By Steve Carter, CPA, Principal
The COVID-19 pandemic created unique conditions for businesses in the Bay Area and across California. The combination of forced business closures and stay-at-home orders left many companies in uncharted waters. Some were forced to close while others had to find new ways to deliver products and services to customers. At the same time, many were searching for new lines of credit, business loans, or other ways to access working capital. It was against this backdrop that FASB made the decision to delay the implementation of ASC 842 (new lease accounting rules) by one year, starting with reporting periods after December 15, 2021. Although early adoption was permitted, many decided to delay implementation to focus on pandemic-related issues. As the recovery continues and year-end is just a few months away, businesses need to re-examine the new lease accounting rules to ensure compliance.
On November 10, 2021, the FASB Board decided not to provide a third effective date deferral of Topic 842 for entities within the scope of paragraph 842-10-65-1(b) (generally private companies and certain not-for-profit organizations). (more…)
By Patrick Ngai, CPA, Audit Manager
Proactive and careful planning is an essential part of managing a successful Silicon Valley business. Executives often spend the closing months of the year engaged in a comprehensive analysis of business performance and identifying future goals and benchmarks. Typically, this process includes a close look at sales numbers, account management, production timelines, new service/product innovation and budgeting. In addition, time is spent reviewing department performance, conducting individual employee reviews and determining whether it is time to bring additional resources to the table. While all of these are necessary tasks to maintain the vitality of a business, it is important to also dedicate time to planning for the unexpected. Businesses in California need to operate against the backdrop of natural disasters such as earthquakes and wildfires. For this reason, it is imperative to have a disaster recovery plan in place should the unexpected occur. Below is a summary of key planning issues to consider. (more…)
By Patrick Ngai, CPA, Audit Manager
Here we are, well into the month of December 2019. It seems like almost yesterday when I wrote the article, Top Tech Trends in 2018. As they say, time waits for absolutely nobody. As we prepare to say goodbye to the 2010s as a decade, I would like to take a minute to summarize five technology trends from the past twelve months. (more…)
By Patrick Ngai, CPA, Audit Manager
ASL Technology Group
When ASC 842 – Leases (“ASC 842”) was first published in 2016, the effective date for non-public entities was scheduled for 2020. The date seemed so far away that most people took the, “we will cross that bridge when we come to it” approach. To be fair, most people were too concerned about the new revenue recognition standard (ASC 606) to worry about anything else. (more…)
By Sylvia Chan, CPA, Tax Manager
The Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA), P.L. 115-97 enacted in December 2017 has brought about exciting changes to the tax world. I would like to draw your attention to a provision that was written specifically to encourage U.S. companies to expand their operations globally without leaving the United States. Some technology companies have moved their intangible assets offshore to low-income tax jurisdictions and shifted the related income outside the United States. While tax-avoidance may not always be the primary motive, it was an inevitable truth that the U.S. Treasury was losing a portion of its revenue due to this income shifting tactic. (more…)
By Guest Blogger: Ed Correia, Founder of Sagacent Technologies
The majority of us are online regularly and during these interactions, businesses collect vast amounts of data about their clients. Your business gathers multiple pieces of information, such as birthdays, addresses, and purchasing preferences, not to mention credit card and other billing records. Right there, you now have all the information a hacker would need for identity theft. Not only does it cost your clients, but it costs businesses globally around $221 billion a year. (more…)
By Sheila Foley, Accounting Consultant
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enacted in late December, 2017 and it significantly altered the tax laws applicable to individual taxpayers. The significant changes included: reduction in tax rates and modification of brackets, increase in the standard deduction, repeal of personal exemptions, limitation on deductions for state and local taxes, mortgage interest, home equity loan interest and elimination of deduction for miscellaneous itemized deductions. (more…)
By Josh Cross, CPA, Principal
After all the research and analysis put in working through the prior four steps, you are now able to begin the process for recognizing revenue for the transaction price (Step 3) which has been allocated to each performance obligation (Step 4).
Each performance obligation identified in Step 2 can be satisfied by either the transfer of a promised good or by performing a service to the customer. This distinction will be the main driver for the next decision that needs to be made, and that is, whether the revenue needs to be recorded over time or at a point in time. For a good majority of the identified performance obligations, a good or service will be transferred/consumed over a period of time and therefore revenue would be recognized over that same time period. ASC 606 has helped in this analysis by providing guidance, so to recognize revenue over time, one of the following criteria needs to be met: (more…)
By Josh Cross, CPA, Principal
Now that all of the performance obligations (Step 2) of the contract have been separately identified, it’s time to determine a transaction price. Seems easy, right?
ASC 606 defines the transaction price as “the amount of consideration to which an entity expects to be entitled in exchange for transferring promised goods or services to a customer, excluding amounts collected on behalf of third parties (for example, some sales taxes).” On the surface this sounds like an easy step for your entity to identify the price you are selling a product for, but in practice we know that not all transaction prices are fixed at the onset of the contract. When calculating the transaction price, an entity needs to consider all of the following: (more…)