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Releases in Light: Accruals, Prepayments, Deferred Revenue & Depreciation

Learn how Light’s Releases module automates accruals, prepayments, deferred revenue, and depreciation. Set up templates, manage schedules, and reconcile balances with full audit trails.

Overview

The Releases module in Light automates time-based recognition of costs and revenues — including accruals, prepayments, deferred revenue, and depreciation.

It ensures that expenses or income are recognised over time rather than all in a single posting period.

This helps maintain an accurate P&L vs. Balance Sheet split — and replaces manual spreadsheets or recurring journal setups.

What the Releases Engine Does

Every release in Light has two sides:

  • Deferred / Balance Sheet side — where the cost or income is initially recognised (e.g. Prepaid Expense, Deferred Revenue, or Fixed Asset)
  • Recognised / P&L side — where periodic releases move the value into expense or income

Light automates this over time, posting the release journals automatically at each period boundary.

Where Releases Live

Go to:

Accounting → Releases

This view shows all active release schedules across your entities — including:

  • Accruals & prepayments (from Bills or Journals)
  • Deferred revenue (from Sales Invoices)
  • Depreciation schedules (from Fixed Assets)

Each line shows:

  • Start date

  • Progress bar

  • Book value remaining

  • Release type (Accounts Payable, Receivable, Fixed Asset, Journal Entry)

    releases 2

You can filter by:

  • Type (e.g. Fixed Asset, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable)

  • Entity / Account / Progress / Type

  • Date range

    This makes it easy to reconcile against your Balance Sheet or to use as a Fixed Asset Register.

Release Templates

Templates define how releases are created and posted.

They act as blueprints for accruals, prepayments, deferrals, and depreciation.

Go to:

Settings → Releases Templates

Each template specifies:

  • Name (e.g. “Prepayments”, “Deferred Revenue”, “Laptop Depreciation”)

  • Method: currently Straight line with partial adjustment

  • Type: which area it applies to (Accounts Payable, Receivable, Fixed Asset, Journal Entry)

  • Contra account: where the offset is booked (e.g. Deferred Revenue, Accrued Expense, Accumulated Depreciation)

  • Default duration: e.g. 12 months

  • Residual / Initial %: for partial front-loading if needed

    releases 3

Templates ensure consistent treatment across all entities — and remove manual setup each time you accrue or defer.

Creating a Release

You can creating a release works in the same way across all document types

In the Releases column of the line item, select the release template to govern its reversal or spread.

releases 1 (1)

How the Schedule Works

Each release schedule includes:

  • Start Date
  • Frequency (monthly, quarterly, annually)
  • Duration (number of periods)
  • Release Amount per Period

By default, Light spreads the total evenly, but amounts can be manually adjusted per period.

All release postings are normal journals — visible in Transactions and Reports.

Posting & Journals

At each period boundary, Light automatically posts the release journal:

Example:

Debit: Expense (P&L)

Credit: Prepaid Expense (Balance Sheet)

Each release line links back to its parent Bill, Journal, or Fixed Asset — providing a complete audit trail.

All postings appear in:

  • Transactions report
  • Ledger
  • Balance Sheet / P&L reports

Editing or Cancelling Releases

To edit a release, you should edit the dates on the originating invoice, bill or manual journal

Note: Be careful, editing will reverse the underlying transactions, so your historic reports may change. This won’t be possible if the periods are closed.

Reporting & Reconciliation

The Releases list itself is a live roll-forward view:

  • For prepayments → acts like a Prepaid Expense register
  • For fixed assets → functions as a Fixed Asset register with accumulated depreciation
  • For deferred revenue → supports revenue recognition schedules

Finance teams typically reconcile the Book Value column to the related Balance Sheet account each month.

You can also use Reports → Tables to:

  • Reconcile Prepayments vs P&L expense
  • Analyse Depreciation by Asset Class or Department
  • Monitor Deferred Revenue movements

Current Limitations

  • Only straight-line release method is supported today (partial adjustments allowed).
  • FX revaluation of deferred balances is handled via normal ledger FX logic.