Help Center / Accounts Receivable

Revenue Schedules and Deferred Revenue

Light spreads revenue across multiple periods using release templates (also called amortization templates). For deferred revenue, you apply a release template to a sales invoice line or to a contract line, with a start and end date. Light then generates the periodic recognition entries automatically.

How Deferred Revenue Works in Light

Deferred revenue is driven by release templates of type AR (sales invoices) or CONTRACT (revenue contracts):

  1. Set up a release template once (defines method, contra account, default duration)
  2. Apply it to a sales invoice line or a contract line, with a start and end date
  3. When the document is posted, Light generates the full schedule of monthly recognition entries automatically

There is no separate "Revenue schedules" page — the configuration lives on the document line.

Setting Up a Release Template

Navigate via Settings (gear icon) → Releases templates, then create a template with:

  • Type: Accounts receivables (for AR invoices) or Revenue contract (for contracts)
  • Method: Straight line with partial adjustment (the only method available for AR/Contract types)
  • Contra account: the deferred revenue balance sheet account
  • Contract Asset Account (Revenue contract only)
  • Default Duration (months): pre-fills the duration when applied
  • Context and Accumulate past amounts as needed

See Deferred entries for full template details.

Applying a Schedule on a Sales Invoice

On a sales invoice line, click the Accrual template field. A popover opens with:

  • Start date and End date date pickers
  • Accrual template selector

Click Add accrual to apply, or Update accrual to modify an existing schedule. Remove removes the accrual entirely.

Applying a Schedule on a Contract

Open a contract and apply the release template on each line in the Lines tab using the same start/end + template flow.

Renewing Contracts with Revenue Recognition

When you renew a contract that has accrual templates configured on its lines, Light automatically:

  • Extends the accrual end dates on contract lines that were tied to the original contract end date, matching them to the new end date
  • Creates a new deferred entry for the renewal period that spreads the additional revenue uniformly across the extended term

This keeps your revenue recognition rate consistent across the original term and the renewal period. If your contract lines' accrual end dates were not tied to the contract end date (e.g., they ended earlier), those schedules remain unchanged.

Viewing Generated Releases

Once the document is posted and the schedule is active, generated entries appear under Accounting → Releases (when the Releases module is enabled for your plan).

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