Managing Revenue Recognition
This topic applies to the Revenue Recognition feature. Revenue Recognition is the key feature of NetSuite classic revenue recognition. Classic revenue recognition features are not available in new NetSuite implementations. Classic revenue recognition (also called legacy revenue recognition) is still supported for customers who previously enabled it. NetSuite currently offers the Advanced Revenue Management (Essentials) feature to automate revenue deferral and recognition. For equivalent information about the current feature, see Editing Revenue Recognition Plans.
The Manage Revenue Recognition page enables you to pause and resume revenue recognition schedules. You can also adjust the schedule start and end dates if posting has not yet begun. This page includes a line for each item in the transaction that has a deferred revenue account.
To access this page, click the Manage Revenue Recognition button on the source transaction for the schedule. The button appears on the following transactions when the Revenue Recognition feature is enabled and at least one item in the transaction has a deferred revenue account:
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Sales Orders when the Revenue Commitments feature is enabled and the order has been fulfilled
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Invoices
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Cash Sales
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Revenue Commitments when the Revenue Commitments feature is enabled
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Cash Refunds
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Return Authorizations
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Revenue Commitment Reversals when the Revenue Commitments feature is enabled
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Credit Memos
The top of the Manage Revenue Recognition page includes links to the transaction and customer records. A read-only Posting Period field displays the first posting period. The rows of items have read-only columns for Item, Quantity, Price, Amount, Schedule, Deferred Revenue Account, Revenue Account, Allocation Price, Allocation Amount, and Revenue Term in Months.
You can edit the following fields:
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Start Date – Revenue recognition schedule start date. You can change this date only if no revenue has been recognized on the schedule. If the Start Date is mid-month, the Revenue Term in Months will not be the same as the number of periods in the schedule since a period is included for each partial month.
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End Date – Revenue recognition schedule end date. You can change this date only if no revenue has been recognized on the schedule.
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Catch Up Period – This field is blank unless the schedule has been placed on hold. When the hold is removed, the catch up period defaults to the earliest open period. The catch up period does not update automatically after the field has been populated. The field is populated with the default only when it is blank at the time the hold is removed from the schedule.
You can change the catch up period to any open period. Periods that are locked for A/R as part of the period close checklist are generally not available to select as catch up periods. Those with the Administrator role or a custom role with the Override Period Restrictions may select periods that are locked.
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Hold Revenue Recognition – Check this box to place the schedule on hold. When you check this box, revenue recognition journal entries cannot be generated for any period in the schedule, including the current period if its revenue has not already been recognized. Clear the box to resume the schedule. Scheduled revenue that was not recognized during the hold is recognized in the catch up period.
When the Hold Revenue Recognition box is checked, the status on the Revenue Recognition Schedule record is On Hold. Revenue recognition schedules can be created with an initial status of On Hold. When a revenue recognition schedule is on hold, it is not included in the list on the Create Revenue Recognition Journal Entries page.
Item records include a Hold Revenue Recognition box. If the box is checked on the item record, it is also checked by default when the item is added to a transaction. For details, see Delaying Revenue Recognition for an Item.
If you use SuiteScript to automate your revenue recognition process, you must add the Hold Revenue Recognition and Catch Up Period columns to your transactions because the Manage Revenue Recognition page is not scriptable. See Adding Hold Revenue Recognition and Catch Up Period Columns.
By default, the following reports include revenue recognition schedules that are on hold. To exclude schedules that are on hold, add a Status filter to these reports.