Option A vs Option B: How Revenue Recognition Affects Beautician Earnings

A NT$10,000 package, customer pays half upfront, when does the beautician earn the credit? See the real difference between Option A and Option B — and why this choice determines whether the shop loses money.

6 min read·5/12/2026

The scenario

A customer buys a 10-session facial package for NT$10,000, uses 1 session same day, but only pays NT$5,000 cash with NT$5,000 promised next visit. Question: how much performance does the beautician earn today? How is month-end commission calculated?

Option B: full credit on service day

Traditional accounting view — service completed, customer committed to total, so full revenue recognised. Today's NT$10,000 fully enters performance; commission base is NT$10,000 immediately. Pros: Beautician instantly knows "I did NT$10,000 of work"; month-end calculations are simpler. Cons: If customer defaults later, the shop already paid commission on revenue never collected — shop covers the gap. Common pitfall when split payments are common.

Option A: follow the cash

MeiYe Zhan's model — revenue is counted as the cash actually comes in. On day one the customer only pays NT$5,000, which is half of the NT$10,000 total, so only half the performance is counted that day = service amount × 50% = NT$5,000. The remaining NT$5,000 becomes an outstanding balance that the system tracks for you automatically. When the customer comes back 3 days later and clears the remaining NT$5,000 → that payment day counts as a fresh NT$5,000 of performance (still credited to the original beautician).

Side-by-side numbers

Same NT$10,000 service, customer pays in two installments (NT$5,000 + NT$5,000): Option B day-of NT$10,000, day+3 NT$0. Option A day-of NT$5,000, day+3 NT$5,000. Totals match at NT$10,000 — the difference is timing distribution and risk allocation.

Why cash-basis is safer

Customer default rate isn't zero in beauty. If the owner pays beautician commission monthly (effectively next-day), but the customer hasn't paid by next month — under Option B the shop already fronted commission on revenue never received; under Option A the shop only paid commission proportional to actually-received cash. In shops with high split-payment volume, this design difference determines whether the shop bleeds margin.

Communicating with beauticians

Beauticians may ask: "I did NT$10,000 of work, why only NT$5,000 credited?" Answer: not less, just deferred. As the customer pays in installments, each repayment recognises new performance, still attributed to the original beautician. MeiYe Zhan's dashboard shows "service-day recognition" and "repayment-day recognition" side by side so beauticians see their full performance trail across time.

Multi-beautician coordination

When a service is done by a main beautician plus an assistant (the system lets several beauticians share the credit on one service), the proportional split also follows the cash. Example: main 70% + assistant 30%; NT$5,000 paid on the day → main NT$3,500, assistant NT$1,500; 3 days later the NT$5,000 balance is paid → main NT$3,500, assistant NT$1,500. The split percentages never change; only the timing follows when the customer actually pays.

Implementation challenges

MeiYe Zhan keeps this "revenue follows the cash" logic in one single place, so every part of the system that counts performance — the dashboard, the reports, the attendance and payroll screen — all use the exact same calculation and never disagree with one another. It also solves a knock-on problem: a voucher is store credit, not real cash, so it has to be excluded right at the point of recording, not patched out later on the screen — otherwise each staff member's numbers won't add up to the shop's total.

Conclusion

Option A is a robust design choice — fair to the shop, the beautician, and the customer over the long run. It requires the system to genuinely build in counting revenue by the share actually paid, tracking outstanding balances, and settling across months. If your SaaS is stuck on Option B, or can't clearly explain "how is performance counted when the customer hasn't paid in full yet", that's a major red flag when you're evaluating it.

Key takeaways

·Option A (follow cash) and Option B (full day-of) totals match but timing and risk differ
·Option A is safer for shop — no commission on uncollected revenue if customer defaults
·MeiYe Zhan implements Option A by counting revenue from the share actually paid; every performance entry point uses one unified calculation
·Multi-supporter splits stay proportionally fixed; only timing follows cash
·Vouchers must be excluded at source — a derivative rule of Option A discipline