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Service revenue
Want to understand how much service revenue your company generates? Here’s how (and why) to track service revenue as a SaaS company.

Service revenue

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Calculating service revenue is a crucial aspect for any organization that provides services, especially SaaS companies.

It’s a metric that calculates the income an organization generates from the services it provides to its customers.

By calculating service revenue, you can determine the amount of money generated by your services and how this contributes to your company’s overall revenue. This insight can help in making informed decisions about your pricing strategy, marketing efforts, and overall business objectives.

Defining service revenue

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Service revenue refers to the revenue an organization obtains from providing services to its customers. The important thing to remember is that service revenue only accounts for revenue generated from services your organization provides, not the products or goods you sell.

Your service revenue account includes work that has been completed, even if it has not yet been billed, and as a result of this, service revenue can be reported on an income statement before a customer pays the full balance for the service received.

Accrual accounting recognizes transactions when they occur, regardless of whether cash has been exchanged. This means that service fees for work performed can be included in the income statement, even if bills have not yet been sent out to clients.

While service revenue is typically a stand-alone figure, it can be added to product sales to provide a total revenue figure on the income statement.

How to calculate service revenue

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Calculating service revenue is important for any service-based organization to evaluate its financial performance. Plus, it’s a useful metric for companies that offer both services and products, allowing you to pinpoint what areas of your business are bringing in the most revenue.

Service revenue is calculated using a simple formula and recorded on an income statement as a separate account. You might also choose to calculate service revenue as a percentage of total revenue to help investors understand the value of each source of revenue.

In order to calculate how much of your revenue is attributed to services, you can use the formula:

Service Revenue (%) = 100 x Service revenue / Total revenue

Is service revenue a credit or debit?

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In the world of accounting, it’s crucial to understand the impact of service revenue on a company’s financial health.

By definition, service revenue is the income generated by a business from providing services to its clients.

As we know, the rules of double-entry accounting dictate that a credit entry causes an increase in revenue, equity, or liability accounts while decreasing expense or asset accounts.

This means that service revenue should be recorded as a credit entry since it leads to an increase in a company’s equity.

Why is service revenue important?

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Calculating service revenue is crucial for service-based companies, as well as those that offer both products and services.

Firstly, it serves as a performance indicator, which helps in analyzing a company’s revenue and performance over a specific period.

Secondly, it enables businesses to distinguish between various revenue streams and determine the amount of income coming from each source.

Thirdly, listing service revenue separately facilitates different forecasting models that can help businesses predict both recurring and project-based revenue.

By evaluating service revenue in conjunction with other financial data, you can gain valuable insights into your company’s financial health.

You can ask the following questions when assessing service revenue:

  • Compare the current service revenue to previous financial periods. Is it increasing or decreasing?
  • Is the current service revenue figure higher or lower than what was budgeted or predicted?
  • What is the profit margin on service sales? How much of the revenue is held in the net profit?
  • Has the profit margin increased, decreased, or remained stable, and what caused the change, if any?

Service revenue is an essential metric for service-based companies and those that sell both products and services. Analyzing service revenue alongside other financial metrics can help businesses assess which revenue streams are most valuable.

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