Acme Retail Revenue Recognition Policy — FY2026

Owner: VP Finance (jsmith@acme) Effective: 2026-01-01 Next scheduled review: 2026-12-31

Recognition trigger

Revenue is recognized when a customer order reaches order_status = 'delivered' and the return window has closed (delivered date + 30 days). Orders in earlier statuses are backlog, not revenue.

Recognized amount

The recognized amount for an order equals net_amount = gross_amount - discount_amount. Shipping and tax are excluded from revenue per US GAAP (they are pass-through liabilities).

Currency

Multi-currency orders are converted at the daily reference rate published in finance.fx_daily_rates, using the order_ts date. All reporting is in USD.

Refunds and cancellations

Refunds and post-recognition cancellations are booked as contra-revenue in the period of the refund, not by retroactive adjustment to the original recognition period.

Fiscal year

Acme Retail operates on the US calendar year (Jan 1 – Dec 31). All fiscal-year metrics use fiscal_year = EXTRACT(YEAR FROM order_ts).

What this policy authorizes

Any Attested Computation whose sources cites this policy MUST implement the four rules above. Deviations require a policy addendum reviewed by Finance.

Cited by

• tables/orders — order_status, order_ts, and net_amount columns implement the recognition rules
• metrics/revenue — the recognized-revenue definition derives from this policy
• metrics/gross-margin — the revenue side of gross margin follows this policy
• computations/revenue-ytd — the sanctioned SQL implements all four rules
• computations/gross-margin-period — revenue leg uses these recognition rules