How to Record Disaster Recovery and Backup Infrastructure Costs as Cost of Revenue
Recording the monthly cost of maintaining backup environments and data replication to meet SLA uptime commitments.
| Account Name | Type | Debit ($) | Credit ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of Revenue — DR / Backup | Expense (+) | 800.00 | - |
| Accounts Payable / Cloud Provider | Liability (+) | - | 800.00 |
💡 Accountant's Note
DR infrastructure is a non-negotiable part of running a production SaaS product. It is a Cost of Revenue expense that protects the SLA commitments made to customers.
Practitioner & Systems Framework
💻 ERP Architecture
DR infrastructure costs are 100% Cost of Revenue — they exist solely to meet production SLA commitments. Track DR costs separately from primary production infrastructure to understand the cost of redundancy and evaluate whether the investment level matches customer SLA requirements. Review DR costs annually against the company's actual downtime history and insurance claims.
⚠️ Audit Flags
Auditors will verify DR costs are classified as Cost of Revenue (not G&A or R&D). They may also check SLA compliance — if the company has experienced SLA breaches and has associated customer credits or penalties, those should be disclosed and accrued.
📄 Required Documentation
Cloud provider invoice for DR instances and storage, SLA terms from enterprise customer contracts, DR architecture diagram confirming infrastructure scope, cost per month trend, and SLA breach log and credit accrual (if applicable).
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