Deferred Revenue

Finance & POS

What it does

When a member pays for a membership up front, you've taken the cash but you haven't earned it yet — the membership is unearned until the member uses the time. Deferred Revenue handles this correctly for your accounts: instead of booking the whole payment as revenue on day one, Memvera recognises it gradually across the contract term. A 12-month plan recognises roughly 1/12 each month. A daily job does the work automatically, freezes pause and extend the schedule, and a Deferred Revenue report shows what's been earned versus what's still owed as service. This is mainly for finance and managers.

Key concepts

• Unearned (deferred) revenue — money received for membership time the member hasn't used yet. It's a liability until earned.
• Recognition — moving a slice of that payment from deferred to earned revenue as time passes.
• Recognition schedule — the per-contract plan of how much is recognised in each period (e.g. each month of a 12-month term).
• Amortisation job — a daily process that recognises the due portion across all active contracts automatically.
• Joining fee split — the one-time joining fee is handled separately from the membership term so it isn't spread across the year incorrectly.
• Freeze pause/extend — when a membership is frozen, recognition pauses and the schedule extends, so revenue tracks the actual service period.

Main tasks

Understand how recognition works

1. A member buys, say, a 12-month plan and pays in full.
2. Memvera builds a recognition schedule for that contract — one slice per period.
3. Each day the amortisation job moves the earned portion from deferred to recognised revenue.
4. The joining fee is split out and recognised on its own rule, not spread across the term.

Read the Deferred Revenue report

1. Go to Reports → Deferred Revenue.
2. Pick the period you want to view.
3. Read the recognised balance (earned in/up to the period) against the deferred balance (still owed as future service).
4. Use it to reconcile against your ledger and report earned revenue accurately.

How freezes affect recognition

1. When a member freezes, recognition pauses for the frozen days.
2. The contract end date and the recognition schedule both extend by those days.
3. Revenue resumes recognising when the membership reactivates — so it always matches the real service delivered.

Tips

INFO

Recognised revenue is what you've actually earned; deferred revenue is cash you hold but still owe as future gym access. The report should reconcile to your accounting ledger each period.

TIP

Don't book a full membership payment as revenue on the sale date. Let the amortisation job spread it — that's what keeps month-to-month revenue accurate and audit-ready.

Related modules

Finance & Payments · Reporting · Membership Management · Cashier / POS