Revenue management lets you control when income shows up in your job's figures, separately from when you actually bill your client. It's how you make sure the revenue you report matches the work you've completed, not just what's been invoiced.
Without it, invoicing and revenue can drift apart. A large invoice raised early makes a job look more profitable than it really is. Work completed but not yet invoiced can disappear from your figures entirely. Revenue management closes that gap.
This article explains what revenue management does, how it changes your Synergist system, and where to find each part of the process.
Turning on revenue management
Revenue management is a company-wide setting, not something you switch on for individual jobs. Once enabled, it changes what you see across Synergist.
You'll get:
- A new Revenue Mgmt section in your left-hand navigation panel.
- Extra fields on the phase allocations tab of every sales invoice.
- The option to raise revenue recognitions (RRs) from the same places you raise sales invoices.
Billing plans work closely alongside revenue management. Find out more about billing plans.
The revenue management report
The revenue management report is your dashboard for tracking revenue across every live job. You'll find it in the left-hand navigation panel under Revenue Mgmt.
The report lists every job that hasn't been final invoiced by the end of the current revenue period, plus any job that has been final invoiced within that period. Click any job in the list to open it in a separate tab.
You can choose how actual cost is calculated for each job. Use the button in the top left corner to switch between:
- Purchase orders
- Purchase invoices
- A hybrid of both
Recognising revenue on sales invoices
When revenue management is switched on, your sales invoices work a little differently on the phase allocations tab.
You'll see three new columns:
- Total recognised: the value of revenue recognised for this phase so far.
- Total billed: the total amount invoiced on this phase to date.
- Deferred: the difference between what's been invoiced and what's been recognised.
Two existing columns are renamed to match. Already allocated becomes already recognised, and allocate now becomes recognise now.
When you're allocating revenue to an invoice, use the Auto button for a range of automatic recognition and deferral options. You can also type values into each line yourself if you'd rather do it manually.
Revenue recognitions (RRs)
A revenue recognition, or RR, is a way to recognise revenue on a job without raising a sales invoice. It's not a document you send to your client. Instead, it's a transaction purely for recognising and deferring revenue against the work you've done.
You can create an RR from most of the same places you create a sales invoice: the job, phase, or client invoice tab. An RR can cover:
- A single phase.
- A single job across multiple phases.
- Multiple jobs at once.
Creating an RR uses the same interface as a sales invoice, but with fewer steps. You can allocate costs to an RR the same way you would on a sales invoice, and you'll move through the phase allocations and notes pages, but nothing else.
Posting revenue to your accounts
How revenue posts to your accounts package depends on your nominal setup. Synergist can either post the full invoiced amount to your profit and loss accounts, or post the recognised value with balancing entries to your balance sheet.
Tips
- Turn off automatic phase allocation before switching revenue management on. The two settings don't work together.
- Use the revenue management report as your first stop each month. It shows you every job still open before you go hunting elsewhere.
- Raise RRs as you go, not just at period end. It keeps your recognised figures close to real project progress.
- Talk to your finance team about which nominal posting method suits your accounts package before go-live. Switching later is more work than choosing right the first time.