revenue-recognition
Determines when and how revenue is recognized — performance obligations, contract terms that change the answer, and the deal structures that create accounting problems. Use this to work out how a contract should be recognized, review a non-standard deal before it is signed, understand deferred revenue, or spot terms that would delay or reverse recognition.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cbrock84/headcount /tmp/revenue-recognition && cp -r /tmp/revenue-recognition/plugins/finance/skills/revenue-recognition ~/.claude/skills/revenue-recognitionSKILL.md
# Revenue recognition Cash received is not revenue earned. The gap between them is where deals get restructured after signature and where quarters get restated. **This structures the question and tells you what to ask. Revenue recognition is a technical accounting matter under standards such as ASC 606 and IFRS 15 — conclusions on a material or unusual contract need your auditors or a qualified accountant, not a checklist.** ## The shape of the question Recognition follows the transfer of control to the customer, worked through in five steps: identify the contract, identify the distinct performance obligations, determine the transaction price, allocate it across the obligations, then recognize as each is satisfied. Most disputes happen at step two and step four. What sales sold as one thing is frequently several obligations for accounting purposes — software plus implementation plus support — and the price has to be allocated across them on standalone selling price, not on how the quote was written. ## Terms that change the answer These belong in a pre-signature review, because after signature the only remedy is an amendment the customer has no reason to agree to: - **Acceptance clauses** — a customer right to reject can defer recognition until acceptance. - **Termination for convenience** — a short-notice exit can shorten the contract term for accounting purposes, however long the stated term is. - **Contingent or milestone fees** — variable consideration, constrained until it is probable there will be no significant reversal. - **Material rights** — a renewal or upgrade priced below standalone value can itself be a performance obligation carved out of today's price. - **Extended payment terms** — payment far from delivery can introduce a financing component. - **Side letters.** Any promise made outside the contract is still part of the contract. They are the single most common cause of restatement, and by construction finance does not know they exist. ## Working with sales Recognition treatment is a deal input, not a post-signature discovery. A concession that costs nothing commercially can move revenue across a period boundary, and by the time finance sees the signed paper the trade has already been made. Give `revenue:chief-revenue-officer` and `revenue:pricing-and-packaging` a small set of standard structures that recognize cleanly, and route anything outside them through review before signature — alongside `legal-risk:contract-review`, which owns the legal exposure the same clauses create. ## Deferred revenue is an obligation The deferred balance is work owed, not money banked. Track it by cohort and obligation so you can answer what it is composed of and when it releases. A balance nobody can decompose is one that surprises you. ## Tooling Subledgers that carry recognition schedules: NetSuite Advanced Revenue Management, Zuora Revenue, Maxio, Chargebee, Stripe Revenue Recognition, and similar. Spreadsheet schedules hold up until contracts carry multiple performance obligations or take mid-term modifications. That is the point to move, not a revenue threshold. ## Never - Recognize on invoice date or cash receipt as a shortcut. - Allocate price across obligations the way the quote happened to be laid out. - Let a side letter exist. - Conclude a material or novel contract's treatment without your auditors.
Concentrates marketing and sales effort on a named set of accounts rather than on volume — qualifying whether the model fits your economics at all, building the account list and the buying group inside each, tiering effort against account value, coordinating so the account experiences one campaign rather than several, and measuring account progression instead of leads. Use this to decide whether to run an account-based program, build one, or work out why an existing one produces activity and no pipeline.
Designs orchestrator-and-subagent hierarchies for a repository — splitting agents by exclusive write surface, pairing every producer with an independent auditor, and enforcing the split with a script that runs in CI. Use this whenever the user wants to set up, expand, audit, or fix a multi-agent or subagent structure for a codebase; asks how to divide work between agents; wants agent charters, roles, or a surface map written; or is hitting agents that collide on the same files, review their own work, or drift from their remit. Also use when sizing a roster or deciding whether a new agent is justified.
Governs models and AI systems in production — intended use, evaluation, monitoring, human oversight, documentation, and the decision to deploy or retire. Use this before deploying a model or AI feature, when defining evaluation criteria, when a model's behavior has drifted, when assessing AI risk or regulatory exposure, or when deciding whether an AI system is fit for a consequential decision.
Produces executive-level research — market sizing, competitor mapping, trend analysis, and strategic intelligence — grounded in cited sources with the confidence in each claim made explicit. Use this to analyze a market or industry, map competitors, evaluate a market-entry or build-versus-buy decision, produce a research brief, or assemble evidence for a decision. Also use when comparing options that need a structured, evidence-based verdict rather than an opinion.
Optimizes for AI assistants and AI-generated answers — being retrievable, being cited, and being represented accurately when a model answers on your behalf. Use this when traffic is shifting from links to AI answers, when a brand is misrepresented or absent in AI responses, when planning content for retrieval rather than ranking, or when deciding how AI search changes an existing SEO program.
Improves visibility and conversion in the App Store and Google Play — metadata, keywords, screenshots, ratings, and the listing experience that turns an impression into an install. Use this to audit or optimize an app listing, plan a launch listing, diagnose poor install conversion, or improve store search visibility.
Protects and restores data — backup coverage and scope, retention, immutability against ransomware, and proving restores actually work. Use this to design a backup regime, verify restores, plan retention, protect backups from ransomware, or recover from data loss.
Runs the planning cycle — annual budget, rolling forecast, consolidation of business unit inputs, and the variance analysis that explains actuals against plan. Use this to build or challenge a budget, run a forecast cycle, consolidate departmental submissions, explain why results diverged from plan, or improve forecast accuracy.