Free tool
Bill an annual plan or a multi-month retainer up front? See what you actually earned each month — and what is still owed to your customer.
What you earned this month
The rest is deferred revenue — a liability you release month by month as you deliver.
| Month | Recognised | Deferred balance | Balance |
|---|
Taokeh posts this monthly release automatically and keeps a report that ties to your general ledger to the cent — from RM45/month. See recurring-revenue accounting → · Read the deferred-revenue guide → · Start your free trial →
Straight-line spread, floored to the cent each month with the penny remainder in the final month — the same arithmetic Taokeh posts. Built on the tax-exclusive amount; SST follows invoicing, not the spread (as at July 2026; verify with Customs or your tax agent). An estimate to illustrate the mechanics, not accounting advice.
Book the whole RM1,200 annual plan as January income and January looks like a bumper month while February to December look empty — even though the work, the server bills and the support happen all year. The P&L stops telling you anything true.
Deferred revenue fixes that. The unearned part sits as a liability on your balance sheet, and each month a slice moves into income as you deliver. By the final month the liability is zero and each month shows the income it actually earned.
It matters for decisions and for scrutiny: margins read honestly month to month, and investors, bankers and auditors expect subscription income spread — that is what MFRS 15 (and MPERS) require for a service delivered over time.
The discipline is the tie-out: the deferred balance on your books should equal the sum of every customer's unreleased months. Software that posts the release automatically keeps the two in lock-step; a spreadsheet needs reconciling every month-end.
When a customer pays up front for something you deliver over months — an annual plan, a 12-month retainer — the cash arrives today but the income is earned month by month. The part you have not yet earned is deferred revenue: a liability on your balance sheet that releases into your profit and loss as you deliver.
Straight-line: the amount is divided evenly across the months, floored to the cent, with any penny remainder folded into the final month so the pieces add back to the total exactly. That is the same arithmetic Taokeh uses to post the monthly release, so the tool matches the books to the cent.
Generally no — SST follows invoicing or payment under the Service Tax Act 2018, while revenue recognition follows delivery (as at July 2026; verify with Customs or your tax agent). Build the spread on the tax-exclusive amount and keep SST on its own clock.
No. Recurring billing is about issuing and collecting the invoice on a cycle; recognition is about earning that income over the service period. This tool is about the earning side — see the recurring-invoices guide for the billing side.