In the midst of the buzz around the Groupon IPO in the last half of 2011, Groupon was forced to restate its pre-IPO revenues to nearly half of what was previously reported at the request of the SEC. Why? The SEC required Groupon to report its revenues at net proceeds (the amount a merchant actually pays Groupon to run an ad) instead of gross proceeds (the total out of pocket amount a customer actually pays to Groupon for an online coupon, which includes the merchant’s share). As we reflect on the lessons learned from this, it begs the question: What should you think about when reporting your revenues at gross vs. net?…