Deferred income: subscriptions, deposits and revenue schedules
Record money billed or received before the work is done as a liability, release it to revenue as it's earned with a schedule, handle cancellations and vouchers, and reconcile the deferred income account every month.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 50 minutes
- Contents
- 3 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 1 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Record an invoice or receipt in advance as deferred income rather than revenue
- Calculate the monthly release and the balance remaining for a contract
- Apply a stated partial-month convention to a contract that starts mid-month
- Distinguish deferred income from accrued income and prepaid expenses
- Record a cancellation with a refund against deferred income
- Reconcile the deferred income account to its schedule and find the error
Course outline
- 1.Deferred income: subscriptions, deposits and revenue schedulesVideo · 2 min
- 2.Billed or paid in advance means owedLesson · 15 min
- 3.Schedules, partial months and changesLesson · 17 min
- 4.Reconciling and reviewing deferred incomeLesson · 16 min
- 5.Deferred income: subscriptions, deposits and revenue schedules: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 18 questions
- 6.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- U.S. SEC: Beginners' Guide to Financial Statements (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement; working capital, debt-to-equity and inventory turnover)
- General bookkeeping practice (journals, ledgers, reconciliations, schedules, review and sign-off)
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