It seems there is always good reason to write a post about revenue recognition. I can even envisage an entire blog on the FASB’s new standard (ASC 606). It could go on for years without running out of fresh material. That…
The FASB has issued Proposed Accounting Standards Update EITF 2015-15B, Recognition of Breakage for Certain Prepaid Stored-Value Cards. If finalized, it would change the way that retail merchants who sell gift cards for redemption at other stores account for “breakage”…
On April 29th, the FASB issued proposed ASU 2015-240, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Deferral of the Effective Date. It is widely expected that the Board will adopt a one year delay in the effective date of its new revenue…
Pick any class of upper-level accounting students, and give them a few cases of supplier/customer relationships for which “gross versus net presentation” of revenues is an issue, and I’ll wager that the class will come to a consensus on the presentation…
Do you remember the Big Four mantra that IFRS adoption in the U.S. was “inevitable”? Today, thankfully, the operative word is “dead.” Even former SEC chair, Christopher Cox, whose brainchild was the IFRS adoption Roadmap, now comes to “bury IFRS." But…
I don't have exact figures, but I'm fairly certain that the AICPA's annual Washington, DC conference on SEC-related developments may be the place where you can find the highest number of accountants crammed into a single hotel ballroom. And that's…
We have thankfully come to the end of a year in which the gratuitous and repeated attempts by the FASB to converge U.S. GAAP with IFRS have finally devolved from "inevitable" to ignominy. Yet, standards setting dysfunction will…
"The new, converged revenue recognition standard will include substantially less industry-specific, “bright-line” guidance than many U.S. companies are accustomed to." [italics added] That understatement is brought to you by the Journal of Accountancy. It's the lede for a story on a…
No one will ever say that U.S. GAAP revenue recognition standards are consistently principles-based, but few would say the system needs to be completely overhauled. Other than to achieve convergence of U.S. GAAP and IFRS, what will a new revenue…
My parable about GM's earnings-management-driven pension decisions inspired a friend of this blog (let's call him Mark) to share a story from around the same time period. I worked at J. I. Case, the farm and construction equipment manufacturer. As…