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Unearned Revenue: What it is and What it Means for Subscription Businesses

Stax

When can revenue NOT be counted as revenue? The concept of unearned revenue can easily trip up SaaS companies that offer subscription services and products on a recurring basis. Unlike when selling ordinary products, you cannot recognize the revenue earned from a subscription all at once.

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Understanding Deferred Revenue and Its Impact on Your SaaS Business

Subscription Flow

Deferred revenue refers to the income that you have collected, but not yet earned. The GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) issued by the FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board), inform businesses when their revenue should be recognized. This is where the concept of deferred revenue comes in.

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What Is Unearned Revenue and How to Account for It

Baremetrics

You can often find yourself receiving money long before you provide agreed upon services or, conversely, providing services and then waiting for payment. This puts you in the position of having “unearned revenue”. Sign up for the Baremetrics free trial , and start monitoring your subscription revenue accurately and easily.

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Matching and Revenue Recognition Principles

Baremetrics

We are going to look at two of those principles here: the matching concept and the revenue recognition concept. Baremetrics is a business metrics tool that provides 26+ metrics about your business including: MRR, ARR, LTV, total customers, and more. Table of Contents. They are defined in U.S.

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Managing Deferred Revenue for SaaS Companies: Best Practices for Tracking, Reporting, and Analysis

SaaS Metrics

But the revenue generated from the advance payment cannot be marked as earned — at least not until the service has been rendered. This unearned revenue is called deferred. When a customer pays for a service upfront that won’t be delivered until later in the future, the company does receive the cash.

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Understanding Subscription Revenue

Baremetrics

Subscription revenue can be defined most simply as a model which generates income from customers through recurring fees that are paid at regular intervals. These can be weekly, monthly, or annual payments. Before we get into the more complicated stuff, let’s consider the difference between earning revenue and collecting revenue.

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What Is Working Capital?

Baremetrics

Integrating this innovative tool can make financial analysis seamless for your SaaS company, and you can start a free trial today. Accounts receivable includes the revenue that your company has recognized but not yet collected. Many SaaS businesses have zero inventory. Thankfully, there is Baremetrics to do all of this for you.