Finance & Accounting / Revenue Operations
Bookings vs Billings vs Revenue
Three different moments in one sale, the signature, the invoice, and the earned revenue, routinely confused as one number.
The fork, why two teams get different numbers
Sales calls a signed contract a "booking" and often quotes Total Contract Value; finance's ARR team quotes Annual Contract Value of the same deal; the controller recognizes neither until service is delivered.
In the Metric Library
- The full fork, both definitions worked all the way through
- The trap that makes the number lie, on a real export
- Every formula variant, spelled out
- The reconciliation anchor, what to tie it to and when to refuse
Reference: FASB ASC 606 · AICPA Revenue Recognition Guide (SaaS)