The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) spent the better part of last year issuing improvements and other changes to the new revenue recognition standard issued in convergence with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in 2014.
What’s one more?
On December 21, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-20, Technical Corrections and Improvements to Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, a new batch of 13 amendments issued in response to feedback received to help clarify, rather than change, the core principles of the new revenue standard.
As noted in a recent article on AccountingWEB and elsewhere, the effective date for the amendments is the same as it is for the new standard.
For public business entities, as well as certain nonprofit entities, that date begins on annual reporting periods, and interim periods, beginning after Dec. 15, 2017. For all other entities, the effective date is one year later, i.e. annual reporting periods beginning after Dec. 15, 2018.
Issues addressed in the ASU include:
- Loan guarantee fees
- Impairment testing of contract costs
- Interaction of impairment testing with guidance in other topics
- Provisions for losses on construction-type and production-type contracts
- Scope of Topic 606
- Disclosure of remaining performance obligations
- Disclosure of prior-period performance obligations
- Contract modifications
- Contract asset vs. receivable
- Refund liability
- Advertising costs
- Fixed-odds wagering contracts in the casino industry
- Cost capitalization for advisors to private funds and public funds
Learn more about implementing the new revrec standards here.