To quickly identify ASC 606 information in the below links, click on the link, hit Control + F, enter the text “606”, “2014-09”, or “ASC” and go to your search results.

To quickly identify key areas, open each link and search for “606” or “2014-09” in the text.  

Filings

• FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS INC.:  10-Q For the quarterly period ended November 30, 2018

Our thoughts:  The “Revenue Recognition” section of this filing starting on page 10, going onto to the top of page 11, offers a brief, yet effective, presentation when a company identifies that neither the timing nor amount of revenue it recognizes will be impacted by ASC 606.  Additionally, the company then goes on to explain how its costs were impacted by ASC 606.  Finally, it offers a disaggregation of its revenues.

What’s valuable is the fact the company offers a detailed qualitative explanation, with targeted metrics, to support its findings.  Additionally, it intuitively explains these points to the readers.  It’s clear this was written to satisfy a broad audience rather than just ASC 606 specialists.

Articles

• The Motley Fool:  Amazon.com Should Give the SEC What It Wants

Our thoughts:  This article does a great job of summarizing a series of events (chronicled in previous SOFTRAX blog entries) between Amazon and the SEC regarding ASC 606.  It layers in references to Tesla’s and Oracle’s recent situations to paint a picture relevant to Amazon’s.  Fundamentally, the article supports one of ASC 606’s goals which is to provide greater detail and clarity on the revenue a company derives from its contracts with its customers so that consumers of the financial statements can have a better understanding of the business.

• Digital Transactions:  Sales Pressure Led To Premature Revenue Recognition, USA Technologies Reports
• MarketWatch, Inc.:  USA Technologies to bolster corporate governance after probe uncovers accounting issues

Our thoughts:  Both articles are worth a read as each pulls back the covers on what can happen when a lack of internal controls, pressures to hit sales targets, and aggressive management approaches to revenue recognition all lead to negative results for a company.  In our view, it’s another example where full automation with a purpose-built revenue management solution, such as SOFTRAX, that fully audits revenue transactions end-to-end, would help prevent such a situation from occurring.

We encourage you to visit http://www.softrax.com for information on how SOFTRAX can help your company and you handle ASC 606.