The Sales Order Revenue Forecasting feature in NetSuite enables businesses to forecast revenue based on the amounts from sales orders and return authorizations. This feature provides a more comprehensive view of future revenue, as it includes all sales orders, whether they have been billed, remain unbilled, or involve multiple invoices.
If your business also uses the Project Management feature (formerly known as Advanced Projects), Sales Order Revenue Forecasting can be combined with it to forecast revenue from variable schedules, such as project-related sales orders and return authorizations. This integration provides greater flexibility and accuracy in predicting revenue streams from complex schedules. For more details, refer to the section on Forecasting Project Revenue.
With the Sales Order Revenue Forecasting feature enabled, you gain access to additional reports that improve visibility into future revenue:
- Sales Order Revenue Forecast Summary Report
- Sales Order Revenue Forecast Detail Report
Sales Order Revenue Forecast Summary Report:
The Sales Order Revenue Forecast Summary report in NetSuite provides a detailed view of deferred and recognized revenue for each transaction line on sales orders and return authorizations. This report is a valuable tool for businesses looking to gain insights into their revenue streams and manage deferred revenue more effectively.
With this report, you can:
- View the total amounts of deferred revenue for each transaction.
- Track when that deferred revenue is scheduled to be recognized, offering greater visibility into future revenue recognition schedules.
Sales Order Revenue Forecast Detail Report:
The Sales Order Revenue Forecast Detail report in NetSuite provides an in-depth look at deferred and recognized revenue for each transaction line on sales orders and return authorizations. This report is particularly useful for tracking when deferred revenue is scheduled to be recognized, giving businesses enhanced visibility into their future revenue streams.
Key features of the report include:
- Viewing totals for deferred revenue on sales orders and return authorizations.
- Tracking the schedule for revenue recognition, helping businesses plan for when revenue will be recognized in their financial statements.
It is important to note that the Sales Order Revenue Forecast Summary Report and Sales Order Revenue Forecast Detail Report are not available if your business is using either the Advanced Revenue Management (Essentials) or Advanced Revenue Management (Revenue Allocation) features. These advanced revenue management features offer different tools and reports for managing and forecasting revenue.
These two reports are accessible only after enabling both the Revenue Recognition and Sales Order Revenue Forecasting features. To enable these features, navigate to Setup > Company > Setup Tasks > Enable Features and activate them under the ‘Accounting’ subtab.
These reports enhance decision-making by offering detailed insights into upcoming revenue. For example, they allow businesses to analyze sales activities by customer and product, leading to better planning and adjustments in marketing campaigns, sales compensation plans, and discount strategies. Additionally, the transaction line details in these reports help identify opportunities for corrective action before the end of an accounting period.
When the Sales Order Revenue Forecasting feature is enabled:
- The revenue recognition schedules list will include schedules from both posting transactions (such as invoices) and non-posting transactions (such as sales orders and return authorizations).
- The same revenue recognition templates used for posting transactions can be applied to non-posting transactions.
- Some fields that appear on schedules for posting transactions, including Journal, Date Executed, Is Recognized, Status, and Total Recognized, will not appear on schedules for non-posting transactions.
- Sales order schedules do not appear on the Create Revenue Recognition Journal Entry page, as they do not impact the general ledger and cannot be linked to a journal entry.
To enable ‘SALES ORDER REVENUE FORECASTING’ feature:
Go to Setup –> Company –> Enable Features –> Accounting (Subtab), check the box for ‘SALES ORDER REVENUE FORECASTING’ and save it.