A revenue stream is a source (or category of sources) of revenue of a company, other organization, or regional or national economy.

In business, a revenue stream is generally made up of either recurring revenue, transaction-based revenue, project revenue, or service revenue. In government, the term revenue stream often refers to different types of taxes.^[1]

Recurring revenue is revenue that is likely to continue to be generated regularly for a significant period of time.^[2] It is typically used by companies that sell subscriptions or services. It could take the form of bills paid monthly by consumers, or commercial contracts lasting several years.^[2] An example of this is monthly phone contracts. Unless the contract is broken or the customer does not pay, the phone business is guaranteed monthly revenue for the duration of the contract, often 2 years.^[3]

Recurring revenue is often tracked on either a monthly basis, as monthly recurring revenue (MRR), or an annual basis, as annual recurring revenue (ARR).^[4] This number excludes all one-time, non-recurring payments; for instance, implementation or professional service fees, hardware, and discounts.

MRR allows subscription and service business owners to develop development strategies. Sales managers - to build quarterly and annual plans.^[5][6][7] For marketers to think through promotions, plan loyalty programs, marketing strategies and channels.^[8] The MRR indicator is important for analysts: these specialists determine which areas of the company should be improved, which should be abandoned, where to invest money.^[9] To do this, they analyze a lot of data, including regular monthly income.

MRR Calculation Formula:^[10] MRR = average monthly client payment × number of clients

These revenues based on predictable sales of goods.^[11] Revenue is earned by a transaction from a customer. A customer in a clothing store, buying a new jacket, generates a transaction based revenue. This type of revenue is often considered less attractive than the recurring model because an action is required to attract customers.

These are revenues generated through one time projects. Companies that rely entirely or largely need to invest a lot of effort into maintaining customer relationships. In this type of model, revenue is hard to predict, because it is hard to know what lies further down the road. ^[11]

This revenue model sells the time of oneself or of a company's employees.^[11] The service revenue model is often used in combination with one of the other models. An example of service based model are consulting firms. They offer their advice and commonly charge per hour.

The Business Model Canvas lists 7 ways of generating revenue: asset sales, usage fees, subscription fees, lending/leasing/renting, licensing, brokerage fees, and advertising.^{[citation needed]}

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• Business Model Canvas
• List of companies by revenue
• Net revenue
• Pricing mechanism
• Revenue assurance
• Customer churn
• Product/market fit