Reconsidering Revenue Recognition

This commentary summarizes the materials presented and some of the discussion at the November 2007 AAA/FASB Financial Reporting Issues Conference. The topic of the conference was revenue recognition, and the IASB/FASB were considering two new models: the customer consideration model and the measurement model. This commentary provides some background on revenue recognition, discusses the need for a new model, and presents the two models. The conference discussion highlighted that the two proposed models are based on a single conceptual approach but differ in measurement issues. Key aspects in both models are the identification of contractual performance obligations between the seller and customer (which gives rise to a contract liability) and determining when the performance obligation is satisfied (equivalently, when the contract liability is extinguished) and revenue is recognized. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]