Close on day zero

To counter this trend, Zuora has now announced Real-Time Revenue as a new component of its Revenue solution. With Real-Time Revenue, companies can automatically identify, reconcile and analyze their revenues and close their financial accounts on day zero. At the same time, they can use the new insights derived from these closings to strategically develop their revenues. Companies can thus dramatically reduce crisis periods at the end of each financial period. A new closing process dashboard continuously reconciles revenue and immediately identifies and escalates any errors that need to be addressed. While a traditional reporting system produces stale data that can go back weeks, with the Real-Time Revenue platform, new revenue analysis appears instantly and on a single page that is updated in real time. Based on this real-time data, much more accurate forecasts can be made and new revenue targets can be set and achieved.

The Zuora suite, enhanced with Real-Time Revenue, now provides a seamless real-time connection from billing to receivables management and collections to revenue recognition. As an integrated revenue recognition solution, it allows any combination of subscriptions, one-time purchases and usage-based services, making it easy for companies to manage all agile processes - from subscription provisioning to revenue recognition - in real time. "Today, far too many companies still rely on manual and Excel-based revenue management processes. This lack of automation leads to hidden errors, a restatement of results, and a loss of confidence in financial reports", said Andrew Dailey, co-founder and managing director at MGI Research. "Companies need to proactively work on revenue management innovations to create end-to-end visibility."