Revenue
In accounting, revenue means inflows or enhancements of assets, or settlements of liabilities, from delivering goods or services — recognized when control transfers, not when cash arrives.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Components
- 3
Authority
This definition follows CON 8 ¶E80; ASC 606.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
The lessons that teach this
Accounting, 0 to 1 — a free course taught end to end on one month of one company, with the spreadsheet exercises to work it yourself.
- 03Accounts, and the five typesEvery account belongs to exactly one of five types, and its type decides which side increases it. Get the type right and the entry writes itself.9 min
- 10The income statementTwo of the five account types, arranged so each subtotal answers a different question about how the month went.10 min
Revenue, in use
Quoted from the 16 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
The complete receivables stack: quote → order → fulfilment → invoice → collection → cash application → revenue.
Prepaids, accruals, deferred revenue, fixed assets, intangibles, leases, equity, allowances, and inventory reserves are all this shape.
Schedules, accruals & roll-forwards — 1. The universal roll-forward
Revenue by stream, period by period, with the four questions an operator actually asks: how much this period, versus what, from where, and how concentrated.
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
- Revenue recognitionRevenue is recognized as you deliver what the customer is paying for, not when the invoice goes out or the cash lands.
- MRR vs GAAP revenue under ASC 606MRR and ARR are operating metrics; revenue under ASC 606 is earned over time. How annual prepayments and churn split them, and how to reconcile the two.
- SaaS revenue recognition under ASC 606, step by stepASC 606’s five steps applied to a startup SaaS contract: annual prepay, implementation fees, usage and multi-year deals, with the entries.
- Deferred revenue for SaaS startups, explainedAn annual prepayment is cash today and revenue over a year. How deferred revenue works under ASC 606, why it’s a liability, and the schedule behind it.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- income (income is after costs)
- turnover
Components that render this
The concept is not documentation-only. These are the components that name it in their specification, grouped and stated exactly as the catalog states them.
Also in Foundations
Work with this concept
The calculators that compute it and the ledger payloads that carry it. A definition is where a reader starts; these are where they go next.
- Journal entry for deferred revenueWhen an annual contract is invoiced up front, debit Accounts receivable and credit Deferred revenue. As each month of service is delivered, debit Deferred revenue and credit Revenue for that month's share.Entry
- Journal entry for a bundled contract under ASC 606For a contract with several promises, debit Accounts receivable and credit Deferred revenue for the price when billed, allocate the price to each performance obligation by relative standalone selling price, and credit Revenue for each part as that promise is satisfied.Entry
- Journal entry for accrued revenueAt month-end, debit Unbilled receivables and credit Revenue for work delivered but not yet invoiced. When the invoice goes out, debit Accounts receivable and credit Unbilled receivables.Entry
- Journal entry for a sale on accountFor a sale on credit, debit Accounts receivable and credit Revenue for the price; under a perpetual inventory system also debit Cost of goods sold and credit Inventory for what the goods cost. When the customer pays, debit Cash and credit Accounts receivable.Entry
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.