Revenue recognition reports

The revenue recognition tooling built into Stripe Billing automatically generates reports that you can view in the Stripe Dashboard and export as CSV files. These reports include key information like revenue and deferred revenue in both aggregate views for high-level analysis and detailed views so you can validate data.

Integration requirements

Our tooling assumes you have properly modeled your business on Stripe Billing. This includes:

• Subscriptions must be modeled using products and prices, and customers.
• Taxes are set using the default_tax_rates attribute, not as line items.
• Discounts are set using the discount object, not as invoice items.

Dashboard

The revenue recognition section of your Dashboard displays high-level information that is relevant to the operations and financial condition of your business. This includes graphs for recognized revenue and deferred revenue, a monthly summary, and a revenue waterfall. You can download all of this information by clicking the Download… button in each section. If you’re unfamiliar with debit and credit related terms, review our report terminology.

Graphs

The graphs in the Dashboard provide a high-level view of your business by displaying revenue activity over time. The recognized revenue graph shows your net recognized revenue and the deferred revenue graph shows your ending balance per month.

A dashed line denotes the open accounting period, where figures continue to change until the accounting period closes. Toggling to the daily view provides a day-by-day snapshot of recognized and deferred revenue for the selected month. Revenue from metered billing is recognized in full when invoices are finalized, or when the accounting period closes.

Monthly summary

The monthly summary provides a detailed breakdown of activity for the last complete month. Use this information to understand how your activity affected revenue and to book journal entries. You can also see activity that contributed to your net revenue. For example, you can see the portions of new billings that were recognized and contra revenue items. This section also lists changes to deferred revenue based on your activity, like portions of new billings that haven’t been recognized and contra revenue items.

The monthly summary only shows details if there was activity. For example, if you don’t have any contra revenue, contra revenue information isn’t included.

Revenue waterfall

The revenue waterfall, sometimes called a revenue schedule chart, displays expected recognizable revenue over time. Use this to understand how activity from each period affects revenue in future periods.

This report shows expected revenue amounts based on historical billings. It does not model future billings and it doesn’t predict future revenue from those potential billings. The expected future revenue amounts will change as future billings are added.

CSV-only reports

The CSV reports aren’t displayed in the Dashboard but you can download them at any time. To do this:

1. Click the Download… button next to the report.
2. If applicable, select the report format.
3. Choose the columns you want to include in the report.
4. Click the Download button.

The reports you can download include:

The income statement report shows revenue, contra revenue, expenses, gains, and losses. Contra revenue adjustments are deductions from gross revenue. Applying the contra revenue to your gross revenue results in your net income. Use this report to better understand your net revenue and determine how you want to track contra revenue items.

The balance sheet report shows the beginning and ending balances for accounts like deferred revenue, accounts receivable, cash, etc. You can use this report to understand overall inflows and outflows to these accounts, as well as how revenue activity ties to cash.