Executive summary
This paper provides detailed information about the aspect or revenue recognition as compared to the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and International Financial Reporting Standards as the standards that are used in accounting (Ammons 45). The diverse differences that exist when either of the standards is used can be clearly noted as the paper illustrated the major variations in applications. Financial statements made using the right standards and procedure such as US GAAP and IFRS usually provides relevant, understandable, comparable and reliable financial statements that show a true and fair financial position of a company to all the users of financial statements
Introduction
The US Generally Accepted
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The organization should provide a true and fair view of the position it is and not to misrepresent their actual position.
Comparison between US GAAP and IFRS in revenue recognition
The two accounting boards usually try to work towards a general set of the procedures that is used to recognizing revenue. The International Financial Reporting Standards which is considered to be the International Accounting Standards Boards who are a counterpart to the US GAAP (Kadous 132). The revenue recognition is usually concerned with how and when record income as a result of completing a full earning process. The aspect of revenue recognition principle usually holds out that diverse companies should book or record the revenue when it is earned and not when received because the flow of cash in the company or firm does not have any relation to the revenue recognition. In this situation, it is well known as the principle of accrual basis accounting. On the other hand, however, the losses should be fully recognized or realized when their occurrence becomes presumably, whether it has occurred or not occurred. This comports with the restraint of conservatism, yet brings it into conflict with the constraint of consistency, in that reflecting revenues or the gains is inconsistent with the way in which losses are reflected (Ammons). According to Financial Accounting Standards Board and International Accounting Standards
Revenue recognition accounting standard ensures the correct revenue is recorded for each period of the income statement, it was previously based on the realization principle - requires revenue to be recognized when the earning process is virtually complete and is certain to collectability. FASB & IASB developed a new revenue recognition standard, Revenue from Contracts with Customers,” on May 28, 2014, ASU No 2014-09. (RRPA Revenue Recognition and Profitability Analysis-1-LO1-5).
The revenue recognition framework had significant differences under The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) provisions. The transformation of revenue recognition was necessary to provide the integrity to financial statements. Moreover, new revenue recognition standards should be applicable to all businesses (p50 A New World of Revenue Recognition).
‘There has been a worldwide demand from regulators, investors, businesses, and auditing firms for a single set of high-quality, globally-accepted accounting standards. The American Institute of CPA’s (AICPA) believes U.S. adoption of a single set of high-quality, globally accepted accounting standards will benefit U.S. financial markets and public companies by enabling preparation of transparent and comparable financial reports throughout the world” (aicpa.org).
Due to the highly-detailed rules implemented by FASB in the area of revenue recognition, many transactions that are very similar often are not the same between different industries, resulting in multiple accounting methods for different industries. FASB has explained
After over a decade of extensive deliberation, the IASB and FASB officially released their joint revenue recognition standard to be applied under both GAAP and IFRS. The FASB and IASB which they have been in collaboration for a converged revenue recognition principle since 2008. The new revenue recognition standard represents a milestone in the convergence process, as it is the first fully integrated joint standard. The purpose of the new revenue recognition principle is to standardize across the board how companies should recognize revenue recorded in financial statements.
The following research paper is about the new joint revenue recognition principles that were unveiled by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which standardizes generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and international financial reporting standards (IFRS) on recognition of revenue in the United States. The new joint revenue recognition principle was created to increase the financial transparency and the comparability within the industries in the United States of America, and as well as the industries throughout the world. The companies in the United States currently use the GAAP standards and the rest of the world uses the IFRS. But each country
Current requirements of IFRS and US GAAP are different and often lead the recognition of similar transaction different economically, thereby, make it difficult for users to understand and compare revenue. The IFRS revenue recognition is diversity in practice since it contained limited guidance for a range of significant topics, for example, accounting for contract with multiple elements should be accounted as one overall obligation (BDO, 2014). US GAAP in oppose, have many revenue recognition standards with very detail guidance (FASB, 2014). It contains about 100 separate documents and protocols about revenue recognition (Sylva. M, 2014), but conceptually it is inconsistence with each other, thereby, different judgments have been made for different standard and result in inconsistence revenue recognition outcomes.
The introduction of the AASB 15 alters the existing accounting framework in regards to revenue recognition in contractual transactions. The new accounting standards require revenue to be recognised at the value that best represents the value that an entity would be entitled to, after it satisfying its contractual obligations. A 5-step model has been introduced to streamline the revenue reporting process.
Revenue recognition issues are the subjects of headlines in our daily newspapers, primarily because major corporations have recognized revenues that did not meet its revenue recognition rule. For businesses that use cash basis accounting, revenue recognition is a simple process; a sale equals revenue, but not for companies that use accrual basis accounting. The more complex the business, the more specialized the industry, the more difficult the decision becomes for that business as to when to recognize earnings. Revenue recognition is one of the areas where managers can exercise their accounting discretion to achieve certain objectives. By looking at
From the beginning, the process of releasing the new SAB 101 that regulate Revenue Recognition was controversial. Revenue recognition differs between Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) which is the method the United State (US) is using and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which is the method the rest of the world is using. Under GAAP, it is detailed and has specific requirements for revenue recognition transaction base on individual industries. Therefore, different industries use different accounting method for similar revenue recognition transactions which can be difficult to compare financial statements between different industries. The reason is revenue is one of the most important measures presents to the investors in order to assess a company’s performance and prospects. On May 28, 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued new guidance on revenue recognition to improve and establish more
Revenue recognition is one of the major areas that a convergence of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) unleashes its fiery wrath on US domestic and global businesses. GAAP are the accounting principles that United States domestic companies currently use. GAAP was made and is regulated by the Federal Accounting Standards Board, known as FASB, established in 1973. This is a discussion of GAAP and IFRS, and how GAAP regulations for revenue recognition compare to the principals of revenue recognition established by IFRS standard IAS 18. IFRS was established by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to develop quality and transparent global accounting standards. The United States began working with the IASB and has been on course to update GAAP to recognize the same accounting principles and standards as IFRS since 2002, after signing the “Norwalk Agreement.” The merger was originally scheduled for commencement in 2009 but was postponed a couple of times, and it is now set to take effect December fifteenth of next year for US public businesses. Revenue recognition is an accounting principal that determines when income from selling goods, rendering of services, contracts resulting in interest, dividends or royalties can be measurable and will be recorded as revenue. Revenue is the amount of money a business brings in during its
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) have undertaken a joint revenue recognition project that clarifies the principles for recognizing revenue that can be applied consistently across various transactions, industries, and capital markets. This project will apply to all contracts with customers except leases, financial instruments and insurance contracts. The joint project will attempt to remove inconsistencies and weaknesses in existing revenue recognition standards by retrofitting, and thoroughly improving the recognition framework. The project provides a single revenue recognition model to improve comparability over a range of firms
Revenue recognition principle is actually focused on assets and liability recognition, which focuses is Balance sheet and not particularly on the earning process itself, which characterizes Income statement. This approach created multiple problems. First, the same types of transactions in different industries were treated differently. Second, there is a difficulty to apply the principle to the complex transactions, which include multiple goods and services as well as long-time contracts. To illuminate these issues, on May 2014 FASB and IASB
IAS 18 considers the accounting procedure of potential components of revenue organization primarily from transactions involving the sale of goods, rendering of services, as well as through other organizations or individuals property of the reporting organization, giving interest, dividends or royalties. If the probability of the economic
The accounting world is shaped by stringent and clear rules, principles, standards and guidelines. These are all meant to define accounting operations and reporting discipline. With the emergence of International Accounting Standards (IAS), which was later replaced by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the accounting concepts, analysis, disclosures, reporting and presentation became easier and practical. Currently, accountants, managers and related parties find it concrete and consistent in protecting professional boundaries.