Set up revrec rules

Turn on revenue recognition for a project, pick the recognition basis, and confirm the deferred GL accounts that the GL plug-ins will use.

When to use this

Once for each project that needs to recognise revenue — typically every external project except internal-billed and capital ones. Also revisit at the start of a new financial year if your deferred-account chart of accounts changes.

Prerequisites

  • Project Financials installed and configured — see Install & configure
  • Deferred Revenue and Deferred Expenses GL accounts created in NetSuite (both must be balance-sheet accounts, not P&L)
  • A Configuration record populated for the project's subsidiary — see Configuration record fields
  • An active project record to apply the rules to

Walkthrough

Walkthrough coming

A step-by-step Scribe walkthrough for this task is being recorded. Track its status in the Scribe register (internal).

  1. Open the project record.
  2. On the Revenue Recognition subtab, set the Revenue Recognition Method (the calculation basis). Choose either cost-incurred or billing-driven — see the section overview for the difference.
  3. If the project's deferred accounts should differ from the subsidiary defaults, set the Deferred Revenue and Deferred Expenses account fields at project level. Project-level values override the Configuration record defaults.
  4. Confirm the project's Billing Type is not Internal — internal projects don't recognise revenue.
  5. Save the project.
  6. Repeat for every project that needs revrec.

What success looks like

  • The project's Revenue Recognition subtab shows the chosen basis and the deferred accounts.
  • The next time an invoice posts against the project, GL inspection shows the AR credit reclassified from standard income to the deferred revenue account.
  • The next time a vendor bill posts against the project, GL inspection shows the expense reclassified to the deferred expenses account.

Gotchas

  • Deferred accounts must be balance-sheet accounts. Pointing the deferred revenue field at a P&L account will produce nonsense GL totals — the GL plug-in still routes there but the balance sheet won't carry the deferred liability.
  • Internal projects should not have revrec enabled. The Internal billing type has no recognition route — leave revrec off.
  • Capital projects use Capitalisation, not revrec. See Capital project revrec — don't try to enable both on the same project.
  • Changing the basis mid-project is supported but causes a one-off discontinuity in the recognition curve. Coordinate with finance before switching.
  • The GL plug-ins only reclassify when the project is part of an active recognition round. If a project has revrec rules set but has never been included in a Revenue Recognition record, the deferred-account routing won't activate.
  • Multi-currency: the deferred-revenue GL plug-in skips lines where the project's currency differs from the transaction's currency — review GL impact on multi-currency projects before assuming all postings are deferred.
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