Although they sound similar, unearned income and unearned revenue aren’t the same thing. It’s important to distinguish between them, since they’re treated very differently for accounting purposes. The money that you receive from your customer before you’ve provided a product is called unearned revenue. Since most prepaid contracts are less than one year long, unearned revenue is generally a current liability. Deferred revenue affects the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows differently. Until you “pay them back” in the form of the services owed, unearned revenue is listed as a liability to show that you have not yet provided the services.

In any case where the customer doesn’t receive what they ordered, then the company would need to repay the customer. This cycle of recognizing $5 at a time will repeat every month as Magazine Inc. issues monthly magazines. At the end of month 12, the $60 in revenue will be fully recognized and unearned revenue will be $0.

Deferred revenue: Is it a liability & how to account for it?

Generally, unearned revenues are classified as short-term liabilities because the obligation is typically fulfilled within a period of less than a year. However, in some cases, when the delivery of the goods or services may take more than a year, the respective unearned revenue may be recognized as a long-term liability. On a balance sheet, unearned revenue is recorded as a ​​debit to the cash account and a credit to the unearned revenue account. Positive cash flow can keep a small business’s operations thriving. However, a business owner must ensure the timely delivery of products to its consumers to keep transactions steady and drive customer retention.

• They have to pay income tax on the payments they receive, even if the goods or services haven’t been provided yet.
• As seen in the section immediately below, you should be able to explore all such payments, and the details about each, by making use of the Payments with Credit Balance query.
• This requires special bookkeeping measures to make sure you don’t forget about your customer and to keep the tax authorities happy.
• The income statement, or statement of earnings, does not reflect that the company has made a sale until it has earned the income by delivering the magazines to the customer.
• If the sale has is “closed,” but the customer has not yet paid, the seller can claim revenues earned if and only if the seller considers them to be realizable.
• This includes collection probability, which means that the company must be able to reasonably estimate how likely the project is to be completed.

The credit and debit will be the same amount, following standard double-entry bookkeeping practices. If a publishing company accepts $1,200 for a one-year subscription, the amount is recorded as an increase in cash and an increase in unearned revenue. Both are balance sheet accounts, so the transaction does not immediately affect the income statement. If it is a monthly publication, as each periodical is delivered, the liability or unearned revenue is reduced by $100 ($1,200 divided by 12 months) while revenue is increased by the same amount. Then, as you earn revenue over time, you will debit the deferred revenue account and credit the revenue account. When you receive the money, you will debit it to your cash account because the amount of cash your business has increased.

When Does Accrual Accounting Recognize Revenues?

From the event showcase with the event registration displayed, the Effective Personnel Management program item was removed.

Clicking the date link for the sales journal entry shows that the Unearned Income balance is reversed as an offset to income. The product amount is set to 20.00 and no miscellaneous charges are incurred, so that the cart sales transaction exactly equals the amount of the unapplied payment (i.e., the open credit amount). A full offset to Income in this case is a debit to Unearned Income. The credit and debit entries to Unearned Income net or wash to zero. Since the entries are generated in a nearly instantaneous timeframe, there is really no impact to Unearned Income. In this particular scenario, the account serves as a clearing account.

Example of Realized Vs. Realizable Revenue

After one month, the insurance company makes an adjusting entry to decrease unearned revenue and to increase revenue by an amount equal to one sixth of the initial payment. Unearned revenue is usually https://online-accounting.net/ disclosed as a current liability on a company’s balance sheet. This changes if advance payments are made for services or goods due to be provided 12 months or more after the payment date.

Integrating this innovative tool can make financial analysis seamless for your SaaS company, and you canstart a free trial today. Recognize the revenue when the business satisfies the obligation. What is Unearned Revenue? What Does it Show in Accounting? If you are unfamiliar with ASC 606, I strongly recommend you read the related article for now and take the time to go over the entire document with your accountant at some point.

Explaining Unearned Revenue in Context

Noncurrent liabilities represent a long-term liability like loans, rent, or other lease obligations that last longer than a year. Unearned revenue indicates the intention to perform work for the advance payment within a closer time frame, typically within the next several months or less. Unearned revenue is classified as a current liability on the balance sheet. It is a liability because it reflects money that has been received while services to earn that money have yet to be provided. If for some reason the company was not able to provide those services, the money may be forfeit.