Automate Deferred Revenue Without Writing Journal Entries.
Customer deposits and prepayments reclassify into unearned revenue liabilities automatically — then recognize as earned income the moment a job is completed.
Overview
Recognizing revenue before work is delivered distorts your profit and loss statement and breaks core accrual principles. The recognition engine monitors job fulfillment in real time, so prepaid work defers automatically and shifts into your sales accounts only when the job is signed off complete — no monthly adjusting entries by hand.
Liability on payment, revenue on completion
- An invoice paid against an incomplete work order posts an unearned revenue entry tagged UR-[OrderID], debiting sales and crediting your unearned revenue liability account.
- The moment a technician or admin marks the job complete, a matching ER-[OrderID] entry debits the liability and credits sales or income in the correct period.
- Unearned cash never touches your current profit and loss statement, and the prefixes make every adjustment traceable in the general ledger.
Itemized audit trails
Multi-item projects produce one unified entry with line-by-line detail — customer name, order ID, item description, quantity and unit price on every line.
Journal entry explorer
Bookkeepers search and audit every revenue adjustment by order ID, document number or exact dollar value.
Discounts & accounting methods
Early payment discounts are accounted for on the revenue entry so liability accounts reflect net cash collected. Switch to cash basis and deferrals suppress automatically.
How it works
A customer pays a $2,500 invoice for an installation that has not been marked complete. The amount is initially recorded as a sale.
A UR (unearned revenue) entry posts to QuickBooks: debit sales, credit unearned revenue.
The crew executes the work and sets the work order status to completed.
An ER (earned revenue) entry posts instantly — debit unearned revenue, credit sales.