We recently got hit up by one of our friends, Anand Thakur (@AnandThaker), on Twitter with a question about revenue recognition:

@TheTechCPA @kenjikuramoto @Acuity_co Doing any sessions on new SaaS accounting changes in ’17? #startup #Atlanta

Heck yeah we do. Acuity founder and COO, Matthew May, is giving you everything you need to know – in 30 seconds.

 

The lowdown on revenue recognition.

The rule got deferred, so public companies aren’t adopting until 2018 and private companies don’t have to adopt until 2019.

1. The rules are moving back to a principle-based approach – the significance being that industry leaders will end up defining the revenue recognition policies for their space. All SaaS interested parties should be on Salesforce – in fact, you may want to bookmark their filings page.
2. Since industry leaders have yet to adopt the new rules, there will be a little of wait and see going on while the Big 4 accounting firms and the industry leaders like Salesforce start sorting out the practical application of the new guidance.
3. Don’t forget to watch the impact to commission structures. Along with the revenue changes, there will be more clarity about deferring sales commissions to better match that cost with your revenues.

The shorter answer.

We have a little “wait and see” situation happening throughout every industry right now, but Acuity will keep you posted as the industry leaders start setting some precedent.

Have a financial accounting question for us?  We are here to help. Just tweet your question and include the hashtag #AskAcuity.