How do I recognize revenue on a prepaid services fund that customers draw down over time?

When a contract includes a prepaid fund that the customer draws on unevenly, use Projects to recognize the fund's revenue as services are delivered, while invoices stay on their fixed schedule.

Important: Projects is an add-on. To enable it for your account, contact Maxio Support.

Scenario

“Our customer pays a fixed amount every quarter. Part of it is a platform fee, and part is a prepaid fund they draw on for services whenever they need them. How do we recognize the fund only as the work is delivered, while keeping the invoices fixed?”

Why invoicing and revenue follow different schedules

Invoicing records what the customer owes you. Revenue records what you've earned. Money invoiced for a prepaid fund isn't earned until the work is done, and draws on the fund happen whenever the customer requests services.

Recognize each part on its own schedule

Each part of the contract uses its own recognition method:

• Platform fee: use standard ratable recognition, so revenue is earned evenly across the term.
• Services fund: use Projects. A Project groups transactions with a list of milestones. Marking a milestone complete triggers actions such as recognizing revenue or creating an invoice, so revenue follows real events instead of fixed dates.

Services that are ordered in advance but delivered and recognized as needed are one of the core scenarios Projects is built for.

Workarounds to avoid

Avoid these workarounds:

• A “No Revenue” fund transaction with separate draw transactions. Each draw adds new contract value instead of drawing down the original fund, which leaves the fund out of balance.
• Manually editing the fund's revenue schedule after each draw. Maxio calculates and preserves revenue schedules so reports stay reliable. Repeated manual edits make reconciliation and audit support harder.

If you don't use projects

You can restructure the fund so it uses one of Maxio's standard recognition methods, with guidance from your accounting team, or track that portion of revenue outside Maxio. The platform fee can still be handled in Maxio with ratable recognition.