Bookings

Bookings is the value of contracts signed in a period, a sales-facing number that moves the moment a deal closes, not when service delivery starts or revenue is recognized. Revenue and ARR lag bookings by design: a twelve-month contract signed in March books in full in March but recognizes revenue monthly through the year.

Treating the three as interchangeable is one of the most common SaaS finance reporting errors, especially when a sales team’s bookings number and finance’s revenue number are pulled from different systems. See revenue recognition for how the timing gap gets resolved on the books.