Bill-And-Hold Basis

To understand what a “bill-and-hold basis” is, first take a skip and a hop over to “bill-and-hold.”

The TLDR version of bill-and-hold: when stuff isn’t delivered until the payment clears (what smart eBay sellers do).

Bill-and-hold basis is basically just that, looked at from a revenue perspective. When someone uses a bill-and-hold basis for crunching their revenue numbers, that means they count revenue at the point of sale rather than by when the goods are delivered (and the transaction is officially settled). This can lead to making your financial reports look spiffier than they really are. Ethical? The SEC doesn’t think so (for the most part).