Deferred Revenue Write-Down

If $10 of deferred revenue is written, what is the effect on the 3 financial statements? What are the journal entries?

I've combed this forum and Googled the treatment of deferred revenue write-downs and found a bunch of different answers. Anyone confidently know the answer?

7 Comments
 

It's so strange to me how it's a gain because you're just keeping the cash customers paid you and recording it as a gain instead of revenue - but I guess that logically makes the most sense since it's essentially free money if you longer have the liability of having to deliver a good or service. And your profile says you're in M&A so if that's accurate then I trust you haha

 

Sure, but then that's not a "write-down." If DR goes down (outside of acquisitions) that just means revenue is recognized, so in that case yes, your pretax income (revenues) increases.

 

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