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Revenue waterfall

View and analyse monthly revenue with the waterfall report.

The waterfall report displays information about your monthly revenue. You can select a range to view, and you can specify a month to show recognized revenue up to.

For example, the waterfall below shows the revenue that was billed from April 2020 to May 2020 and monthly recognized revenue up to the end of June 2020:

Revenue waterfall

You can see that 2,000,000 USD in net revenue was booked on April 2020. Out of 2,000,000 USD, 400,000 USD was recognized in May 2020. At the end of June, 1,100,000 USD was recognized, and 900,000 USD wasn’t recognized yet.

Booked revenue

The Booked column in the waterfall report shows the revenue booked by month. The booked revenue of a month is the amount of revenue and deferred revenue booked by invoice line items, invoice items, standalone payments, refunds, disputes, and metered billing usage.

Simple invoice

This example is based on the following assumptions:

  • The invoice and invoice line item finalize on July 14, 2020.
  • The amount of the invoice line item is 31 USD, and its service period is from July 21, 2020 to Aug 20, 2020.

The revenue waterfall would look like this:

**Booked ****Recognized ****As of Sep 2020 **
MonthTotalJun 2020Jul 2020Aug 2020Sep 2020RecognizedRemaining
Jul 202031 USD11 USD20 USD31 USD0 USD

Negative recognized revenue

In the revenue waterfall, the recognized revenue can be negative due to refunds, disputes, invoices marked as uncollectible, and voided invoices.

This example is based on the following assumptions:

  • The invoice and invoice line item finalize on July 14, 2020.
  • The amount of the invoice line item is 31 USD, and its service period is from July 21, 2020 to Aug 20, 2020.
  • The invoice is voided on September 12, 2020.

The booked revenue for July 2020 would net at 31 USD, and the booked revenue for Sep 2020 would be net -31 USD, as shown in the following revenue waterfall:

**Booked ****Recognized ****As of Sep 2020 **
MonthTotalJun 2020Jul 2020Aug 2020Sep 2020RecognizedRemaining
Jul 202031 USD11 USD20 USD0 USD0 USD
Aug 20200 USD0 USD0 USD
Sep 2020-31 USD-31 USD0 USD0 USD

Revenue does not include taxes

The total amount of the invoice doesn’t necessarily equal the booked revenue because of taxes.

This example is based on the following assumptions:

  • The invoice and invoice line item finalize on July 14, 2020
  • The invoice line item’s amount is 35 USD, and its service period is from July 21, 2020 to Aug 20, 2020
  • The invoice line item’s tax is 4 USD (inclusively)

Even though the invoice’s total amount is 35 USD, the billed revenue would be 31 USD because the tax is 4 USD, as shown in the following revenue waterfall:

**Booked ****Recognized ****As of Sep 2020 **
MonthTotalJune 2020July 2020Aug 2020Sep 2020RecognizedRemaining
Jul 202031 USD11 USD20 USD31 USD0 USD

The invoice’s due amount is not revenue

The amount due for the invoice doesn’t necessarily equal the revenue because an invoice can be paid with the customer balance.

This example is based on the following assumptions:

  • The invoice and invoice line item finalize on July 14, 2020.
  • The amount of the invoice line item is 31 USD, and its service period is from July 21, 2020 to Aug 20, 2020.
  • The invoice is partially paid by customer balance for 10 USD.

Even though the amount due for the invoice is 21 USD, the revenue would still be 31 USD, as shown in the following revenue waterfall:

**Booked ****Recognized ****As of Sep 2020 **
MonthTotalJun 2020Jul 2020Aug 2020Sep 2020RecognizedRemaining
Jul 202031 USD11 USD20 USD31 USD0 USD

Invoice item

Invoice items are created automatically during upgrade and downgrade to represent the unused time of the previous plan and the remaining time of the new plan. You can also create invoice items manually.

Booked revenue includes the revenue of an invoice item in the month that the invoice item first appears.

This example is based on the following assumptions:

  • The invoice item is created on May 14, 2020.
  • The amount of the invoice item is 31 USD, and its service period is from May 14, 2020 to June 13, 2020.
**Booked ****Recognized ****As of Sep 2020 **
MonthTotalApr 2020May 2020Jun 2020Jul 2020RecognizedRemaining
May 202031 USD18 USD13 USD31 USD0 USD

To continue with this example, say you create an invoice on Jun 19, 2020, roll the above invoice item to the invoice, and create one more line item with the following assumptions:

  • The amount of the invoice line item is 62 USD.
  • The service period for the invoice line item is from Jun 21, 2020 to Jul 20, 2020.

The invoice contains two invoice line items. One is the invoice item created in May. The other is the invoice line item created on June 19, 2020. The total amount of the invoice is 93 USD.

The revenue waterfall would look like this:

**Booked ****Recognized ****As of Sep 2020 **
MonthTotalApr 2020May 2020Jun 2020Jul 2020RecognizedRemaining
May 202031 USD18 USD13 USD31 USD0 USD
Jun 202062 USD22 USD40 USD62 USD0 USD

Metered billing

This example uses the following assumptions:

  • 1 unit costs 10 USD.
  • 3 units are recorded in June 2020.
  • 2 units are recorded in July 2020.
  • An invoice finalizes on July 15, 2020, to invoice 5 units.

The revenue waterfall would look like this:

**Booked ****Recognized ****As of Sep 2020 **
MonthTotalJun 2020Jul 2020RecognizedRemaining
Jun 202030 USD30 USD30 USD0 USD
Jul 202020 USD20 USD20 USD0 USD

Replication in Sigma

To replicate the revenue waterfall report in Sigma, use the revenue_recognition_debits_and_credits table.

This query generates waterfall numbers for revenue booked from Nov 2022 to Nov 2023, and recognised up to Nov 2024. Feel free to adjust the dates to your desired time frame.

Note

If you’re using our chart of accounts beta feature, be sure to update the unbilled_ar_accounts mapping in the query below to reflect the accounts in your general ledger.

select "billing_period", "currency", "total", "2022-11-01", "2022-12-01", "2023-01-01", "2023-02-01", "2023-03-01", "2023-04-01", "2023-05-01", "2023-06-01", "2023-07-01", "2023-08-01", "2023-09-01", "2023-10-01", "2023-11-01", "2023-12-01", "2024-01-01", "2024-02-01", "2024-03-01", "2024-04-01", "2024-05-01", "2024-06-01", "2024-07-01", "2024-08-01", "2024-09-01", "2024-10-01", "2024-11-01", "deferred", "future_billings"
from (
  with unbilled_ar_accounts as (
    values 'UnbilledAccountsReceivable'
  )

  , formatted_changes as (
    select
      booked_date,
      date_format(accounting_period_date, '%Y-%m-%d') as accounting_period,
      debit,
      credit,
    	debit_account_type,
    	credit_account_type,
      currency,
      if(lower(currency) in ('bif', 'clp', 'djf', 'gnf', 'jpy', 'kmf', 'krw', 'mga', 'pyg', 'rwf', 'vnd', 'vuv', 'xaf', 'xof', 'xpf'), cast(amount as decimal(18, 0)), cast(0.01 * amount as decimal(18, 2))) as decimalized_settlement_amount,
      case when debit in (select * from unbilled_ar_accounts) OR credit in (select * from unbilled_ar_accounts) then true else false end AS is_unbilled
    from revenue_recognition_debits_and_credits
  )

  , raw_net_changes as (
    select
      debit as account,
      debit_account_type as account_type,
      decimalized_settlement_amount as raw_net_change,
      *
    from formatted_changes
    union all
    select
      credit as account,
      credit_account_type as account_type,
      -decimalized_settlement_amount as raw_net_change,
      *
    from formatted_changes
  )

  , net_changes as (
    select
      (case when account_type in ('Assets', 'ContraRevenue', 'Expenses', 'Losses')
      	then raw_net_change else -raw_net_change end) as net_change,
      *
    from raw_net_changes
  )

  , waterfall_entries as (
    select
      account,
      currency,
      date_trunc('month', booked_date) as billing_period,
      accounting_period,
      is_unbilled,
      (net_change * (case when account_type = 'Revenue' then 1 else -1 end)) as net_change
    from net_changes
    where account_type in ('Revenue', 'ContraRevenue')
  )

  select
    currency,
    billing_period,
    sum(net_change) as total,
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2022-11-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2022-11-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2022-12-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2022-12-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-01-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-01-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-02-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-02-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-03-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-03-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-04-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-04-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-05-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-05-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-06-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-06-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-07-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-07-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-08-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-08-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-09-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-09-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-10-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-10-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-11-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-11-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2023-12-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2023-12-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-01-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-01-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-02-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-02-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-03-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-03-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-04-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-04-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-05-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-05-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-06-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-06-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-07-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-07-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-08-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-08-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-09-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-09-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-10-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-10-01",
      nullif(sum(case when accounting_period = '2024-11-01' then net_change else 0 end), 0) as "2024-11-01",
    sum(case when accounting_period >= '2024-12-01' and is_unbilled = false then net_change else 0 end) as deferred,
    sum(case when accounting_period >= '2024-12-01' and is_unbilled = true then net_change else 0 end) as future_billings

  from waterfall_entries
  where
    net_change != 0
    and billing_period >= timestamp '2022-11-01 00:00:00'
    and billing_period < timestamp '2023-12-01 00:00:00'
  group by currency, billing_period
  order by currency asc, billing_period asc
)
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