A Revenue Manager’s Wish List

Revenue manager increases operational efficiency through automation of complex revenue processes at a large public company

Talk about pressure and expectations! When you are the revenue manager at a $1B publicly-traded hardware and software company, and trying to get more with fewer resources. It has been a roller coaster for Suzie for over ten years in revenue accounting, first as an individual and then as a manager of five accountants after a promotion. Long working hours and weekends have been common to ‘get everything done.’  The same is true with many managers like her.

Organizations like Suzie’s process a very large number of revenue transactions everyday requiring manual linking of contracts, revenue allocations, and preparation of manual revenue waterfall schedules. To help handle the workload as they transitioned to ASC 606, they had Big Four technical accounting and consulting resources on-site.

Challenges in Manual Revenue Recognition

Any company in a similar situation wants to improve efficiency, mainly by cutting costs of resources while achieving the same quality of results or better. Management also requested a phase out of expensive resources within a year and wants increased productivity of her team along with better focus on high value tasks and strategies. Suzie did what every wise Revenue Manager would and should do: She began to explore revenue process automation. She attended talks, seminars, conferences, workshops and connected with professionals in a similar situation. It didn’t take much time before realizing that revenue automation was the way forward. The benefits after the implementation would bring her efficiency and better performance from the entire department.

Benefits for All Parties

Companies who automate their revenue processes consistently produce financial statements that are more accurate, ensuring that the business faces fewer issues with compliance or taxation. Forecasting the future of your company is much easier with the help of revenue automation software tools to create ASC 606 compliant financial records. Automation with the help of a trusted, ISO certified software makes the CFO’s work easier, more consistent, improves efficiency and brings better information for strategic decisions.

“By 2022, 70% of mid-to-large enterprise businesses will be using an automated revenue management solution to support complex billing and revenue recognition compliance.” – Gartner

Finding a Solution

Suzie then presented the case to her senior managers outlining the challenges her team faces due to changing accounting standards, including:

  • Inefficiency of manual processes and potential risk of errors
  • Manual recalculation of revenue
  • Calculating standalone selling price all the company’s products and services
  • Unbundling performance obligations for proper manual revenue allocation
  • Managing deferred revenue for different types of products and services sold.

The world of revenue recognition has many such stories.

Every story is filled with challenges faced by companies around the world trying to manage revenue manually. Leaders share major pain areas: Data consolidation from multiple sources, Manual SSP calculations, Allocations, Manual quarterly analyses, Tracking and reconciliation of revenue from various sources and recreating revenue calculations for audit trail.

What Made Suzie Turn to Zuora RevPro?

There was no turning back or looking around anymore, RevPro seem to check all the boxes for Suzie’s team and their challenges. They decided to purchase and implement the industry leading :and ISO certified software which promised to bring

  • Automation of contract modifications
  • SSP analysis and allocation
  • Variable consideration accounting
  • Improved visibility into revenue position

Revenue automation means more bandwidth for Suzie to focus on cross-functional issues such as revenue policies and contracts. Period-end closing time dropped from seven to four days and all this without adding any extra full-time staff, ensuring that every single team member is efficiently and effectively able to contribute to the team’s overall mission.

“RevPro is the top ranked solution for Revenue Recognition – and is the leader when it comes to ASC 606 projects, which matters most”. – MGI Research

To learn more about Suzie and two other stories of revenue automation, download our new ebook: A Tale of three cities: life after revenue automation.

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