calculations

  Hello, I want to create an ADDDATE formula using 2 calculations, add 1 month and deduct 1 day. the formula that I need should look like this: ADDDATE(due_date, 1, "Months")+ ADDDATE(due_date, -1, "Days") Each row itself works fine, but when I'm trying

• Upgrading from Zoho Invoice to Books was a major downgrade in functionality for me

  I have been a user for many years of a free plan on Zoho Invoice for my personal consulting business. I recent upgraded my organization to Books since some of the additional functionality looked useful to me, and played around with the free trial for

• 🎉 Dynamic Org Chart for Zoho CRM Extension Published [2025]

  Hey Zoho CRM Community! We're thrilled to unveil our latest Zoho extension:🥁 Dynamic Org Chart for Zoho CRM 🎊 This extension is now available to transform the way your teams visualize, manage, and interact with org chart directly inside any Zoho CRM's

• Detailed General Ledger has problem of exporting out to excel and missing ledger details for some accounts

  I have been encountering some problems generating Detailed General Ledger report with Zoho books. Firstly, I cannot export out the report of Detailed General Ledger to Excel. It will show this error message "invalid value passed for sort column", and

• Upload a file to a File Upload Field through API

  Hello, Is there any way to upload a file to a custom file upload field in a module when doing an Update using the Record API? I've found and I am able to upload files to attachments but I don't know how to upload them to a field. I've checked the documentation at  https://www.zoho.com/crm/help/api/v2/#update-specify-records but the File Upload field type does not appear in the examples. Thanks

• Kaizen #131 - Bulk Write for parent-child records using Scala SDK

  Hello and welcome back to this week's Kaizen! Last week, we discussed how to configure and initialize the Zoho CRM Scala SDK. This week, we will be exploring the Bulk Write API and its capabilities. Specifically, we will focus on executing bulk write

• Automatic pricing feature for sales orders

  I am currently setting up my Zoho Inventory system and would like to implement an automatic pricing feature for sales orders. We have created a custom field called "brandline" for our items. All products with the same brandline value should have the same

• Ability to access VAT returns and submit them has disappeared.

  I have been using Zoho books successfully to submit quarterly VAT returns. Without reason I have lost that facility. I have followed all available instructions eg going into settings, taxes, VAT etc. without success. My registration number is there and

• How to automatically schedule a meeting After Blueprint Transition

  As part of our sales process, we require a technician to go to the customer's site and perform an installation prior to advancing to the next stage of the blueprint.  So this will require (a) scheduling a meeting for the technician to visit the customer's site and (b) a reminder phone call the day before the scheduled meeting. As I'm designing the Deal Blueprint, I see that I can automatically add a Task to the deal, but I can't add a Meeting or a Call. What am I missing?  There seem to be 3 types

• Zoho Recruit > Workflow

  I have created a workflow for my application module Whenever a record is created The condition , application status is 1st call invitation I have set this OI do not receive the email that was suppose to be send out

• [Webinar] Zoho Writer for SCM and logistics

  Creating, sharing, and distributing complex documents are constant challenges in the SCM and logistics industry. That's why our next webinar is focused on how to simplify these document workflows. Join us on Jul 10, 2025 for a Zoho Writer webinar designed

• Multiple locations but one parent company

  I am trying to configure my accounts that have multiple locations under one parent company to show separate locations in the portal.   

• Stock Count History in Product Details – Zoho Inventory

  Hello Zoho Team, When I perform a Stock Count for a product in Zoho Inventory, I would like to view the history of those stock counts later — especially from the product details page. Currently, I can perform the count and update the quantity, but I’m

• Next Page