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Revenue recognition for YC startups

Between Demo Day, your first annual contracts, and your seed round, investors start asking about recognized versus deferred revenue — and you still have no finance hire. Economico recognizes revenue on your own books automatically: annual plans defer to unearned revenue on send and recognize straight-line over 12 months, run by the AI agent you already use. Open to every founder — and if you're a YC founder, your first $100,000 of revenue is free.

Why YC founders hit this early

Sell one annual plan and you have a revenue-recognition question: you collected twelve months of cash, but you've only earned one. Get it wrong and your MRR/ARR and your income statement don't hold up to investor scrutiny. Most tools that solve this are billing platforms or rev-rec engines built for finance teams. Economico does it on the books your agent already keeps, so recognized and deferred revenue are always right without a finance hire.

How it works

Send the annual plan. Your agent sends a $12,000 annual invoice; Economico defers it: debit Accounts Receivable $12,000, credit Unearned Revenue $12,000.
Recognize monthly. Each month an idempotent journal recognizes $1,000: debit Unearned Revenue, credit Revenue — posted by the scheduled sweep or on demand.
Show investors. Recognized-to-date, deferred balance, MRR/ARR, and the income statement come from the same ledger — shareable as a link, no login.

Where it fits — and where it doesn't

This covers the common case for early SaaS: annual and subscription plans recognized straight-line. If you have complex multi-element contracts or heavy usage-based recognition and a finance team, a dedicated engine (Maxio, Tabs) goes deeper — see AI agent revenue recognition software for that competitive view. Economico's edge here is that recognition runs on your own books, for founders with no finance hire.

Frequently asked questions

Is this ASC 606 revenue recognition?

Economico defers annual-plan revenue to unearned revenue and recognizes straight-line over the service period — the common ASC 606 treatment for subscriptions. Complex multi-element allocation is where dedicated engines go further.

Do I need a separate billing tool?

No. Economico invoices and recognizes on the same ledger, run by your agent.

Can investors see recognized vs deferred revenue?

Yes — share the income statement and SaaS-metrics dashboard via an unguessable capability link, scoped and revocable.

Is Economico only for YC founders?

Today, yes — you sign up and your agent starts right away; verifying your YC status turns on YC pricing. Your first $100,000 of revenue is free, then 0.10%.

How do I connect Economico to my agent?

Point an MCP-capable host at economi.co/mcp or install the @economico/cli. The setup guide is at economi.co/skill.md.