Contract Revenue Recognition: A Complete Guide

December 30, 2025
Jason Berwanger
Accounting

Master contract revenue recognition with this clear 5-step guide. Learn how to recognize revenue accurately and keep your business compliant and confident.

A spreadsheet for contract revenue recognition on a laptop next to a business contract.

If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a complex customer agreement, wondering how to untangle its various promises, you’re not alone. The five-step model for contract revenue recognition sounds simple enough on paper, but applying it in the real world can feel like a different story. Missteps can lead to restated financials, audit headaches, and decisions based on faulty data. Understanding where things typically get complicated is the first step toward creating a reliable and scalable system. This article will walk through the most common roadblocks you might encounter, from dealing with variable pricing to integrating scattered data sources.

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Key Takeaways

  • Focus on Performance, Not Payments: Your revenue should reflect the value you've delivered to customers, not just the cash you've collected. Following the five-step model ensures your financial statements provide a true picture of your company's performance.
  • Break Down Every Contract: The key to accurate timing is correctly identifying each distinct promise, or "performance obligation," in your customer contracts. Getting this step wrong is a common pitfall that can throw off your entire financial reporting.
  • Use Technology to Create a Single Source of Truth: Manual processes and scattered data are the biggest risks to compliance. Automating revenue recognition connects your systems, eliminates errors, and creates a clear, defensible audit trail for every transaction.

What Is Contract Revenue Recognition?

At its core, contract revenue recognition is an accounting principle that sets the rules for when and how your business can report the money it earns from customer contracts. It’s a common misconception that revenue is recorded the moment cash hits your bank account. Instead, this principle requires you to recognize revenue when you have earned it by fulfilling your promise to a customer—that is, when you’ve delivered the goods or services you agreed to provide.

This standard approach ensures that financial statements are consistent and comparable across different companies and industries. Think of it as a universal language for reporting income. It provides a clear and accurate picture of your company's financial performance during a specific period, which is vital for anyone reading your financial reports, from investors to your internal leadership team. For businesses with subscriptions, multi-part deliverables, or long-term projects, mastering revenue recognition is not just good practice; it's essential for accurately reflecting your financial health and maintaining compliance. It moves your financial story from "when you got paid" to "when you delivered value," which is a much more meaningful metric for growth.

Why It Matters for Your Business

Getting revenue recognition right is about more than just ticking a compliance box—it’s fundamental to making sound business decisions. When you follow the rules correctly, you get a true and reliable picture of your company's financial performance. This clarity helps you understand which revenue streams are strongest, how sales cycles are performing, and where your real growth is coming from. It gives stakeholders, from investors to your own team, genuine confidence in your financial reporting. The main goal is to align your reported revenue with the actual value you've delivered to customers, providing the solid data you need for accurate forecasting and strategic planning. You can explore more insights on financial operations to guide your strategy.

The Rules: ASC 606 and IFRS 15

The two main standards that govern contract revenue recognition are ASC 606 and IFRS 15. If your business operates in the United States, you’ll follow the guidance under ASC 606. For most other countries, IFRS 15 is the prevailing standard. The good news is that these two frameworks are nearly identical, as they were created together to establish a single, global model for revenue recognition. Both are built on the same core principle: you should recognize revenue to show the transfer of goods or services in an amount that reflects what you expect to receive in exchange. To do this, they outline a clear five-step process for companies to follow.

Understanding the Key Accounting Standards

When it comes to recognizing revenue, you can't just wing it. There are specific rules in place to make sure every business reports its earnings consistently and transparently. Think of them as the official playbook for your finances. For most businesses, this means getting familiar with two major standards: ASC 606, which is the rule in the United States, and IFRS 15, its international counterpart.

These standards were created to clear up the gray areas and provide a single, comprehensive framework for revenue recognition across all industries. The core idea is simple: you should recognize revenue when you’ve earned it by delivering a product or service to your customer. Getting this right is crucial for accurate financial statements, passing audits, and making smart business decisions. Let's break down what each standard entails.

A Look at ASC 606

If your business operates in the U.S., ASC 606 is your go-to guide. Officially known as Revenue from Contracts with Customers, this standard lays out a clear, five-step process for recognizing revenue. The main goal is to report revenue in a way that accurately shows the transfer of goods or services to customers for the amount you expect to be paid. It replaced a patchwork of older, industry-specific rules with one unified framework. This shift requires you to look closely at your customer contracts and identify exactly what you’ve promised to deliver before you can book the revenue. For a deeper dive into financial topics, you can find more on the HubiFi blog.

A Look at IFRS 15

For businesses operating internationally or those that need to report under global standards, IFRS 15 is the key. The good news is that it’s nearly identical to ASC 606. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in the U.S. worked together to align these rules, making life easier for global companies. Just like ASC 606, IFRS 15 uses a five-step model to guide you. It helps you determine when to recognize revenue and how much to record, ensuring your financial reporting is consistent and comparable to other companies worldwide. Managing different standards often requires systems that can handle complex data, which is where seamless integrations become essential.

What You Need to Disclose

Following the five-step model is only half the battle. Both ASC 606 and IFRS 15 also require you to provide detailed disclosures in your financial statements. This isn't just about compliance; it's about transparency. You need to give stakeholders a clear picture of your revenue, including the nature of your customer contracts, how and when you recognize revenue, and any significant judgments you made in the process. This means documenting your decisions and being prepared to explain them. Properly managing these disclosures can be complex, but it’s a non-negotiable part of the process. If you're feeling overwhelmed, it might be a good time to schedule a demo to see how automation can help.

Breaking Down the 5-Step Revenue Recognition Model

Getting revenue recognition right comes down to following a clear, five-step framework. This model, outlined by both ASC 606 and IFRS 15, gives you a consistent way to approach every sale, no matter how complex. It’s all about telling the story of your revenue accurately—what you sold, for how much, and when you earned it.

Think of these steps as building blocks. Each one relies on the one before it, creating a logical path from the initial customer agreement to the final entry in your financial statements. When you have a solid grasp of this process, you can ensure compliance, gain clearer financial insights, and build a stronger foundation for your business. Let’s walk through each step so you know exactly what to do.

Step 1: Identify the Contract

Before any money changes hands or revenue gets recorded, you need to have a contract with your customer. This is the starting point for everything. A contract establishes the enforceable rights and obligations for both you and your customer, making it the official playbook for the transaction. It doesn't always have to be a lengthy document full of legal jargon; it can be a verbal agreement or implied by standard business practices. The key is that it’s a clear, mutual agreement that outlines the terms and is legally binding.

Step 2: Pinpoint Performance Obligations

Next, you need to figure out exactly what you’ve promised to deliver. In accounting terms, these promises are called performance obligations. A performance obligation is any distinct good or service you’ve committed to providing. For example, if you sell a software subscription that includes installation and training, you likely have three separate performance obligations: the software license, the installation service, and the training sessions. Identifying each one is critical because it dictates how and when you’ll recognize the revenue for each part of the deal.

Step 3: Determine the Transaction Price

Now it’s time to talk money. The transaction price is the total amount of compensation you expect to receive from the customer in exchange for the goods or services you’re providing. This might seem straightforward, but it can get tricky with things like discounts, rebates, or performance bonuses. If the price isn't fixed, you'll need to estimate the variable consideration based on what you'll most likely receive. This step ensures you’re working with a realistic revenue figure from the get-go.

Step 4: Allocate the Price to Each Obligation

Once you have the total transaction price, you need to divide it up among all the separate performance obligations you identified in Step 2. You can’t just assign the price arbitrarily; the allocation must be based on the standalone selling price of each item. That’s the price you’d charge for that specific good or service if you sold it on its own. This step ensures that the revenue you recognize for each deliverable accurately reflects its individual value, giving you a much clearer picture of your earnings.

Step 5: Recognize Revenue as Obligations Are Met

This is the final and most important step: actually recording the revenue. You can only recognize revenue when you satisfy a performance obligation by transferring control of a good or service to your customer. This can happen at a single point in time—like when a customer drives a new car off the lot—or over a period of time, like with a year-long consulting project. Getting the timing right is everything. It ensures your financial statements accurately reflect the work you’ve done and the value you’ve delivered in any given period.

Common Roadblocks in Revenue Recognition

The five-step model for revenue recognition sounds simple enough on paper, but applying it in the real world can feel like a different story. If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a complex contract, wondering how to untangle its various promises, you’re not alone. Many businesses, especially those with high transaction volumes or unique pricing structures, run into the same challenges. The key is to anticipate these hurdles so you can build a process that handles them smoothly.

Getting revenue recognition right is more than just a compliance exercise; it’s about having a clear and accurate picture of your company’s financial health. Missteps can lead to restated financials, audit headaches, and decisions based on faulty data. Understanding where things typically get complicated is the first step toward creating a reliable and scalable system. Let’s walk through some of the most common roadblocks you might encounter and how to think through them.

Dealing with Complex Contracts and Variable Pricing

Modern contracts are rarely straightforward. They often include multiple products and services bundled together, discounts that apply to some items but not others, and variable considerations like performance bonuses, rebates, or refunds. The main challenge here is accurately identifying each distinct performance obligation within a single contract. According to the ASC 606 standard, this step is critical because it directly impacts the timing of when you can recognize revenue. If you misidentify or improperly bundle obligations, you could end up recognizing revenue too early or too late, which can throw off your financial reporting.

Deciding Between Principal vs. Agent

When another party is involved in providing goods or services to your customer, you have to determine your role in the transaction. Are you the principal, meaning you control the good or service before it's transferred to the customer? Or are you an agent, arranging for another party to provide it? This distinction is crucial because it changes how you record revenue. A principal recognizes the gross amount of the sale as revenue, while an agent only recognizes their fee or commission. Getting this wrong can significantly inflate or understate your revenue, giving stakeholders a misleading view of your company’s performance.

Integrating Your Systems and Data

For many businesses, the data needed for revenue recognition is scattered across different systems. You might have contract details in your CRM, billing information in a payment processor, and project completion data in another tool. Pulling all this information together manually is not only time-consuming but also a recipe for errors. To apply the rules of ASC 606 correctly, you need consistent and reliable data. Without a central source of truth, you’ll spend more time reconciling spreadsheets than analyzing your performance. This is where having strong system integrations becomes essential for accurate and efficient reporting.

The Hidden Costs of Manual Processes

Relying on spreadsheets and manual data entry might seem manageable at first, but it doesn’t scale. As your business grows, so does the complexity. The hidden costs of manual processes go beyond the hours your team spends on data entry. There’s the increased risk of human error, the difficulty in maintaining a clear audit trail, and the lack of real-time visibility into your financials. The rules and interpretations around revenue recognition can also evolve, requiring you to re-evaluate your estimates. A manual system makes these adjustments slow and painful, preventing you from making agile, data-driven decisions. You can find more insights on financial operations that can help you streamline these processes.

How Revenue Recognition Changes by Industry

While the five-step model provides a universal framework, how you apply it can look very different depending on your industry. The nature of your contracts, deliverables, and customer relationships creates unique scenarios that require a tailored approach. Understanding these nuances is key to staying compliant and maintaining accurate financial records. Whether you’re selling software subscriptions or building skyscrapers, the core principles remain the same, but the execution will vary.

SaaS and Subscription Models

SaaS businesses often juggle recurring payments, contract modifications, and multi-year deals, which can make revenue recognition complex. The key is to correctly identify performance obligations within each contract, such as the initial setup and ongoing software access, and then recognize the revenue as you deliver on those promises. This is especially true for companies with complex billing arrangements or those serving customers in different countries, where standards like IFRS 15 provide much-needed clarity. It’s not about when the customer pays; it’s about when you earn the revenue by providing the service.

Construction and Long-Term Projects

For construction companies, projects can span months or even years, making revenue recognition a unique challenge. You can't just wait until a building is finished to record all the revenue. The five-step model introduced with ASC 606 has been particularly impactful here, as it provides a framework for recognizing revenue over the life of the project. As highlighted in various revenue recognition case studies, this approach better reflects the financial reality of long-term contracts with multiple payment milestones, ensuring your financial statements are accurate throughout the project lifecycle.

Manufacturing and Product Sales

In manufacturing, it’s easy to think revenue is recognized when you get paid, but that’s not the case. The core principle is accrual accounting: revenue is recorded when it’s earned, not when cash changes hands. The ASC 606 standard shifts the focus to "performance obligations," which are the specific goods you promise to deliver. As one guide to revenue recognition explains, revenue should be recorded as these obligations are met—for example, when a product is shipped and control is transferred to the customer. This ensures your revenue aligns with the actual delivery of value.

Service-Based Businesses

When your product is a service, defining when it's "delivered" can be tricky. For service-based businesses, accurately identifying performance obligations is the most critical step, as it directly controls the timing of your revenue. Is the obligation a completed project, a set number of consulting hours, or a monthly retainer? Getting this wrong can cause major compliance headaches down the road. Once you’ve defined these obligations in the contract, it can be difficult to change them, which is why it's one of the most common revenue recognition challenges for service firms to solve.

When to Recognize Revenue: Point-in-Time vs. Over Time

One of the trickiest parts of revenue recognition is timing. It’s not as simple as logging revenue when an invoice is paid or a contract is signed. According to accounting standards, you should only recognize revenue when you’ve actually earned it. This happens when you transfer control of a promised good or service to your customer.

This transfer can happen all at once, which is called "point-in-time" recognition. Think of a customer buying a coffee—the transaction and transfer of control happen in a minute. Or, it can happen over a period, known as "over time" recognition. This is common for subscriptions or long-term construction projects where you deliver value continuously. Getting this timing right is crucial for accurate financial reporting and staying compliant.

How to Know When Control Has Transferred

So, what does "transfer of control" actually mean? It’s the point where your customer can direct the use of the product or service and gets substantially all of its remaining benefits. Think of it as the moment the item is truly theirs to use as they see fit.

To determine if control has transferred, you can look for a few key indicators. Does the customer have legal title to the asset? Do they have physical possession? Have the risks and rewards of ownership—like the risk of loss if the item is damaged—passed to them? Has the customer accepted the asset? If you can answer yes to these questions, it’s a strong sign that control has transferred and it’s time to recognize the revenue.

How to Tell When an Obligation Is Met

Recognizing revenue is directly tied to fulfilling your end of the bargain—what the standards call a "performance obligation." You recognize revenue when (or as) you satisfy each one. This is the final step in the ASC 606 explained model, and it all comes down to that transfer of control we just talked about.

For some businesses, this is straightforward. If you sell a product, the obligation is usually met at a single point in time, like when the product ships or is delivered. For services or subscriptions, the obligation is met over time. In these cases, you’d recognize the revenue incrementally throughout the contract period—for example, recognizing 1/12th of an annual subscription fee each month.

Common Timing Mistakes to Avoid

Many businesses stumble on timing, and two mistakes are especially common. The first is recognizing revenue the moment a contract is signed. A signed contract is a great start, but it doesn't mean you've earned the money yet. You still have to deliver the goods or services before you can count it as revenue.

The second major mistake is confusing cash collection with revenue recognition. Just because a customer paid you upfront doesn't mean you can recognize the full amount immediately. Revenue is recognized as you satisfy your performance obligations, not when the cash hits your bank account. Manual processes can make these errors more likely, which is why having connected integrations with HubiFi that sync your data is key to getting the timing right.

Are You Making These Revenue Recognition Mistakes?

Even with the best intentions, it’s easy to get tripped up by the details of revenue recognition. The rules can feel complex, and small oversights can quickly snowball into significant issues. These aren't just minor accounting errors; they can distort your financial statements, create compliance headaches during an audit, and lead you to make business decisions based on inaccurate data. Think of it like building a house—if the foundation is off, everything you build on top of it will be unstable.

Getting revenue recognition right is fundamental to understanding your company’s true financial health. The good news is that most mistakes are common and avoidable once you know what to look for. From jumping the gun on booking revenue to simply not keeping the right records, these errors often stem from misunderstanding a few core principles. Let’s walk through some of the most frequent missteps so you can spot them in your own processes and make sure your financials are accurate, compliant, and reliable.

Recognizing Revenue Too Soon

It’s one of the most common temptations in accounting: you sign a big contract and immediately want to count it as revenue. But under ASC 606, revenue can only be recognized when you’ve actually earned it by transferring control of the goods or services to your customer. A signed contract is just the beginning of the journey, not the destination.

For example, if a client pays upfront for a 12-month software subscription, you can't recognize the full year's payment in the first month. Instead, you must recognize one-twelfth of the revenue each month as you satisfy your performance obligation. The ASC 606 explained model is very clear on this point: revenue follows performance, not the signature on a dotted line.

Misidentifying Performance Obligations

Step two of the five-step revenue recognition model involves identifying your "performance obligations," which are the specific promises you’ve made to your customer in a contract. Getting this step wrong can throw off your entire revenue timeline. Many businesses mistakenly bundle distinct promises together, or vice versa, which leads to recognizing revenue at the wrong time.

Imagine you sell a piece of equipment that also includes installation and a one-year maintenance plan. These are likely three separate performance obligations. You should recognize revenue for the equipment when it’s delivered, for the installation when it’s complete, and for the maintenance plan over the course of the year. Treating this entire bundle as a single obligation is a critical error that misrepresents when value is actually delivered to the customer.

Mistaking Cash Collection for Revenue

While cash flow is vital, cash in the bank is not the same as earned revenue. This is a fundamental principle of accrual accounting, but it’s a point of frequent confusion. Revenue is recognized when you satisfy a performance obligation, not when the customer’s payment hits your account. This distinction is crucial for accurately reflecting your company's performance in a given period.

If a customer prepays for a large project, that cash is recorded as a liability (deferred revenue) on your balance sheet. You only get to move it from the liability column to the revenue column on your income statement as you complete the work. Thinking that cash equals revenue can give you a dangerously inflated view of your company’s performance and lead to poor financial planning.

Lacking Proper Documentation

Under ASC 606, you don’t just have to get the numbers right—you have to show your work. Proper documentation is a non-negotiable requirement. You need to maintain clear records of your contracts, the judgments you made in identifying performance obligations, how you determined transaction prices, and how you allocated that price across different obligations.

This documentation is your first line of defense in an audit. Without a clear audit trail, you’ll have a tough time justifying your revenue figures to auditors. This is where automated systems can be a game-changer, creating a reliable record of every transaction and decision. Having robust integrations with HubiFi ensures that data from your CRM, ERP, and other systems flows seamlessly to create a complete and defensible record for compliance.

How Technology Simplifies Revenue Recognition

Trying to manage revenue recognition with spreadsheets and manual data entry is a recipe for headaches. It’s slow, prone to human error, and makes it nearly impossible to keep up with complex contracts or changing regulations. This is where technology steps in. Using the right software doesn't just make the process easier; it transforms it into a strategic advantage for your business.

Automated revenue recognition software is designed to handle the heavy lifting, from pulling data across different systems to applying the correct accounting rules. It gives you a clear, real-time picture of your company’s financial health, so you can stop spending hours reconciling numbers and start making informed decisions. By automating these workflows, you ensure accuracy, maintain compliance, and free up your team to focus on growth. If you're curious about what this looks like in practice, you can always schedule a demo to see an automated system in action.

Automate Data Collection and Analysis

One of the biggest time sinks in revenue recognition is gathering all the necessary information. Your contract details might live in a CRM, billing information in another system, and project updates somewhere else entirely. Automated software connects these disparate data sources, pulling everything into one place without manual intervention.

Robust automated revenue recognition software helps you streamline these complex accounting processes, ensuring accuracy and compliance with standards like ASC 606. The system can automatically analyze contract terms, identify performance obligations, and calculate the correct revenue to recognize each period. This not only saves countless hours but also dramatically reduces the risk of costly errors.

Integrate with Your Accounting Systems

Your revenue recognition tool shouldn't operate in a silo. To be truly effective, it needs to communicate seamlessly with the financial software you already use. A key function of modern rev rec platforms is their ability to integrate directly with your ERP, CRM, and general ledger.

This creates a single source of truth for your financial data, ensuring consistency across all your reports. Whether you use QuickBooks, NetSuite, or another platform, the right integrations mean that journal entries are posted automatically and accurately. This eliminates the need for manual data transfers, which are often a major source of discrepancies during month-end close.

Monitor Compliance in Real-Time

Staying compliant with ASC 606 isn't a one-time task; it's an ongoing process. The standard requires detailed disclosures about your revenue streams, the judgments you’ve made, and your contract balances. Manually tracking all of this is a significant burden and puts you at risk during an audit.

Technology provides a solution with real-time dashboards and reporting. You can instantly see your recognized revenue, deferred revenue balances, and other key metrics at a glance. This continuous monitoring helps you spot potential compliance issues before they become major problems. It also makes preparing for audits much smoother, as all the necessary documentation and data are organized and readily accessible in one system.

Track Performance Obligations with Precision

Identifying and tracking each distinct performance obligation is a critical part of the five-step model. For businesses with complex contracts—especially in SaaS or services—this can get complicated quickly. A single contract might contain multiple deliverables, each with its own timing and recognition criteria.

Automated systems are built to handle this complexity with ease. The software can parse contract terms to pinpoint each performance obligation and track its fulfillment status from start to finish. When a milestone is met or a service is delivered, the system automatically recognizes the corresponding revenue. This precision ensures your financial statements accurately reflect the value you’ve delivered to customers in any given period.

Best Practices for Staying Compliant

Staying on top of revenue recognition rules can feel like a full-time job, but it’s essential for your company's financial health. It’s not just about passing an audit; it’s about having an accurate picture of your performance to make smarter business decisions. Building a few key practices into your operations makes compliance much more manageable. By focusing on solid processes, team education, and clear documentation, you can create a system that works for you, not against you. Here’s where to start.

Create a Solid Contract Review Process

Your contracts are the foundation of your revenue, so your review process needs to be rock-solid. Every business handles contracts differently. It's important to "identify all types of contracts within those revenue streams," because even small differences in payment terms or discounts can change how you recognize revenue. Create a standardized checklist for your team to use when reviewing any new agreement. This ensures you consistently identify each performance obligation and the correct transaction price from the start, preventing headaches down the line.

Train Your Team and Set Up Internal Controls

Compliance isn't just for the finance department—it's a team sport. Your sales, legal, and operations teams should all understand the basics of revenue recognition. Accurately identifying performance obligations is a critical step in the ASC 606 model, and it directly impacts when you can book revenue. Regular training keeps everyone on the same page. Pair that education with strong internal controls, like requiring specific approvals for contract changes, to ensure your processes are followed consistently and reduce the risk of errors.

Maintain a Clear Audit Trail

If you can't prove it, it didn't happen—at least in the eyes of an auditor. A clear audit trail is your record of every decision, calculation, and journal entry related to revenue. This documentation is your best friend during an audit and is invaluable for internal reviews. This is where technology becomes a game-changer. Automated software creates a clear audit trail by design, documenting every step and making it easy to show your work. By using tools that integrate with your existing systems, you can maintain a detailed, accessible record without hours of manual work.

How to Get Started with Automation

Switching to an automated revenue recognition system can feel like a huge project, but you can make it manageable by breaking it down into a few key phases. A thoughtful approach ensures a smooth transition and sets your business up for long-term success with accurate, compliant financials. It’s all about creating a solid plan, executing it carefully, and staying engaged with the process as your business grows. If you're unsure where to start, a data consultation can help you build a clear roadmap. Let's walk through the three main steps to get your automation journey started.

Plan Your System Integrations

Before you automate, you need a clear picture of your current tech stack. Take stock of all the systems that touch customer and contract data—your CRM, ERP, and billing platforms. The goal is to get them all speaking the same language. Robust automated revenue recognition software helps you streamline these complex accounting processes, ensuring accuracy and compliance. Look for a solution that offers seamless integrations with the tools you already use. This allows you to pull data from different sources into one centralized place, creating a single source of truth and eliminating manual data entry errors.

Map Out Your Implementation

Once you know how your systems will connect, it's time to map out the implementation. This isn't just about installing software; it's about translating your accounting policies into automated workflows. You’ll need to define the rules the system will follow based on the five-step ASC 606 model. For example, accurately determining performance obligations is critical as it directly impacts the timing of revenue recognition. You'll configure the system to identify contracts, pinpoint these obligations, and allocate transaction prices correctly. Getting this right from the start ensures your automated process is both accurate and compliant.

Monitor and Refine Your Process

Automation is not a "set it and forget it" solution. Your business is always evolving, and your revenue recognition process needs to keep up. Once the system is live, you’ll need to monitor its performance and refine it over time. Contract modifications, for instance, require significant judgment and understanding of the revenue recognition guidance. Your team should be prepared to manage these exceptions and make adjustments as needed. Regularly review the system’s outputs and look for opportunities to improve the workflow. This continuous refinement ensures your automation remains a powerful asset. For more tips, check out the latest insights on our blog.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why can’t I just recognize revenue when my customer pays me? This is a super common question, and it gets to the heart of accrual accounting. The guiding principle (under standards like ASC 606) is that you should record revenue when you earn it by delivering a good or service, not just when you collect the cash. Think of it this way: if a customer prepays for a year of service, you haven't earned that full year's worth of money on day one. Recognizing revenue as you deliver the service gives a much more accurate picture of your company's actual performance over time.

My business is growing fast. When should I start thinking about automating revenue recognition? If you're starting to feel the pain of manual processes, it's probably time. A key sign is when your month-end close takes longer and longer, or when you're spending more time reconciling spreadsheets than analyzing your business. Another trigger is when your contracts become more complex, involving multiple services, subscriptions, or variable pricing. Getting ahead of this with automation prevents compliance headaches and ensures your financial data can keep up with your growth.

What's the difference between a 'performance obligation' and just a list of tasks in a contract? Think of a performance obligation as a distinct promise to your customer. While a contract might list many tasks, they often bundle together to fulfill one main promise. For example, if you sell a software license that includes installation and training, you likely have three separate performance obligations because the customer could benefit from each one on its own. The key is to identify each unique good or service you've committed to delivering, as this determines the timing for recognizing revenue for each part of the deal.

What's the biggest risk of getting revenue recognition wrong? The most immediate risk is failing an audit, which can be costly and damage your company's reputation. But beyond that, inaccurate revenue reporting gives you a distorted view of your financial health. It can lead you to make poor strategic decisions about budgeting, hiring, and investing because you're working with faulty data. Consistently getting it right builds trust with investors, lenders, and your own leadership team.

Besides buying software, what's one thing I can do right now to improve my revenue recognition process? Start by creating a standardized review process for every new contract. Get your sales and finance teams together to create a simple checklist that helps identify each performance obligation, confirm the total transaction price, and note any non-standard terms. This simple step forces a consistent approach from the very beginning and ensures everyone is on the same page before a deal is even closed, which can prevent major headaches later on.

Jason Berwanger

Former Root, EVP of Finance/Data at multiple FinTech startups

Jason Kyle Berwanger: An accomplished two-time entrepreneur, polyglot in finance, data & tech with 15 years of expertise. Builder, practitioner, leader—pioneering multiple ERP implementations and data solutions. Catalyst behind a 6% gross margin improvement with a sub-90-day IPO at Root insurance, powered by his vision & platform. Having held virtually every role from accountant to finance systems to finance exec, he brings a rare and noteworthy perspective in rethinking the finance tooling landscape.