After four months, the company can recognize 33% of unearned revenue in the books, equal to $400. At this point, the company’s balance sheet would carry $800 worth of unearned revenue in the revenue of $400. Unearned revenue is typically considered a current liability on a business’s balance sheet because, at that point, the business is in debt to the customer . Subscription revenue is one of the most popular streams for new companies, as it provides customers a simple way to signup and a consistent stream of cashflow over a longer period of time than a single purchase. However, with quarterly or annual contracts, customers often pay upfront, meaning that the company has received cash before providing the service—leading to unearned revenue on the company’s books. Using advance payments for services or goods can be a great way to bolster cash flow during periods of growth.

According to the accounting equation, assets should equal the sum of equity plus liabilities. As each month of the annual subscription goes by, the monthly portion of this total can be deducted and recorded as revenue.

Is unearned revenue a noncurrent liability?

Exhibit 2 represents such entries when there is a time lapse between parts sale parts 1 and 2. Consider a $500 purchase that begins with a customer cash payment.

At the end of January, the company has earned 1/12 of the money received. This entry recognizes $100 or 1/12 of the money in the current period. This adjusting entry would be done at the end of January when the books are closed. In cases like insurance and subscriptions, the revenue is recognized on a monthly basis. So, using our XYZ Company insurance example, let’s say you sell a 12-month policy for $1,200 and receive the money January 1st; the policy takes effect on January 1st. At the end of every month, you will create an adjusting entry to move 1/12 of the money, $100, to sales revenue.

Is unearned revenue a contra account?

On a summarized balance sheet, you probably won’t see it as a listed account, just included in the liabilities total. However, on a more detailed balance sheet, it would be listed as an account under liabilities either as current liability or even further detailed as unearned revenue. This means you’ll debit the unearned revenue account by $2,000 and credit the revenue account by $2,000. You collect it in advance, as prepayment before completing a project or what is unearned revenue delivering a service for a client. Unearned revenue is a liability since it refers to an amount the business owes customers—prepaid for undelivered products or services. In addition, it denotes an obligation to provide products or services within a specified period. Unearned revenue is recorded on the liabilities side of the balance sheet since the company collected cash payments upfront and thus has unfulfilled obligations to their customers as a result.

This work involves time and expenses that will be spent by the business. And this is a piece of information that has to be disclosed to complete the image about the financial situation at that moment in time.

Unearned Revenue (Sales) Video

Once the company performs the service the customer has paid for, the company enters another journal entry to recognize the revenue. For example, as a publishing company delivers the magazines a customer with a two-year subscription has paid for, the journal entry shows a credit to revenue and a debit to unearned revenue. In this way, the company converts the unearned revenue to “real” or “earned” revenue. Since prepaid revenue is a liability for the business, its initial entry is a credit to an unearned revenue account and a debit to the cash account. You can only recognize unearned revenue in financial accounting after delivering a service or product and receiving payment. But since you accept payment in advance, you must defer its recognition until you meet the above criteria.

• Accounts receivable are considered assets to the company because they represent money owed and to be collected from clients.
• The liability converts to an asset over time as the business delivers the product or service.
• Unearned revenue is very beneficial to many companies and suppliers because of several reasons.
• This is why it is crucial to recognize unearned revenue as a liability, not as revenue.
• Where once the $5,000 was a liability, it is now a cash asset on the income statement.
• Unearned revenue is an important concept in accounting because the company cannot recognize the revenue until it provides the good or service to the customer who paid for it.

When you receive unearned revenue, you will record it on your business balance sheet first and then make the journal entry. First, you will debit prepaid revenue under current liabilities or the specific unearned revenue account type. Later, you will make the necessary adjusting journal entries once you recognize part of or the entire prepaid revenue amount. A lawn service company offers customers a special package of five applications of fertilizers and weed treatments for $300.

Where Is Unearned Revenue Recorded?

By contrast, just about anyone who can arrange numbers in a table and add and subtract can set up and use a single entry system. Through advanced payments like in, for example, services or goods which entails subscriptions and other recurring invoices. A company can automatically store customer’s credit card information so that you can bill them when you need to.

• After the amount has been earned, the Unearned Income account is reduced, and a revenue account is increased.
• Initially, the total amount of cash proceeds received is not allowed to be recorded as revenue, despite the cash being in the possession of the company.
• Securities and Exchange Commission sets additional guidelines that public companies must follow to recognize revenue as earned.
• The $60 entry is referred to as an adjusting entry and the same entry will be recorded when each of the remaining four treatments are provided.
• Unearned revenue may be a liability on the books but it does have many benefits for small business owners.

Become aware of any amounts that should be eligible for refund – It is always a good idea to know which payment amounts are unapplied, and depending upon policy, are eligible for refund. 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. Since the amount of the applied credit matches the cart balance, when the cart is redisplayed, no other payment options appear. Clicking on the link shows the entry to reverse the Unearned Income liability with the offset to the Refund Clearing account. When all or a portion of a payment is unapplied, a second option – which could be available to either the staff or self-service user – is to apply the unapplied amount to a subsequent transaction.

Bookkeeping Transactions for Unearned Revenues

No revenue is reported in December for this special order since the company did not perform any work in December. When the special order begins and is completed in January, the company will debit the liability account for $5,000 and will credit a revenue account. In the case of recording a refund check, iMIS will reverse the Unearned Income balance and offset with an entry to Refund Clearing. This is necessary as the Accounts Payable package will record the entry to cash. It is important to use the same Refund Clearing account when recording the payable through the Accounts Payable package. That way the entries to Refund Clearing, the one generated by iMIS and the one used to record the payable or payment issued, will offset and net to zero. When a paid invoice is reversed , then the payment becomes fully or partially unapplied and the unapplied portion of the payment is represented as an unearned income liability.

In order to balance this liability, service revenue is the debit to the balance sheet that matches up with the unearned revenue credit. Under the liability method, you initially enter unearned revenue in your books as a cash account debit and an unearned revenue account credit.