How to Migrate Existing Revenue Recognition Schedules into NetSuite

While NetSuite's Advanced Revenue Management (ARM) is the general best practice for ongoing revenue recognition, using a journal entry can be a valid approach for migrating existing revenue recognition schedules into NetSuite and triggering revenue arrangements and plans. This process establishes the deferred revenue balance, which has a GL impact, and allows for the creation of revenue recognition schedules based on the amount remaining to be recognized.

1. Create a Journal Entry with the following structure:

Account Name Schedule RR Start Date RR End Date AmountDR Def Revenue Customer A 300CR Revenue Customer A SL - Trans 7/1/2012 8/15/2012 300DR Def Revenue Customer B 200CR Revenue Customer B SL - Trans 7/1/2012 12/14/2012 200

Amount: This represents the amount remaining to be recognized.Schedule: This field is used to populate the Revenue Recognition template.RR Start Date: This should correspond to the NetSuite go-live date for revenue recognition.RR End Date: This is the intended end date for the revenue recognition, typically the end of the contract period.The journal entry posts as entered, establishing the deferred revenue balance. The specified Revenue Recognition template then triggers NetSuite to generate subsequent recognition entries according to the defined schedule.

1. Configure the Revenue account to have the appropriate Deferral Account, similar to how Amortization Schedules are set up.This process can be tested manually to understand the mechanics and can also be executed efficiently via CSV import for larger data sets.