Enhanced interface

Revenue recognition templates—AR or Order Entry

This list supports the enhanced lists interface. Learn more about using enhanced lists.

Revenue recognition templates define how you want to amortize deferred revenue as you deliver products or perform services. You can create any number of templates and then associate those templates with Accounts Receivable labels or Order Entry Item GL groups. You can configure revenue recognition in your company so that users do not need to know anything about revenue recognition and yet Intacct still defers the revenue and recognizes it over the appropriate amount of time. You can also opt to give users control over the recognition details by letting them edit revenue recognition schedules.

You can view, add, edit, or delete revenue recognition templates from either Accounts Receivable or Order Entry. There's only one set of revenue recognition templates in Intacct. Regardless of where you access the revenue recognition template list, you’ll be working with the same set of data.

Subscription	Standard revenue recognition for Accounts Receivable Standard or Advanced revenue recognition for Order Entry
Regional availability	Australia Canada South Africa United Kingdom United States
User type	Business Employee Project Manager Warehouse
Permissions	Order Entry or Accounts Receivable Revenue recognition templates: List, View, Add, Edit, Delete
Restrictions	Only Business users can Add, Edit, Delete, or View revenue templates. Employee, Project Manager, and Warehouse users can only List revenue templates.

Add a revenue recognition template

If you’re adding a revenue recognition template that will be used with Projects (for example, a template using the Milestone or Percent complete recognition method), see Project revenue recognition templates.

Do one of the following:
- Go to Accounts Receivable > Setup > Revenue recognition and select Add (circle) next to Templates.
- Go to Order Entry > Setup > Revenue recognition and select Add (circle) next to Templates.
In the Template ID field, enter a short identifier for the revenue recognition template.
This ID will appear in any applicable selection lists in Intacct.
In the Template description field, enter a meaningful description.
Use the Recognition method dropdown list to select the applicable recognition method.
Depending on the method you select, additional fields may appear on the page.
If you do not see the desired method in the dropdown list, try changing the Recognition Term field.
Learn more Revenue recognition methods—AR or Order Entry.
Use the Recognition schedule period dropdown list to select the interval at which Intacct should schedule the journal entries to post.
Use the Posting day dropdown list to select the day of the month the revenue should post (1 - 31, End of period, or Daily. End of period is most commonly used).
Select the desired Recognition term.
If you select Fixed period, Intacct will use the set number of periods as specified in the Number of periods field to generate the schedule. If you select Contract term, Intacct calculates the number of periods based on the transaction start and end dates.
Select the desired System resume option.
If you select Catch-up, Intacct will allow the user to post revenue recognition journal entries that were scheduled but not posted prior to delivery to catch up to the period of the resume date. If you select Walk forward, Intacct will regenerate the schedule as of the resume date and push the end date out the same number of days as the new begin date was pushed forward. This keeps the overall revenue schedule the same length.
Enter the applicable number of periods in the Number of periods field. This field is only applicable if you select Fixed period as the Contract term,
Use the Recognition start date dropdown list to select whether the posting period start date will be based on the transaction date or on a user-defined date.
Select the desired Posting method.
If you select Automatic, Intacct will automatically post scheduled revenue recognition journal entries on each scheduled posting date. If you select Manual, the user will manually post the scheduled revenue recognition journal entries when desired.
Accept the default Status selection of Active or if you do not want the current template to be available for use yet, use the Status dropdown list to select Inactive.
Select Save.
The Revenue Recognition Template list page displays the new template.

Edit a revenue recognition template

Changes made to a revenue recognition template will apply to schedules created after the change was made. Template changes will not apply to a schedule that's in progress.

Do one of the following:
- Go to Accounts Receivable > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
- Go to Order Entry > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
Find the template that you want to edit.
Select More actions > Edit at the end of the row.
Make your changes.
Select Save.

Do one of the following:
- Go to Accounts Receivable > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
- Go to Order Entry > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
Select Edit next to the applicable template.
Edit the desired fields and select Save.

View a revenue recognition template

Do one of the following:
- Go to Accounts Receivable > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
- Go to Order Entry > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
Find the template that you want to view.
Need help finding a template?
- Records designated as Inactive do not appear in the list by default. To view these records, select Filters at the top of the list and select Remove next to the Status filter to remove it.
- When you access the list from the top level, you initially only see records created at the top level. To see records created within entities, select Filters and then select Include entity records. Select Apply to update the filter.
Select the template's ID.

Do one of the following:
- Go to Accounts Receivable > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
- Go to Order Entry > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
To view inactive templates, select the Include inactive checkbox.
If you accessed this page from the top level of a multi-entity shared environment, you can view templates created in all entities by selecting the Include private checkbox.

Delete a revenue recognition template

You can delete a revenue recognition template if it has not been used by any transactions. This removes the template from Intacct. Alternatively, you can deactivate a template (change the status to Inactive), which prevents it from displaying in any template selection lists but retains the template for historical purposes.

Do one of the following:
- Go to Accounts Receivable > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
- Go to Order Entry > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
Find the template that you want to delete.
Select More actions > Delete at the end of the row.
Select Delete to confirm.

Do one of the following:
- Go to Accounts Receivable > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
- Go to Order Entry > Setup > Revenue recognition > Templates.
Select Delete next to the applicable template.
Intacct prompts you to confirm the delete.
Select OK.
The template is removed from the list.

Field descriptions

The following tables describe each field available for revenue recognition templates:

Header section
Milestone/Entries section

See Project revenue recognition templates for information on additional project-related fields.

Header section

Header section field descriptions
Field	Description
Template ID	A short identifier for the revenue recognition template. This ID will appear in any applicable selections lists in Intacct.
Template description	Use this field to describe the purpose of the template. For example, 12-month even distribution or Exact days billing.
Recognition method	Select the method that determines how revenue is calculated during the recognition term. Learn more about revenue recognition allocation methods.
Use standard calendar amortization	This field is only applicable if your company is configured to use custom accounting periods. When this field is selected, Intacct follows the standard calendar to allocate revenue for each period. For example, if your company is configured to use 4+4+5 week accounting periods, Intacct schedules the revenue as follows: Straight line: divides the revenue into the same amount for each period, including the 5-week period and schedules the revenue to post at the end of each calendar month. Exact days per period: Follows the number of days in the monthly calendar and ignores the 4+4+5 period and schedules the revenue to post at the end of each calendar month. When this field is not selected, Intacct schedules the revenue as follows: Straight line: divides the revenue into the same amount for each period, including the 5-week period, and schedules the revenue to post on the end of the 4+4+5 period. Exact days per period: divides the revenue so that there’s less revenue in the 4-week periods and more revenue in the 5-week periods, and schedules the revenue to post at the end of the 4+4+5 period.
Recognition schedule period	Select the interval at which Intacct should schedule the journal entries to post. Options are: Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-annually, Annually
Posting day	Options are: 1 through 31: the revenue will be scheduled to post each period on the selected day of the month. For example, if you select 15 and the Recognition schedule period is monthly, revenue is scheduled to post on the 15th of each month in the recognition term. End of period: the revenue will be scheduled to post on the last day of the recognition period. For example, if Revenue schedule period is monthly, revenue will post on 31-Jan, 28-Feb, 31-Mar, and so on. If the Revenue schedule period is quarterly, revenue will be scheduled to post on the last day of the quarter. For example, 31-Mar, 30-Jun, and so on. Daily: the behavior of this option depends on whether or not the revenue recognition is project-based (specifically, if the Percent or milestone source = Project Accounting): For non-Project-based revenue: the revenue will be scheduled to post every day of the recognition term. The daily revenue amount depends on the selected recognition method. For example, with straight-line recognition, Intacct divides each periodic amount by the number of days in the period to establish the daily revenue amount. With Exact days per period, prorate days, Intacct divides the schedule amount by the number of days in the recognition term to establish the daily revenue amount. Due to the number of scheduled entries required for Daily recognition, the recognition term cannot exceed 5 years. If you choose Fixed period as the Recognition term, the Recognition start date must be User -specified in order to use the Daily Posting day option. For Project-based revenue: the revenue is scheduled to post as of the date you open the revenue schedule (today's date). The best practice is to only use the Daily option if you’re using the Manual posting method.
Elapsing day	This field is only applicable if your company is configured to use custom accounting periods. When Use standard calendar amortization = false: The number of days from the period's start date that the revenue should be scheduled. For example, if the line item start date is 04-Jan and the Elapsing day = 15, the first scheduled posting date = 18-Jan. If you choose End of period, the revenue is scheduled on the last day of each applicable custom period. When Use standard calendar amortization = true: The day of the month the revenue should post. For example, if the line item start date is 04-Jan and the Elapsing day = 15, the first scheduled posting day is 15-Jan. If you choose End of period, the revenue is scheduled on the last day of each calendar month.
Recognition term	Options are: Fixed period: Intacct will use the set number of periods as specified in the No of periods field to generate the schedule. Contract term: Intacct calculates the number of periods based on the transaction start and end dates. This field does not display when Recognition Method = Milestone or Percent Completed and Percent or Milestone Source = Project Accounting.
System resume option	Determines how Intacct will deal with revenue scheduled prior to the item's Delivery date. This field is only applicable if you’re using event-based recognition. Options are: Catch up: Intacct will post Open revenue recognition that was scheduled prior to the item's Delivery date to catch up to the period of the resume date. These postings are automatic, regardless of the selected Posting method. Walk forward: Intacct will regenerate the revenue schedule as of the resume date and push the end date out the same number of days as the new start date was pushed forward. This keeps the overall revenue schedule the same length. Examples Say we had a revenue recognition schedule that was originally set to begin January 1 and end on December 31. However, the item was not delivered until April 8, and the revenue recognition schedule was on hold. On resume, Intacct would do the following for the different options: Catch up: Jan-Mar will recognize into April. All subsequent months will continue as originally defined. Walk forward: The Delivery date (April 8) will become the new Start Date of the revenue schedule, while the End Date will move ahead by the same number of days.
Number of periods	Enter the number of periods in the term. This field is only applicable if you select Fixed period as the Recognition term.
Recognition start date	Options are: Transaction date: the revenue recognition schedule will start on the sales transaction date. User-specified: the revenue recognition schedule will start on the date the user defines as the Start date for the sales transaction line item.
Posting method	Options are: Automatic: Intacct will automatically create revenue recognition journal entries on each scheduled posting date. The Company must be configured with Scheduled jobs = On in order for automatic posting to occur. Manual: the user will manually post the scheduled revenue recognition to create the journal entries when desired.
Status	Options are: Active: the template will appear in the applicable dropdown lists and is available for use. Inactive: the template will not be available for use. You can change the template's status as desired.

Milestone/Entries section

When you select Percent Complete, Milestone, or Custom as the Recognition method, some combination of the following fields appear.

Field	Description
Percent completed	The percentage of completeness at which to recognize revenue. If you want to recognize revenue at certain threshold levels, add the values in order from least to greatest. The last row must be defined as 100. For example, if you want to recognize revenue by 25% increments, enter 25, 50, 75, and 100 in this column. If Percent or Milestone source = Project accounting and you want to recognize revenue at whatever percentage of completion exists when you run Manage Revenue Schedules, leave this column blank.
Percent recognized	If Percent or Milestone Source = Project accounting, this field is not editable and displays the percent of revenue that will be recognized when the associated Percent completed milestone is reached. If Recognition Method = Milestone and Percent or Milestone source = User-specified, enter the percent of revenue to be recognized at each threshold level.
Description	If Percent or Milestone source = User-specified, enter a description for the associated recognition period.
Account	If Recognition method = Custom, select the account in which to recognize the revenue. When you associate a custom revenue recognition template with a sales transaction line item, Intacct ignores the sales revenue account defined on the transaction definition and uses the sales revenue account defined here for revenue recognition. See a custom revenue schedule example.
Period offset	Determines how many periods in the future to create the potential revenue recognition journal entries in the schedule. For example, say you have a four-month schedule and you want the schedule to use the current period. The Period offset would be 0, 1, 2, 3. 0 = the current period. If you wanted the scheduled entries to be every two months starting two months from the transaction date, the Period offset would be 2, 4, 6, and so on.
Percent amount	Indicates the percentage of the revenue recognition that should be applied to the corresponding account for the corresponding Offset period. For example, if you enter Percent amount = 100% for Period offset = 0, the revenue recognition schedule will contain one potential revenue recognition journal entry for the entire amount of revenue recognition and schedule it to post in the current period.
Rows	To specify the number of rows in this section, enter the desired number of rows in the Rows field and press Enter or select Refresh. For example, if you want to define 10 percentage milestones, type 10 in the Row field and select Refresh. 10 rows appear in the section.