Accounting leaders need a wake-up call on revenue recognition

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Jun 01, 2016

On June 1, 2016, Compliance Week released an article where they discuss that with 18 months remaining until all companies are required to report revenue following hundreds of pages of new accounting guidance, accounting leaders are a little stumped on why companies aren’t taking more action to prepare.

At Compliance Week’s recent annual conference, a session on the massive new revenue recognition standard was perhaps the most sparsely attended. In an onsite poll of those in the room, more than half said they came from companies that hadn’t yet decided how they would adopt the new standard. That’s a troubling sign that those companies probably hadn’t yet completed even a high-level assessment to determine how they will be affected by the new requirements.

Chris Chiriatti, managing director at Deloitte & Touche says: “The results are somewhat—I wouldn’t say surprising—maybe alarming.”

“It’s an indicator that many companies view this as 18 months from now,” said Eric Knachel, senior consultation partner also with Deloitte. They have other more time-sensitive priorities, perhaps, or limited resources to devote to the effort. He adds that “the next three to nine months will be critical.”

Review the article on (Free Registration Required) Compliance Week's Web site.

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