Managing Recognition for Packages

In many industries, selling multiple products and services as packages—or multiple-deliverable arrangements (MDAs)—is a common practice. For some time, however, the recognition of revenue resulting from such sales posed an accounting problem. A package has a single price and multiple components (deliverables) included, which are often delivered at different times but not necessarily at the time of the sale; for example, a package might include a cell phone, its activation, and a one-year service plan. Moreover, it might be permissible to return some components, but not others.

Different countries have different regulations about how to divide an MDA into separate units of accounting and how to allocate revenue to these units. This chapter provides information on how you can configure and process the packages in MYOB Advanced.