Unified Revenue View

One deal, four numbers

Illustrative. Fictional companies, made-up numbers, and relative dates (Y0 is the signing year, Y1 the first service year).

We build this view for teams whose four numbers live in four systems, so we've walked one deal through its year, because the numbers only make sense once you can see which event moved which one and why they disagree on a given date.

Booked: what the signed contract says
Billed: what's been invoiced
Earned: what the work so far has earned, month by month
Collected: what's been paid

Same customer, four weights

Step on four bathroom scales and you'll get four different numbers for the same body, and each scale is right about what it measures. Loomwell's customer, Pellham & Ward, reads 147,000 booked, 147,000 billed, 97,000 earned and 132,000 collected today, and the question is which one goes to the board.

Readings Booked 147,000 / Billed 147,000 / Earned 97,000 / Collected 132,000

Where it lives today Sales has it in the CRM, billing in the billing tool, finance in the accounting system, and AR in a spreadsheet.

Question nobody can answer What is Pellham & Ward worth, and which number goes to the board?

Signed, and only one number moves

Booked goes to 132,000, the 120,000 subscription plus 12,000 onboarding, because that's what the contract says they bought. Nothing has been invoiced, delivered or paid yet, so the other three sit at zero, which is the right answer for a signature.

Readings Booked 132,000 / Billed 0 / Earned 0 / Collected 0

Where it lives today A signed PDF in the e-signature tool, and a deal marked signed in the CRM.

Question nobody can answer What exactly did they buy, on what terms, and starting when?

Paid in December, earned later

The 132,000 was invoiced on 15 Dec and paid on 30 Dec, so billed and collected both jump. Service doesn't start until 1 Feb, though, so earned stays at zero and the money is in the bank but the work it pays for hasn't been done yet.

Readings Booked 132,000 / Billed 132,000 / Earned 0 / Collected 132,000

Where it lives today Finance sees it in the accounting system. Sales sees nothing.

Question nobody can answer Is the 132,000 in the bank revenue? (It isn't yet.)

February is when earning starts

One month of subscription (10,000) plus onboarding (12,000, finished 28 Feb) puts earned at 22,000, and the other three don't move. Here onboarding counts as earned when it's done, and a client's auditor may treat it differently.

Readings Booked 132,000 / Billed 132,000 / Earned 22,000 / Collected 132,000

Where it lives today The start date sits in onboarding's project tool, and onboarding's completion in a customer success spreadsheet.

Question nobody can answer When did the clock start, and is onboarding done?

25 more seats, mid-term

Booked and billed each go up 15,000 the same day, which is 25 seats for the six months left on the contract. Earned waits for August and collected waits for the invoice, which is net 30.

Change quotes update recurring lines only, so the 12,000 onboarding line stays frozen after signature, and a new one-time fee would need its own quote.

Readings Booked 147,000 / Billed 147,000 / Earned 72,000 / Collected 132,000

Where it lives today Sales emails a new order form, finance re-keys it into billing, and someone prorates it in a spreadsheet.

Question nobody can answer Do the new seats end when the contract ends?

Renewed, and year one closes clean

Booked and billed each go up 150,000 for 125 seats, and year one finishes with earned and collected both at 147,000. Year two hasn't started earning and hasn't been paid yet (invoiced 15 Jan, due 14 Feb).

Readings Booked 297,000 / Billed 297,000 / Earned 147,000 / Collected 147,000

Where it lives today The renewal date is in a customer success spreadsheet, and the price is in last year's PDF.

Question nobody can answer Who renews, at what price, and before which date?

Billed, with nothing signed underneath

If the billing tool renews on its own, it invoices 150,000 and billed reads 297,000 against 147,000 booked, likely because someone at Loomwell once switched on auto-renew so renewals wouldn't slip. The CRM still shows a contract that ended, and earned and collected are the same as in the last stop.

Readings Booked 147,000 / Billed 297,000 / Earned 147,000 / Collected 147,000

Where it lives today The billing tool renewed it. The CRM shows the contract ended.

Question nobody can answer Did they renew, or did Loomwell just bill them?

Same numbers, and every gap has an owner

The four still disagree, and they're allowed to, since each measures something different. What we change is where they sit, which is on one record: booked on the contract, billed and collected on its invoices, and earned with finance, worked out from the contract's dates. That lets us see where the money is and why it's stuck, and each gap has an owner: sales owns booked against billed, AR owns the 15,000, and finance owns the 35,000 held for work not yet done and the 50,000 still to deliver.