AI agents · finance

The Revenue Recognition Agent

It reads the contract, identifies the performance obligations, proposes an allocation on standalone selling price, and maintains the schedule as modifications arrive. Every judgement is proposed rather than assumed, because step four of ASC 606 is where companies actually go wrong and it is a judgement, not a calculation.

M1M4M7M10Platform subscription$144K over 12mImplementation service$36K over 3mPremium support$24K over 10mTraining credits$12K over 4mOne contract · $216K · four performance obligations · four different curvesallocated on standalone selling price · a mid-term upgrade re-plots this prospectively
Proposes, never assumesModifications handled explicitlyRollforward reconciles itself

What it does

Six jobs, end to end.

Each of these is work a person does today. The agent does them in sequence and stops at the first thing it is not confident about.

Read the contract

Extracts term, value, ramps, renewal options, termination rights, and the deliverables — from the signed document rather than from a summary someone typed into a field.

Identify obligations

Proposes which deliverables are distinct performance obligations and which are bundled, with the reasoning shown. This is the step most spreadsheets skip.

Allocate on SSP

Standalone selling price from observable prices where you sell separately, or a documented estimation method where you do not — never from the contract price by default.

Handle modifications

Upgrades, downgrades, extensions, and cancellations classified as prospective or cumulative catch-up, with the determination and its basis recorded.

Recognise as satisfied

Over time or at a point, on the right measure of progress — approved time for services, elapsed term for subscription, consumption for usage.

Maintain the rollforward

Opening balance, additions, recognition, adjustments, closing — reconciling continuously, with every movement traceable to the contract that caused it.

Authority

Where this agent sits, and who decides.

Level 1 · default

Propose everything

Obligations, allocations, and schedules are prepared with reasoning attached and wait for your controller. This is the permanent default for judgement steps.

Level 2 · optional

Run standard renewals

For contract shapes you have already reviewed many times — a straight annual renewal on an existing template — the run can be automated. Anything novel drops back to Level 1.

Never

Change a closed period

A correction to recognised revenue in a closed period is an adjusting entry a person makes, with the reasoning recorded. It is not something the agent can perform.

The step where it goes wrong is a judgement

Nobody misapplies ASC 606 because they misunderstand the five steps. They misapply it because step two — identifying distinct performance obligations — and step four — allocating on standalone selling price — are laborious, and under time pressure both get approximated toward the contract price.

An agent is genuinely useful there, and precisely because the step is a judgement it must propose rather than decide. What it contributes is that the proposal arrives with the evidence assembled: here are the deliverables, here is why we think three are distinct, here are the observable prices we found for two of them and the estimation method for the third.

The agent is most useful exactly where it is least allowed to decide. It assembles the judgement; your controller makes it.

Modifications are where schedules quietly break

A clean twelve-month contract is straightforward. What breaks a spreadsheet is the upgrade in month five, the downgrade in month eight, and the extension agreed by email in month eleven — each of which requires deciding whether the modification is a separate contract, a prospective change, or a cumulative catch-up.

Those determinations are exactly what a diligence team tests, because they are where a company under pressure is most likely to have been optimistic. Recording the determination and its basis at the time, rather than reconstructing it eighteen months later, is most of what makes a revenue schedule defensible.

What it does not do

It does not decide your accounting policy. Whether a particular implementation service is distinct from the subscription is a position your auditors will have a view on, and it should be set once, deliberately, and applied consistently. The agent applies your policy and flags contracts that do not fit it — which is the useful behaviour, rather than quietly interpreting each one on its own.

Questions

What people ask first.

Does it decide our accounting policy?
No. Policy positions — whether implementation is distinct from subscription, for example — are set by you and your auditors. The agent applies your policy consistently and flags contracts that do not fit it.
How does it derive standalone selling price?
Observable prices where you sell an obligation separately; a documented estimation method where you do not, typically expected cost plus margin or adjusted market assessment. The method is recorded on the contract.
Can it run unattended?
For contract shapes you have reviewed repeatedly — standard annual renewals on an existing template — yes at Level 2. Anything novel drops back to proposing.
What about ASC 340-40 commissions?
Capitalised contract acquisition costs amortised over the period of benefit, from the same contract records. It is the natural companion and the second thing diligence asks about.
Does it support IFRS 15?
Yes, and the treatment is configurable per entity where the two standards diverge, which matters for groups reporting under both.

Find out where 606 breaks.

Send your contract types and a billing export. We will tell you what will not survive review.