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Prompt repository Finance & accounting

Build a revenue recognition schedule for a contract

You signed a contract with several deliverables or a multi-year term and need to know how much revenue to recognize each month, with the judgments marked for review.

Registry no.
FIN-043
Collection
Finance & accounting
Laid out for
GPT
Score
10 out of 10
Blanks to fill
5
Added

Finance & accountingGPT

The prompt

Score 10 of 10, Excellent

Use it when You signed a contract with several deliverables or a multi-year term and need to know how much revenue to recognize each month, with the judgments marked for review.

  • {{framework}}
  • {{reviewer}}
  • {{contract_terms}}
  • {{ssp}}
  • {{policies}}
Full prompt and why it works
Prompt
# Role
You help accountants prepare revenue recognition schedules. You work from the contract terms and our accounting policies, show every allocation and calculation, and mark the judgments for the reviewer instead of making them silently.

# Goal
Build a revenue recognition schedule for the contract below under {{framework}}, for {{reviewer}} to review, so that each month's revenue and deferred revenue can be booked and traced back to the contract. A good schedule lets the reviewer trace every monthly figure to a clause and a price.

# Method
Follow the five-step model that {{framework}} uses, as our policies apply it:
1. The contract and its term.
2. Performance obligations: each promised good or service, and whether it is distinct, citing the clause.
3. Transaction price: fixed amounts, plus variable amounts only as our policies treat them.
4. Allocation: allocated price = transaction price x (standalone selling price of the obligation / total of the standalone selling prices).
5. Timing: over time, with the measure of progress (such as straight-line by month), or at a point in time, with the event.

# Output
1. Performance obligations: a table with the columns Obligation, Clause, Distinct? and why, Over time or point in time, Measure of progress.
2. Allocation: a table with the columns Obligation, Standalone selling price, Source of that price, Share %, Allocated price, with the formula shown for one row.
3. Monthly schedule: a table with one row per month and the columns Month, revenue for each obligation, Total recognized, Cumulative recognized, Billed in month, Cumulative billed, Deferred revenue or contract asset (cumulative billed - cumulative recognized).
4. Checks: total recognized equals the transaction price, and total billed equals the contract's billing terms.
5. Judgments for review, numbered, each with the options and the effect on the schedule.

For example, one allocation row: "Implementation | 30,000 | our price list | 20% | 120,000 x 20% = 24,000". That example shows the form only.

# Constraints
- Use only the contract terms, our policies and the standalone selling prices given. Do not estimate a standalone selling price; mark it [SSP NEEDED] and leave that allocation open.
- Do not decide whether a promise is distinct, whether a variable amount is included, or whether there is a financing component when the material does not settle it. Mark it [JUDGMENT: ...] and build the schedule on the reading our policies point to.
- For part months, use the convention in our policies; if there is none, use whole months from the start date and label it as an assumption.
- Keep the commentary under 400 words, not counting the tables.

# Stop rules
If the contract has been modified, or the material does not give the start date or the term, stop and ask, because the schedule depends on both.

# Material
Contract terms (deliverables, prices, billing schedule, term, renewal, acceptance, termination):
"""
{{contract_terms}}
"""
Standalone selling prices and their sources: {{ssp}}
Our revenue policies: {{policies}}

Variables

{{framework}}
Your reporting framework, for example "US GAAP (ASC 606)" or "IFRS 15".
{{reviewer}}
Who reviews the schedule, for example "the controller" or "our auditors".
{{contract_terms}}
The contract's deliverables, prices, billing schedule, term and any acceptance or termination terms, copied with clause numbers.
{{ssp}}
The standalone selling price of each deliverable and where it comes from, for example "price list" or "recent sales". Write "not set" if you do not have them.
{{policies}}
Your revenue recognition policies, for example how you treat setup fees, part months and usage-based fees.

Why it works

  • If unsure. Missing standalone selling prices and unsettled judgments are marked in the schedule, so the reviewer decides them instead of the model.
  • Format. A monthly table sets cumulative revenue beside cumulative billing, with the deferred balance between them, which gives the entries to book and shows that they tie out.
  • What good looks like. Two checks prove the schedule recognizes exactly the transaction price and bills exactly what the contract says.

How to use it

  1. Press Fill in blanks and type your details into each blank. What you type stays in this browser.
  2. Copy the filled prompt into the AI tool you already use, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, or open it in the Grader or the Prompt Tester here.
  3. Before you rely on it, try it on three or four real examples. The Prompt Tester runs them all at once and shows which ones go wrong.
Use it from code

Get this prompt as JSON from the free REST API, with your own text in the blanks, or let an AI assistant fetch it through the MCP server. No key.

curl -s https://thinkhard.si/api/v1/prompts/revenue-recognition-schedule

With the MCP server added to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code, call get_prompt with {"prompt": "revenue-recognition-schedule"}, or just ask for it by name.