Understanding Deferred Revenue vs Accrued Expense

Deferrals occur when the exchange of cash precedes the delivery of goods and services. When the University is the provider of the service, we recognize a liability entitled Deferred Revenue. Then, in the subsequent fiscal year, we relieve the liability and recognize the revenue as the services are provided.

• Deferral adjustments are influenced by estimates of future events and accrual adjustments are not.
• Typically, the Accounts Payable team enters a comment in Smart Source to alert General Accounting to a prepaid deferral situation.
• Accounts Payable will enter invoices and travel and business expense reimbursements in current period of new fiscal year with an invoice date of June 30, 2023, or prior.
• The expense recognition principle is a best practice that must be observed when utilizing accrual-based accounting as a publicly traded company or for the purpose of attracting investors.
• Twenty days into the subscription period, the agency realizes that they need two more users to access the software.
• Accrued revenue is a payment owed to a company for a product or service that is recognized on an income statement but has not yet been received.
• This makes the process of logging accruals and deferrals much less time-consuming and less prone to human error.

On the other hand, deferrals refer to the payment of an expense incurred during a certain reporting period but are reported in another reporting period. So, when you’re prepaying insurance, for example, it’s typically recognized on the balance sheet as a current asset and then the expense is deferred. The amount of the asset is typically adjusted monthly by the amount of the expense. Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) require businesses to recognize revenue when it’s earned and expenses as they’re incurred. Often, however, the timing of a payment may differ from when it’s received or an expense is made, so accrual and deferral methods are used to adhere to accounting principles. Recording accrued revenue as a part of accrual accounting can help a business be agile by anticipating expenses and revenues in real-time.

Summary of Accruals vs. Deferrals

For instance, 6 months’ rent paid upfront is reported in a deferred expense account and spread out over the six month period. Deferred revenue is most common among companies selling subscription-based products or services that require prepayments. However, the cash statement also has its importance as it tells about the ability of the company to generate cash in the business. Here are some of the key differences between accrual and deferral methods of accounting. However, a high Accrued Revenue signifies that the business is not getting payments for its services and can be alarming from a cash-flow perspective. Accruals/Deferrals should not be processed for interdepartmental billings (any goods/service charged through an IB document or feed) or intercampus (IOC) transactions.

It can also help monitor the profitability of the business and identify potential problems well in advance. When the payment is made, it is recorded as an adjusting entry to the asset account for accrued revenue. Department administrators must send to General Accounting any expense accruals for good received or services provided during FY23 that they know will not be invoiced prior to August 12, 2023. The posting of accruals by General Accounting for goods and services without invoices will be subject to the dollar thresholds outlined below. A journal entry should be submitted via Journal Entry Workflow 3.0 for the FY 2023 accrual using a June 30, 2023 date. A corresponding reversing entry should also be submitted using a date of July 1, 2023 or later (i.e. a date in FY24) and referencing the original journal workflow entry number in the document reference field.

Accrual and Deferral Process and Timeline

Accrued revenue refers to goods or services you provided to the customer, but for which you have not yet received payment. Most of the time, accountants will list this revenue with “accounts receivable” on their balance sheet at the time https://www.bookstime.com/articles/cash-flow-statement of the transaction. This can be (and often is) done before cash payment has been received, and usually before an invoice has been raised. Used when goods or services are received this fiscal year and will be paid for next fiscal year.

• Do not accrue for interdepartmental billings (any goods/service charged through an IB document or feed).
• Invoices that require an accrual are identified by Disbursement Services when the invoices are processed for payment.
• Accounts payable is where incurred expenses should be logged on a balance sheet before the debt has been officially paid out.
• In some cases, customers may pay before the unit provides a good or service for them; however, revenue should only be recorded in period when it is earned.

Departments should not submit accruals for transactions that have corresponding invoices being processed by Accounts Payable during the period of July 8 through August 12, 2023. If a department does not see an accrual within 5 business days for an item that they know they have received in FY23 on their FOAPAL/fund, please contact and ask to have a member of the General Accounting staff review the transactions. Please allow 5 business days for an accrual to be processed after it hits your account in the new fiscal year.

What is Deferral?

The Ramp team is comprised of subject matter experts who are dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes work smarter and faster. Charlene Rhinehart is a CPA , CFE, chair of an Illinois CPA Society committee, and has a degree in accounting and finance from DePaul University.

If expenditure falls below the thresholds for the respective entities, it will be fully expensed when paid. Establishing strong processes around financial reporting and expense management is incredibly important for all businesses but is often particularly critical for small businesses and startups. Here are just three ways that integrating accruals and deferrals accruals and deferrals into the accounting process can help smaller organizations gain momentum and become more adept at financial planning and analysis. In the above example of an insurance policy, each monthly payment would be entered as an accrued expense and recorded as cash “credited” to the insurance provider on the balance sheet.