Basis of Presentation (Policies)	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2022
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Basis of Presentation	Basis of Presentation — The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Bentley Systems, Incorporated (“Bentley” or the “Company”) and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, and have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) and in accordance with the rules and regulations of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) regarding interim financial reporting. Accordingly, they do not include all the information and notes required by U.S. GAAP for annual financial statements.
Consolidation	These unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in Part II, Item 8 of the Company’s 2021 Annual Report on Form 10‑K on file with the SEC. In management’s opinion, the accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements contain all adjustments (consisting of normal, recurring and non-recurring adjustments) that were considered necessary for the fair statement of the Company’s financial position, results of operations, and cash flows at the dates and for the periods indicated. The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect reported amounts in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates. The December 31, 2021 consolidated balance sheet included herein is derived from the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements. Certain reclassifications of prior period amounts have been made to conform to the current period presentation. Business Combinations — On January 31, 2022, the Company completed the acquisition of Power Line Systems, a leader in software for the design of overhead electric power transmission lines and their structures, for $695,968 in cash, net of cash acquired. On June 17, 2021, the Company completed the acquisition of Seequent Holdings Limited (“Seequent”), a leader in software for geological and geophysical modeling, geotechnical stability, and cloud services for geodata management and collaboration, for $883,336 in cash, net of cash acquired, plus 3,141,342 shares of the Company’s Class B Common Stock (see Note 4).
Recent Accounting Pronouncements and Recently Adopted Accounting Guidance	Recent Accounting PronouncementsIn March 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2020‑04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting (“ASU 2020‑04”), which provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying U.S. GAAP to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions affected by reference rate reform if certain criteria are met. ASU 2020‑04 applies only to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions that reference the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) or another reference rate expected to be discontinued because of reference rate reform between March 12, 2020 and December 31, 2022. The expedients and exceptions provided by ASU 2020‑04 do not apply to contract modifications made and hedging relationships entered into or evaluated after December 31, 2022, except for hedging relationships existing as of December 31, 2022, that an entity has elected certain optional expedients for and that are retained through the end of the hedging relationship. The Company had no transactions that were impacted by ASU 2020‑04 during the three months ended March 31, 2022.
Revenue Recognition	Nature of Products and Services The Company generates revenues from subscriptions, perpetual licenses, and services. Subscriptions SELECT subscriptions — The Company provides prepaid annual recurring subscriptions that accounts (which are based on distinct contractual and billing relationships with the Company, where affiliated entities of a single parent company may each have an independent account with the Company) can elect to add to a new or previously purchased perpetual license. SELECT provides accounts with benefits, including upgrades, comprehensive technical support, pooled licensing benefits, annual portfolio balancing exchange rights, learning benefits, certain Azure‑based cloud collaboration services, mobility advantages, and access to other available benefits. SELECT subscriptions revenues are recognized as distinct performance obligations are satisfied. The performance obligations within the SELECT offering, outside of the portfolio balancing exchange right, are concurrently delivered and have the same pattern of recognition. These performance obligations are accounted for ratably over the term as a single performance obligation. Enterprise subscriptions — The Company also provides Enterprise subscription offerings, which provide its largest accounts with complete and unlimited global access to the Company’s comprehensive portfolio of solutions. Enterprise License Subscriptions (“ELS”) provide access for a prepaid fee, which is based on the account’s usage of software in the preceding year, to effectively create a fee‑certain consumption‑based arrangement. ELS contain a term license component, SELECT maintenance and support, and performance consulting days. The SELECT maintenance and support benefits under ELS do not include a portfolio balancing performance obligation. Revenue is allocated to the various performance obligations based on their respective standalone selling price (“SSP”). Revenue allocated to the term license component is recognized upon delivery at the start of the subscription term while revenues for the SELECT maintenance and support and the performance consulting days are recognized as delivered over the subscription term. Billings in advance are recorded as Deferred revenues in the consolidated balance sheets. Enterprise 365 (“E365”) subscriptions provide unrestricted access to the Company’s comprehensive software portfolio, similar to ELS, however, the accounts are charged based upon daily usage. The daily usage fee also includes a term license component, SELECT maintenance and support, hosting, and Success Blueprints, which are designed to achieve business outcomes through more efficient and effective use of the Company’s software. E365 revenues are recognized based upon usage incurred by the account. Usage is defined as distinct user access on a daily basis. E365 subscriptions can contain quarterly usage floors or collars as accounts transition to the usage model or for accounts within the public sector. The term of E365 subscriptions aligns with calendar quarters and revenue is recognized based on actual usage. Term license subscriptions — The Company provides annual, quarterly, and monthly term licenses for its software products. Term license subscriptions contain a term license component and SELECT maintenance and support. Revenue is allocated to the various performance obligations based on their SSP. Annual term licenses (“ATL”) are generally prepaid annually for named user access to specific products and include the Company’s Virtuoso subscriptions sold via the Company’s Virtuosity eStore for practitioner licenses. Virtuoso subscriptions are bundles with customizable training and expert consultation administered through “keys” or credits. Quarterly term license (“QTL”) subscriptions allow accounts to pay quarterly in arrears for license usage that is beyond their prepaid subscriptions. Monthly term license (“MTL”) subscriptions are identical to QTL subscriptions, except for the term of the license, and the manner in which they are monetized. MTL subscriptions require a Cloud Services Subscription (“CSS”), which is described below. For ATL, revenue allocated to the term license component is recognized upon delivery at the start of the subscription term while revenue for the SELECT maintenance and support is recognized as delivered over the subscription term. For Virtuoso keys, revenue is recognized as services are delivered. Billings in advance are recorded as Deferred revenues in the consolidated balance sheets. For usage‑based QTL and MTL subscriptions, revenues are recognized based upon usage incurred by the account. Usage is defined as peak usage over the respective terms. The terms of QTL and MTL subscriptions align with calendar quarters and calendar months, respectively, and revenue is recognized based on actual usage. Visas and Passports are quarterly or annual term licenses enabling users to access specific project or enterprise information and entitles users to certain functionality of the Company’s ProjectWise and AssetWise systems. The Company’s standard offerings are usage based with monetization through the Company’s CSS program as described below. CSS is a program designed to streamline the procurement, administration, and payment process. The program requires an estimation of annual usage for CSS eligible offerings and a deposit of funds in advance. Actual consumption is monitored and invoiced against the deposit on a calendar quarter basis. CSS balances not utilized for eligible products or services may roll over to future periods or are refundable. Paid and unconsumed CSS balances are recorded in Accruals and other current liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets. Software and services consumed under CSS are recognized pursuant to the applicable revenue recognition guidance for the respective software or service and classified as subscriptions or services based on their respective nature. Perpetual licenses Perpetual licenses may be sold with or without attaching a SELECT subscription. Historically, attachment and retention of the SELECT subscription has been high given the benefits of the SELECT subscription discussed above. Perpetual licenses revenues are recognized upon delivery of the license to the user. Services The Company provides professional services, including training, implementation, configuration, customization, and strategic consulting services. The Company performs projects on both a time and materials and a fixed fee basis. Certain of the Company’s fixed‑fee arrangements, including its Success Services offerings, are structured as subscription‑like, packaged offerings that are annually recurring in nature. Success Services are standard service offerings that provide a level of dedicated professional services above the standard technical support offered to all accounts as part of their SELECT or Enterprise agreement. Revenues are recognized as services are performed. The Company primarily utilizes its direct internal sales force and also has arrangements through independent channel partners to promote and sell Bentley products and subscriptions to end‑users. Channel partners are authorized to promote the sale of an authorized set of Bentley products and subscriptions within an authorized geography under a Channel Partner Agreement. Significant Judgments and Estimates The Company’s contracts with customers may include promises to transfer licenses (perpetual or term‑based), maintenance, and services to a user. Judgment is required to determine if the promises are separate performance obligations, and if so, the allocation of the transaction price to each performance obligation. When an arrangement includes multiple performance obligations which are concurrently delivered and have the same pattern of transfer to the customer, the Company accounts for those performance obligations as a single performance obligation. For contracts with more than one performance obligation, the transaction price is allocated among the performance obligations in an amount that depicts the relative SSP of each obligation. Judgment is required to determine the SSP for each distinct performance obligation. In instances where SSP is not directly observable, such as when the Company does not sell the product or service separately, the Company determines the SSP using information that may include market conditions and other observable inputs. The Company uses a range of amounts to estimate SSP when it sells each of the products and services separately and needs to determine whether there is a discount that should be allocated based on the relative SSP of the various products and services. The Company’s SELECT agreement provides users with perpetual licenses a right to exchange software for other eligible perpetual licenses on an annual basis upon renewal. The Company refers to this option as portfolio balancing and has concluded that the portfolio balancing feature represents a material right resulting in the deferral of the associated revenue. Judgment is required to estimate the percentage of users who may elect to portfolio balance and considers inputs such as historical user elections. This feature is available once per term and must be exercised prior to the respective renewal term. The Company recognizes the associated revenue upon election or when the portfolio balancing right expires. This right is included in the initial and subsequent renewal terms and the Company reestablishes the revenue deferral for the material right upon the beginning of the renewal term.

Basis of Presentation (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Basis of Presentation — The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Bentley Systems, Incorporated (“Bentley” or the “Company”) and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, and have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) and in accordance with the rules and regulations of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) regarding interim financial reporting. Accordingly, they do not include all the information and notes required by U.S. GAAP for annual financial statements.

Consolidation

These unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in Part II, Item 8 of the Company’s 2021 Annual Report on Form 10‑K on file with the SEC. In management’s opinion, the accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements contain all adjustments (consisting of normal, recurring and non-recurring adjustments) that were considered necessary for the fair statement of the Company’s financial position, results of operations, and cash flows at the dates and for the periods indicated. The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect reported amounts in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates. The December 31, 2021 consolidated balance sheet included herein is derived from the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements.

Certain reclassifications of prior period amounts have been made to conform to the current period presentation.

Business Combinations — On January 31, 2022, the Company completed the acquisition of Power Line Systems, a leader in software for the design of overhead electric power transmission lines and their structures, for $695,968 in cash, net of cash acquired. On June 17, 2021, the Company completed the acquisition of Seequent Holdings Limited (“Seequent”), a leader in software for geological and geophysical modeling, geotechnical stability, and cloud services for geodata management and collaboration, for $883,336 in cash, net of cash acquired, plus 3,141,342 shares of the Company’s Class B Common Stock (see Note 4).

Recent Accounting Pronouncements and Recently Adopted Accounting Guidance

Recent Accounting PronouncementsIn March 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2020‑04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting (“ASU 2020‑04”), which provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying U.S. GAAP to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions affected by reference rate reform if certain criteria are met. ASU 2020‑04 applies only to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions that reference the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) or another reference rate expected to be discontinued because of reference rate reform between March 12, 2020 and December 31, 2022. The expedients and exceptions provided by ASU 2020‑04 do not apply to contract modifications made and hedging relationships entered into or evaluated after December 31, 2022, except for hedging relationships existing as of December 31, 2022, that an entity has elected certain optional expedients for and that are retained through the end of the hedging relationship. The Company had no transactions that were impacted by ASU 2020‑04 during the three months ended March 31, 2022.

Revenue Recognition

Nature of Products and Services

The Company generates revenues from subscriptions, perpetual licenses, and services.

Subscriptions

SELECT subscriptions — The Company provides prepaid annual recurring subscriptions that accounts (which are based on distinct contractual and billing relationships with the Company, where affiliated entities of a single parent company may each have an independent account with the Company) can elect to add to a new or previously purchased perpetual license. SELECT provides accounts with benefits, including upgrades, comprehensive technical support, pooled licensing benefits, annual portfolio balancing exchange rights, learning benefits, certain Azure‑based cloud collaboration services, mobility advantages, and access to other available benefits. SELECT subscriptions revenues are recognized as distinct performance obligations are satisfied. The performance obligations within the SELECT offering, outside of the portfolio balancing exchange right, are concurrently delivered and have the same pattern of recognition. These performance obligations are accounted for ratably over the term as a single performance obligation.

Enterprise subscriptions — The Company also provides Enterprise subscription offerings, which provide its largest accounts with complete and unlimited global access to the Company’s comprehensive portfolio of solutions. Enterprise License Subscriptions (“ELS”) provide access for a prepaid fee, which is based on the account’s usage of software in the preceding year, to effectively create a fee‑certain consumption‑based arrangement. ELS contain a term license component, SELECT maintenance and support, and performance consulting days. The SELECT maintenance and support benefits under ELS do not include a portfolio balancing performance obligation. Revenue is allocated to the various performance obligations based on their respective standalone selling price (“SSP”). Revenue allocated to the term license component is recognized upon delivery at the start of the subscription term while revenues for the SELECT maintenance and support and the performance consulting days are recognized as delivered over the subscription term. Billings in advance are recorded as Deferred revenues in the consolidated balance sheets.

Enterprise 365 (“E365”) subscriptions provide unrestricted access to the Company’s comprehensive software portfolio, similar to ELS, however, the accounts are charged based upon daily usage. The daily usage fee also includes a term license component, SELECT maintenance and support, hosting, and Success Blueprints, which are designed to achieve business outcomes through more efficient and effective use of the Company’s software. E365 revenues are recognized based upon usage incurred by the account. Usage is defined as distinct user access on a daily basis. E365 subscriptions can contain quarterly usage floors or collars as accounts transition to the usage model or for accounts within the public sector. The term of E365 subscriptions aligns with calendar quarters and revenue is recognized based on actual usage.

Term license subscriptions — The Company provides annual, quarterly, and monthly term licenses for its software products. Term license subscriptions contain a term license component and SELECT maintenance and support. Revenue is allocated to the various performance obligations based on their SSP. Annual term licenses (“ATL”) are generally prepaid annually for named user access to specific products and include the Company’s Virtuoso subscriptions sold via the Company’s Virtuosity eStore for practitioner licenses. Virtuoso subscriptions are bundles with customizable training and expert consultation administered through “keys” or credits. Quarterly term license (“QTL”) subscriptions allow accounts to pay quarterly in arrears for license usage that is beyond their prepaid subscriptions. Monthly term license (“MTL”) subscriptions are identical to QTL subscriptions, except for the term of the license, and the manner in which they are monetized. MTL subscriptions require a Cloud Services Subscription (“CSS”), which is described below. For ATL, revenue allocated to the term license component is recognized upon delivery at the start of the subscription term while revenue for the SELECT maintenance and support is recognized as delivered over the subscription term. For Virtuoso keys, revenue is recognized as services are delivered. Billings in advance are recorded as Deferred revenues in the consolidated balance sheets. For usage‑based QTL and MTL subscriptions, revenues are recognized based upon usage incurred by the account. Usage is defined as peak usage over the respective terms. The terms of QTL and MTL subscriptions align with calendar quarters and calendar months, respectively, and revenue is recognized based on actual usage.

Visas and Passports are quarterly or annual term licenses enabling users to access specific project or enterprise information and entitles users to certain functionality of the Company’s ProjectWise and AssetWise systems. The Company’s standard offerings are usage based with monetization through the Company’s CSS program as described below.

CSS is a program designed to streamline the procurement, administration, and payment process. The program requires an estimation of annual usage for CSS eligible offerings and a deposit of funds in advance. Actual consumption is monitored and invoiced against the deposit on a calendar quarter basis. CSS balances not utilized for eligible products or services may roll over to future periods or are refundable. Paid and unconsumed CSS balances are recorded in Accruals and other current liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets. Software and services consumed under CSS are recognized pursuant to the applicable revenue recognition guidance for the respective software or service and classified as subscriptions or services based on their respective nature.

Perpetual licenses

Perpetual licenses may be sold with or without attaching a SELECT subscription. Historically, attachment and retention of the SELECT subscription has been high given the benefits of the SELECT subscription discussed above. Perpetual licenses revenues are recognized upon delivery of the license to the user.

Services

The Company provides professional services, including training, implementation, configuration, customization, and strategic consulting services. The Company performs projects on both a time and materials and a fixed fee basis. Certain of the Company’s fixed‑fee arrangements, including its Success Services offerings, are structured as subscription‑like, packaged offerings that are annually recurring in nature. Success Services are standard service offerings that provide a level of dedicated professional services above the standard technical support offered to all accounts as part of their SELECT or Enterprise agreement. Revenues are recognized as services are performed.

The Company primarily utilizes its direct internal sales force and also has arrangements through independent channel partners to promote and sell Bentley products and subscriptions to end‑users. Channel partners are authorized to promote the sale of an authorized set of Bentley products and subscriptions within an authorized geography under a Channel Partner Agreement.

Significant Judgments and Estimates

The Company’s contracts with customers may include promises to transfer licenses (perpetual or term‑based), maintenance, and services to a user. Judgment is required to determine if the promises are separate performance obligations, and if so, the allocation of the transaction price to each performance obligation. When an arrangement includes multiple performance obligations which are concurrently delivered and have the same pattern of transfer to the customer, the Company accounts for those performance obligations as a single performance obligation. For contracts with more than one performance obligation, the transaction price is allocated among the performance obligations in an amount that depicts the relative SSP of each obligation. Judgment is required to determine the SSP for each distinct performance obligation. In instances where SSP is not directly observable, such as when the Company does not sell the product or service separately, the Company determines the SSP using information that may include market conditions and other observable inputs. The Company uses a range of amounts to estimate SSP when it sells each of the products and services separately and needs to determine whether there is a discount that should be allocated based on the relative SSP of the various products and services.

The Company’s SELECT agreement provides users with perpetual licenses a right to exchange software for other eligible perpetual licenses on an annual basis upon renewal. The Company refers to this option as portfolio balancing and has concluded that the portfolio balancing feature represents a material right resulting in the deferral of the associated revenue. Judgment is required to estimate the percentage of users who may elect to portfolio balance and considers inputs such as historical user elections. This feature is available once per term and must be exercised prior to the respective renewal term. The Company recognizes the associated revenue upon election or when the portfolio balancing right expires. This right is included in the initial and subsequent renewal terms and the Company reestablishes the revenue deferral for the material right upon the beginning of the renewal term.