Are you automating enough? According to a recent survey, 74% of revenue accounting teams perform manual interventions on a daily basis to process transactions and 68% report not having the right technology to address growing demands from the business. 

While accounting leaders or executives may assume that their revenue process is already completely automated, manual processes tied to spreadsheets and system customizations are actually quite common and can increase risk, delay close, and place an extreme amount of stress on employees. 

Access the complete roadmap for researching, testing, and selecting the right revenue automation software for your company. Read the guide

So, how do you achieve end-to-end automation? Look for an end-to-end revenue automation solution that includes:

• Contract grouping 
• Performance obligations
• Contract modification management
• Standalone selling price (SSP)
• Delivery-based rev rec
• Close process dashboard
• Revenue reporting
• Cost management
• Variable consideration (VC)

Related: How revenue automation can support your business initiatives

Contract grouping 

• Define and configure a hierarchy of rules to group transactions based on any attribute or set of attributes across data sources
• Process revenue contracts across multiple sets of books and rules without double entry
• Combine or separate contracts individually as required based on rules defined by the user

Performance obligations

• Automate revenue policies for when and how to recognize revenue with performance obligation templates
• Map transactions to performance obligations based on user-defined rules and automatically expand bundled transactions to their distinct performance obligations for recognition
• Assign forecasting, cost, and variable consideration rules to match policies

Contract modification management

• Match rules to policies for initial contract review versus contract modifications or revisions and SSP derivation dates
• Use pre-built, configurable rules to respond to different contract changes such as changes in price, quantity, and term, including their different rev rec implications, prospective or retrospective allocations, and revenue rescheduling
• Perform unlimited contract modifications, with categorization and tracking of modifications through revenue contract versions

Standalone selling price (SSP)

• Define SSP using formulas, uploaded values, derived residual or calculated by an SSP analyzer
• Use historical transactional data to analyze and determine SSP, as well as see trends of SSPs over time
• Perform transaction price allocations across all eligible performance obligations in the revenue contract as defined

Delivery-based rev rec

• Use a rules-based engine to define revenue events for complex pricing models, such as consumption-based pricing
• Automatically ingest event information from any source and automatically process events as received
• Create revenue journal entries to be recorded in the general ledger based on events, and automate the accounting for unbilled receivables, contract assets, and contract liabilities

Close process dashboard

• Navigate through contracts in real-time to identify and validate data exceptions at the source
• Proactively resolve variances in revenue recognition and identify the causes of period over period revenue changes with account and trend analysis
• Get access to a continuously evolving trial balance to ensure your revenue accounts tie-out

Revenue reporting

• Access customizable out-of-the-box reports,  such as Waterfall Reports or Revenue Contract Roll Forward
• Schedule reports to run in the background and have the report results available for download
• Get access to real-time analytics on revenue recognized by product line, by geography, top customers, and more on a configurable dashboard

Cost management

• Create multiple cost types to manage and track contract costs, set up individual rules, formulas, capitalization methodologies, and margin impact
• Align cost types to performance obligations and set cost treatment to follow revenue or recognize costs independently
• Capture costs and adjustments, upload costs as part of revenue transactions or on their own and link to revenue, automatically account for changes to costs as they occur
• Track and report costs using cost specific reports including Cost Waterfall, Cost Capitalized Rollforward, Cost Insight, and Cost Transactions

Variable consideration (VC)

• Create multiple VC types to manage and track transaction price adjustments for items such as revenue share, rebates and SLA’s, and set up individual rules for calculating estimates, accrual timing, clearing, and expirations
• Adjust estimates, process actuals, and clear balances, as well as view changes and impact over time for transactions and contracts
• Flag transactions as variable consideration and set rules for including/excluding from allocations both upfront and as changes occur

Implement revenue automation with the right technology

The revenue automation software buyer’s guide provides a complete roadmap for researching, evaluating, and selecting the right revenue automation software for your company.