What is the purpose of a revenue recognition event, and in what cases would it be necessary to use one?

AI generated answer (using internal Slack threads):

The purpose of a revenue recognition event in NetSuite is to determine when and how revenue should be recognized for a particular item or transaction. This is particularly important for businesses that have complex revenue recognition requirements, such as those that sell subscriptions, deliver services over time, or have performance obligations that are fulfilled at different times. Revenue recognition events are necessary in cases where the standard revenue recognition rules (such as recognizing revenue upon billing or fulfillment) do not accurately reflect the economic reality of the transaction. For example, if a company sells tickets to a series of events, they may want to recognize revenue on the actual event dates, rather than when the tickets are sold. This would require setting up a custom revenue recognition plan that recognizes revenue on the specified dates. Another example is a company that sells hardware products and recognizes revenue only when the goods are received by their customers. In this case, a custom revenue recognition event could be set up to recognize revenue upon receipt of goods by the customer. Custom Revenue Triggers are available in NetSuite to handle such scenarios. These triggers can be set up for specific events like "Customer Received" and can be created manually or through scripting if there's a large volume of transactions. Remember, the goal of revenue recognition is to match revenue with the expenses incurred to generate that revenue, providing a more accurate picture of a company's financial performance. ****** Disclaimer: This response was generated by an artificial intelligence assistant based on previous conversations from multiple Slack channels, and may contain inaccuracies or mistakes. ******