Under GAAP, when lessors such as Xerox enter into a "sales type lease" they must recognize immediately nearly all of the revenue attributed to the value of the product, but must spread recognition of financing, servicing and supply revenues over the life of the lease. Traditionally, Xerox local offices in each country booked the value of leased products at the time a lease was entered into, accounting also for the cost of financing and servicing the equipment during the lease period, based on local market conditions. Beginning in at least 1997, Xerox altered its accounting to treat more finance and servicing revenue as part of the value of the equipment, allowing Xerox to recognize a greater portion of revenue from new leases immediately in its financial statements. These calculations were made either by management at Stamford or by local country managers based on explicit assumptions dictated by Stamford, which ignored local economic conditions. In the complaint, the Commission referred to these new methods as "topside accounting devices" imposed by senior Xerox financial managers. Xerox told KPMG it needed to resort to these improper accounting devices because it could no longer rely on the traditional way it established the fair value of its products.