Revenue Recognition with one-time payments
Manage revenue recognition for one-time payments by importing custom service periods.
Unless stated otherwise, these one-time payment examples assume that revenue recognition takes place on a per-day basis.
One-time Payments through the Dashboard, Charges API, or PaymentIntents API
One-time payments created in the Dashboard or through the Charges or Payment Intents APIs include the transaction amount and payment time, but no explicit service period data. By default, Stripe Revenue Recognition immediately recognizes the revenue from one-time payments, but you can override this behavior by importing a custom service period.
The following example shows the journal entries generated by a one-time payment for an item that costs 10 USD.
| Debit | Credit | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| AccountsReceivable | DeferredRevenue | +10.00 |
| Cash | AccountsReceivable | +10.00 |
| DeferredRevenue | Revenue | +10.00 |
This nets out to leave the following end state:
| Account | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cash | +10.00 |
| Revenue | +10.00 |
Caution
To incorporate a fulfillment schedule into your revenue recognition reports, you must first import the data.
One-time Payments through Checkout
For one-time payments made through Checkout, we support calculating tax starting May 1, 2025.
Payment with Tax
The following example shows the journal entries generated by a one-time payment for an item that costs 31 USD, with an inclusive tax rate of 10%. The total amount due is 31 USD.
| Debit | Credit | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| AccountsReceivable | DeferredRevenue | +27.90 |
| AccountsReceivable | TaxLiability | +3.10 |
| Cash | AccountsReceivable | +31.00 |
| DeferredRevenue | Revenue | +27.90 |
For more details and examples of how revenue recognition handles payments with tax, review the Tax examples page.