"Works well under deadlines" is one of the key skills specified in many job postings, and it is something widely expected of everyone from website editors to account executives. But meeting a given deadline is not always easy, even if you have a lot of experience in your field.
For example, high-profile architectural works such as the Sydney Opera House and the Olympic Stadium in Montreal both missed their original deadlines by years. There is also the related issue of Parkinson's Law, which states that the amount of work will always expand to fill the time allotted for it. As a result, even projects with long lead times often end up as mad dashes to the finish line.
Will this happen with the upcoming shift to ASC 606 and IFRS 15 in accounting? The deadlines in these cases are in December 2017 (for public organizations) and December 2018 (for private ones), which can still seem far off in the distance to someone in 2016. But given the specific requirements of this rev rec shift, the transition should be started as soon as possible.
Why the ASC 606/IFRS 15 transition is closer than it appears
Like an object in a car's rearview mirror, the deadlines for the revenue recognition standards are closer than they appear. This can be seen in how, for instance, a SaaS vendor might manage a current subscription:
- Say the subscription began in 2014 and ran for five years until 2019.
- This duration would take it past both of the ASC 606/IFRS deadlines.
- The contract would then have to be accounted for right now under both old and new rules.
Basically, as Intacct pointed out, the clock is already ticking on any customer contracts, with only a few exceptions (e.g., contracts for leases and some financial instruments). There is an immediate need for dual reporting on expenses, revenues and billings throughout the subscription term, but this is not easily attainable if you work with manual spreadsheet-based processes ill-suited to the complexity of the new standards.
"The clock is already ticking on customer contracts."
Beat the deadlines with cloud financial software
Luckily, there is a better solution to the ASC 606/IFRS 15 shift than crunching numbers by hand and performing redundant error-prone data entry. Intacct provides deep automation for handling the dual treatment of the outgoing GAAP standards as well as the new IFRS 15-based processes of ASC 606.
For specific tasks such as expense management, cloud accounting software like Intacct can even link to specific line items, or to their overall contracts for amortization. Its contract-based architecture is a perfect fit for the heavy emphasis on individual contracts contained in ASC 606 and IFRS 15.
The rev rec deadline is fast approaching.
With Intacct, you are far better equipped to handle every step from configure-price-quote to reporting than you would be if you had stuck with Excel. Intacct gives you easy multi-entity global consolidation and tons of flexible reporting options.
When you set up Intacct with Arxis as your partner, you get additional benefits such as a specific roadmap for implementation, training and ongoing education. Deadlines may not always be easy to work around, but the combo of Intacct and Arxis will give you the tools and expertise you need to adjust to the updated rev rec rules.
