The quick answer
Open the actual revenue plan, click Edit, check Hold Revenue Recognition and save. The plan's status becomes On Hold, and Create Revenue Recognition Journal Entries stops listing it. To restart it, edit the plan again, clear the hold, pick a Catch Up Period and save. The revenue you skipped moves into that period, and the next journal run for that period recognizes it in one amount. Releasing the hold doesn't recognize anything by itself. The journal run does, and an approval requirement can still hold the journal back from the general ledger.
The screenshots show sample data. Person, operating-company, and customer names are fictional. Use your own plans, periods, and amounts when following the steps.
Before you start
This is Advanced Revenue Management (ARM). You need a role that can edit revenue plans and create revenue recognition journals, and open accounting periods for the dates you pick. Hold Revenue Recognition and Catch Up Period exist only on actual revenue plans. A forecast plan has Reforecast Method instead, so this walkthrough doesn't apply to it.
The example plan is RRPL001219 for Remote Monitoring Service: 3,000.00 over six months, 3/1/2026 to 8/31/2026, so 500.00 a month. March and April are already recognized (journals JE3106 and JE3172), which leaves 1,000.00 recognized and 2,000.00 deferred. The story is a customer who pauses its service while the contract is amended. May's revenue shouldn't be recognized yet, and in June the service resumes.
Two settings change what you'll see. The Default Catch Up Period accounting preference can be blank, Current Period or First Open Period. It's blank in this account, which is why the catch-up period is picked by hand in step 04. If yours is set, the field may arrive filled in, so check it before you save. Journal approval is also on here. Approve Journal only appears when approvals are enabled and your role can approve, and it's left cleared on the run, so the new journal waits for approval. Menu paths come from this account. Some revenue-focused roles see the Create Revenue Recognition Journal Entries page under a Revenue menu instead. In OneWorld or multi-book accounts you also pick the subsidiary and accounting book. If a page isn't where it says, search for its name in global search.
01. Open the in-progress plan
Go to Lists > Accounting > Revenue Recognition Plans and set the Status filter to In Progress. Two plans are left. Click View on RRPL001219, the plan for Remote Monitoring Service.
Check the plan before you change anything. The header shows Revenue Plan Type Actual, Status In Progress, Total Recognized 1,000.00 and Remaining Deferred Balance 2,000.00. Hold Revenue Recognition is cleared and Catch Up Period is empty.
On the Planned Revenue subtab, the six lines are 500.00 each, Mar 2026 to Aug 2026. March shows journal JE3106 and April shows JE3172. May to August have no journal yet.
02. Put the plan on hold
Click Edit. Revenue Recognition Rule and Rev Rec Start Date appear as read-only values, because revenue has already been recognized on this plan. Rev Rec End Date and Comments are still fields you can change. The hold checkbox and the empty Catch Up Period sit under Remaining Deferred Balance.
Check Hold Revenue Recognition. In Comments, enter a reason. Here it's "Service paused pending contract amendment". Then click Save.
The plan now reads On Hold. Total Recognized stays 1,000.00 and Remaining Deferred Balance stays 2,000.00, because the hold doesn't touch revenue that's already recognized. Saving the plan is enough to apply the hold. In this recording nobody ran Update Revenue Plans.
03. Check that the May run skips the plan
Go to Transactions > Financial > Schedule Revenue Recognition Journal Entries > Run Now. That opens Create Revenue Recognition Journal Entries. Set Posting Period to May 2026 and Journal Entry Date to 5/31/2026. Subsidiary and accounting book show Northgate US and Primary Accounting Book in this account.
The Revenue Recognition Plans grid lists RRPL001187 for Kestrel Freight Co. at 250.00. RRPL001219 isn't there. A plan on hold is left out of the run. NetSuite leaves it out for every period that isn't recognized yet, including earlier periods you'd pull in with Include Prior Periods. The recording only shows May.
This is only a check. Don't click Create Journal Entries on this page unless you want the other plan's May journal created too.
04. Release the hold with a catch-up period
In June the service resumes. Reopen RRPL001219 and click Edit. Clear Hold Revenue Recognition. Catch Up Period is empty here because the preference is blank, so select Jun 2026 from the list of available periods. Click Save.
Pick the period carefully. It decides where the skipped revenue lands. A period that's locked for A/R in the period close checklist is generally not available to pick, though an Administrator, or a role with Override Period Restrictions, may be able to choose one.
05. Check where the held revenue went
The plan reads In Progress again. Hold Revenue Recognition is cleared and Catch Up Period shows Jun 2026. Total Recognized is still 1,000.00 and Remaining Deferred Balance is still 2,000.00. Releasing the hold moved revenue between periods but didn't recognize any.
On Planned Revenue, the Jun 2026 line now reads 1,000.00, its own 500.00 plus the 500.00 that was held from May. March and April keep their journals. July and August are still 500.00. The lines still add up to 3,000.00. In this example the May line is gone from the current schedule and its amount sits in June. NetSuite keeps the earlier version of the plan under Previous Revenue Plans, which the recording doesn't open. The exact lines you get after a release depend on the recognition rule and your period calendar, so check your own plan instead of expecting the same layout.
Scroll the grid right to see the percentages. The June line is 33.3% of the plan and 0.0% recognized so far.
06. Create the June journal
Go back to Transactions > Financial > Schedule Revenue Recognition Journal Entries > Run Now. Set Posting Period to Jun 2026 and Journal Entry Date to 6/30/2026. Leave Approve Journal cleared.
The grid lists RRPL001219 for Brightwater Dental Clinics with Planned Period Jun 2026 and Revenue Amount 1,000.00. You don't need Include Prior Periods here, because the catch-up already put May's revenue in June.
Click Create Journal Entries. The results page lists JE3251 for 1,000.00 with Pending Approval in the Accounting Period column. If journal approval is required in your account, the journal still has to be approved before it posts to the general ledger.
07. Confirm the catch-up was recognized
Reopen RRPL001219. The Jun 2026 line now shows JE3251 and Date Executed 6/30/2026. Under the header, Remaining Deferred Balance is 1,000.00, and the Total Recognized value above it is 2,000.00: the 1,000.00 from March and April plus the 1,000.00 June catch-up.
Check the result
- Status is In Progress, Hold Revenue Recognition is cleared, and Catch Up Period is Jun 2026.
- The Jun 2026 line shows JE3251 and 6/30/2026, and its % Total Recognized is 66.7%.
- Total Recognized is 2,000.00, Remaining Deferred Balance is 1,000.00, and July and August are still to come.
- The plan lines show 2410 Deferred Revenue as the deferral account and 4150 Service Revenue as the recognition account. Those account numbers come from this plan's setup. Once JE3251 is approved and posted, it normally moves the 1,000.00 from the deferral account to the recognition account, so check the journal in your own account.
Common questions
What does Hold Revenue Recognition do?
It pauses recognition on one actual revenue plan. Check the box, save, and the status becomes On Hold. Revenue that's already recognized stays recognized, and Total Recognized and Remaining Deferred Balance don't change.
Why isn't my plan on Create Revenue Recognition Journal Entries?
Check whether it's on hold. A plan on hold is left out of the run for any period that isn't recognized yet. Journals created before the hold stay where they are, but no new one gets created until you clear the hold.
What does Catch Up Period do?
It decides which period receives the revenue that was skipped while the plan was on hold. NetSuite uses it only when you clear the hold. The Default Catch Up Period accounting preference can be blank, Current Period or First Open Period. When it's blank, like in this account, you pick the period yourself.
What happens to the held revenue when I clear the hold?
The unrecognized revenue from the periods before the catch-up period is moved into it. Here the held 500.00 for May joined June's own 500.00, so the June line read 1,000.00. Nothing was recognized at that point. The June journal run recognized the 1,000.00 and took Total Recognized to 2,000.00.
Why can't I edit Revenue Recognition Rule or Rev Rec Start Date?
Once revenue has been recognized on a plan, those two fields are read-only, because the posted journals already followed that pattern. On a plan that hasn't started, you can still change them.
Do I need to run Update Revenue Plans?
No. Saving the plan applies the hold, and saving it again releases the hold. Update Revenue Plans is for changes to the source data, which this walkthrough doesn't touch.
What if I pick the wrong catch-up period?
The skipped revenue goes to whichever period you chose, so a wrong pick means it's recognized earlier or later than you intended. Check the period before you save. If a journal has already been created from the wrong line, review the plan and the journal and follow your own accounting correction process. The recording doesn't cover that case.