The operational rev-rec skill (saas-agent-revenue-recognition) installs the analysis discipline. This meta-skill installs the policy declaration discipline — the practice of producing an auditor-ready policy memo as a first-class artefact of the plan, refreshing it annually, and making it traceable to the contract templates, financial model, and disclosure language.
Why a separate meta-skill: audit firms (Big-4 and regional) expect an explicit policy memo as a documented artefact. DD teams quote from it. Investors lean on it. Treating policy as an emergent property of the financial model is not enough — the policy must be a named, owned, dated artefact.
Use When
A plan is being prepared for audit, DFI / institutional DD, or institutional fundraising
An auditor has been appointed and the policy memo is a deliverable
A pricing primitive is being changed or added (modification triggers policy refresh)
The plan involves outcome pricing, hybrid pricing, prepaid credits, SLA tiers, or any non-ratable revenue
The annual planning cycle requires policy-memo refresh
Cross-loaded with saas-agent-revenue-recognition, saas-agent-deferred-revenue-and-credit-reserves, meta-accounting-finance-review
Do Not Use When
The plan has flat monthly subscription only with a single deliverable (use )
meta-accounting-finance-review
The plan is pre-revenue and no pricing primitive is committed
Required Inputs
Input
Source / provider
Required?
If absent
Revenue Recognition Policy brief and decision audience
Client, plan owner, or approved project files
Yes
Stop before making a recommendation; state the missing decision context.
Claims, assumptions, and supporting evidence
Source register, model, research notes, interviews, or operating records
Yes
Separate known facts from assumptions and return a qualified gap list.
Authority and delivery constraints
Requesting owner and repository instructions
Yes
Remain read-only and produce a draft or review only.
Current accounting, tax, valuation, or pricing basis
Finance owner, accounting records, signed contracts, and current authoritative sources
Conditional
Mark the treatment unresolved and require qualified professional review.
Pricing primitives in scope (from saas-agent-pricing-strategy)
Quarterly check on variable-consideration estimates
Trigger refresh on:
New pricing primitive
Contract-modification volume spike
Principal-vs-agent service-flow change
Auditor / regulator feedback
Material change in business mix
8. Wire to living-plan governance
Per cadence below.
Decision, stop, and recovery controls
Decision point: confirm that the requested output is the agent revenue-recognition memo and that the decision concerns the recognition trigger for each performance obligation.
Stop condition: halt the affected conclusion if required evidence is missing (executed contracts and pricing primitives) or if the work could lead to this identified risk: recognising outcome, credit, or SLA revenue before the obligation is satisfied.
Recovery: obtain the missing record or reviewer, repeat the affected check, and update the exception record before release.
Quality Bar
Policy memo exists as a named, dated, owned artefact
Covers every pricing primitive in scope
5-step analysis per primitive
Variable-consideration estimation method per component
Policy memo is an emergent property of the financial model rather than a named artefact
Memo not refreshed when pricing primitives change
Memo says "we follow ASC 606" without 5-step analysis
Contract templates and memo diverge
Disclosure language not drafted; left to year-end audit
No auditor pre-review
Variable consideration without constraint
Principal-vs-agent not analysed for orchestration revenue
Breakage method not stated
Applying the wrong neighbouring route to meta agent revenue recognition policy. Correction: confirm the decision and route to the named neighbour before analysis.
Treating an assumption as verified evidence. Correction: label it, cite its source or owner, and assign a verification action.
Recommending action without a decision threshold. Correction: state the measurable acceptance condition and review trigger.
Recording an unavailable check as passed. Correction: mark it not assessed and state the consequence for the decision.
Mutating or publishing during an analysis-only task. Correction: remain read-only until the owner gives explicit authority.
Outputs
Artefact
Consumer
Observable acceptance condition
Revenue Recognition Policy deliverable
Named decision-maker or plan author
The recommended choice, assumptions, countercase, and next action are explicit.
Evidence and exception register
Reviewer, funder, board, or implementation owner
Every load-bearing claim is sourced or labelled as an assumption; missing checks are not shown as passes.
Auditor-ready revenue recognition policy memo
Per-primitive 5-step analysis
Variable-consideration estimation methodology
Principal-vs-agent conclusions
Contract-modification policy
Disclosure language for audited financial statements
IFRS in African markets — KE, NG, ZA, UG, TZ, RW, GH use IFRS; EG uses EAS with IFRS convergence; the policy memo should be written under IFRS 15 unless the company also reports under US GAAP
Local audit firm coaching — where Big-4 not appointed, mid-tier (BDO, RSM, Mazars, Grant Thornton) firms may need the memo template; provide it
VAT / recognition timing reconciliation — must be explicit in the memo (VAT on prepayment under most African VAT regimes; revenue on consumption)
WHT treatment — Uganda 6% (Sched 6), Kenya variable, Nigeria 5%, South Africa none, Rwanda variable — receivable shown net; revenue gross-up
Public-sector receivables collectability — collectability constraint may defer recognition where DSO >120 days
DFI / multilateral DD review — IFC / AfDB / FMO will request the memo specifically
Sovereign-AI procurement — local-currency pricing with USD index; treat USD adjustment as variable consideration; constrain
FX revaluation — IAS 21 / ASC 830; non-operating; not part of revenue recognition itself
Evidence Produced
Evidence
Format
Acceptance condition
Agent revenue-recognition memo decision trace
Sources, calculations, assumptions, countercase, and selected action
A reviewer can trace the selected action and rejected alternatives to the cited inputs.
Exception record
Failed and not-assessed checks with owner and due action
The register exposes every unresolved exception that could lead to recognising outcome, credit, or SLA revenue before the obligation is satisfied.
Capability and Permission Boundaries
Read supplied records and use non-mutating checks to produce the agent revenue-recognition memo; drafting a policy memo for controller and auditor review is permitted when requested. Do not publish, contact third parties, alter live systems, commit funds, or claim legal, tax, audit, valuation, ESG, or investment assurance without the owner's explicit authorisation and the appropriate reviewer.
Degraded Mode
If executed contracts and pricing primitives cannot be obtained, return a qualified agent revenue-recognition memo covering only the checks that remain supportable. Leave this decision unresolved: the recognition trigger for each performance obligation. Record the evidence owner and next check; an inaccessible source, tool, or reviewer is never a pass.
Decision Rules
Decision condition
Action
Failure or risk avoided
Evidence is sufficient to decide: the recognition trigger for each performance obligation
Record the conclusion, source trail, owner, and review trigger in the agent revenue-recognition memo.
Risk of recognising outcome, credit, or SLA revenue before the obligation is satisfied
Material evidence conflicts or remains uncertain
Compare the contract wording against each plausible recognition treatment and send the unresolved conclusion to the controller or auditor.
Selecting an option without resolving the decision-relevant uncertainty
Required evidence is missing: executed contracts and pricing primitives
Mark the decision on the recognition trigger for each performance obligation not assessed in the agent revenue-recognition memo, and send it to the controller and appointed auditor.
Otherwise, the work risks recognising outcome, credit, or SLA revenue before the obligation is satisfied
Quality Standards
Accept the agent revenue-recognition memo only when evidence is sufficient for this decision: the recognition trigger for each performance obligation. Assumptions and countercases remain visible, calculations and cross-references reconcile, and the reviewer can see how the recommendation addresses the risk of recognising outcome, credit, or SLA revenue before the obligation is satisfied.
Worked Example
A contract bills prepaid credits that expire and also promises outcome refunds. Map the obligations and variable consideration separately; do not approve the memo until contract wording, billing events, and ledger entries agree.
Finance Doctrine Gate
Apply the Chwezi doctrine to the agent revenue-recognition memo, using the reporting basis and effective date supported by executed contracts and pricing primitives. Reconcile the treatment to the model and narrative, and have the controller and appointed auditor review the treatment, reconciliation, and exposure to this risk: recognising outcome, credit, or SLA revenue before the obligation is satisfied.
