The Deferred Revenue Waterfall Summary report reconciles the deferred revenue account balance on the balance sheet and provides a forecast of the expected revenue stream. Run this report after you create revenue recognition and deferred revenue reclassification journal entries for the current period.
The Deferred Revenue Waterfall report divides deferred revenue into the following categories: • Prior Unrecognized – Deferred revenue planned for recognition by the end of the current period but not yet recognized. If you have not completed the month-end revenue recognition journal entries for the current period, those amounts are included. When all amounts have been recognized, this column is not displayed. • Short-term deferred revenue – Deferred revenue planned for recognition in the short term.
This category is further divided into columns for each month. The number of months is determined by the accounting preference number of Short-Term Revenue Periods. The default is 12. • Long-term deferred revenue – Deferred revenue planned for recognition after the number of months set for short-term deferred revenue. This is the Thereafter column of the report. • Unplanned deferred revenue – Billed, unrecognized, and not yet in actual revenue plans.
This amount is usually equal to the deferred revenue balance minus the total unrecognized amount. The total unrecognized amount is the prior unrecognized plus the short-term deferred revenue and the long-term deferred revenue. The maximum unplanned deferred revenue is capped at the total revenue amount for each element.