Recognize revenue from metered and usage billing data

Steps

1. Ingest raw usage events from your metering system (API or message queue), including customer_id, product_id, usage_quantity, usage_timestamp, and unit_price or rate_schedule reference.
2. Apply the rate schedule to each event to compute the billable amount; aggregate events by customer, product, and billing period to produce a usage summary matching what the billing system will invoice.
3. Determine the revenue recognition timing: for usage-based arrangements, ASC 606-10-55-18 permits recognizing revenue in the amount billed if the billed amount corresponds directly to the value delivered; document this election in your revenue recognition policy.
4. Write a recognition journal entry at the end of each billing period (or upon invoice generation): debit accounts receivable or unbilled revenue, credit revenue, for the aggregated usage amount per customer per product.
5. For partially delivered periods (e.g., month-end cut-off with usage not yet billed), accrue unbilled revenue by computing usage through the period-end date and posting to an unbilled AR account, reversing at the start of the next period.
6. Reconcile recognized revenue against the metering system's total event quantity multiplied by rate for each period to detect rating engine discrepancies before they reach the GL.