Revenue Recognition with one-time payments
Manage revenue recognition for one-time payments by importing custom service periods.
Unless stated otherwise, these one-off payment examples assume that revenue recognition takes place on a per-day basis.
One-off Payments through the Dashboard, Charges API, or PaymentIntents API
One-off 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 recognises the revenue from one-off payments, but you can override this behaviour by importing a custom service period.
The following example shows the journal entries generated by a one-off 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 fulfilment schedule into your Revenue Recognition reports, you must first import the data.
One-off Payments through Checkout
For one-off payments made through Checkout, we support calculating tax starting 1 May 2025.
Payment with Tax
The following example shows the journal entries generated by a one-off 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.