Who Will Feel the Biggest Impact of IFRS 15?
The experts say that the most impacted industries are telecom, software development, real estate and other industries with long-term contracts.
If you work in an industry where bundled contracts of “product + service” are quite common, then you should pay attention.
I’m referring mainly to software development or telecommunications, where customers usually buy a prepayment plans with a handset or software development comes with implementation and post-delivery service in 1 package, or any similar arrangements.
Under the new model, companies in telecom and software will probably recognize revenue earlier than under older rules.
Why is that?
Well, because under new IFRS 15, the transaction price must be allocated to the individual performance obligations in the contract and recognized when these obligations are delivered or fulfilled.
It means that under new IFRS 15, telecom operator must allocate a part of the revenue from prepayment plan with free handset to the sale of handset, too.
Under IAS 18, the revenue is defined as a gross inflow of economic benefits arising from ordinary operating activities of an entity.
It means that if the operator gives a handset for free with the prepayment plan, then the revenue from handset is 0.
OK, if that sounds a bit confusing, we’ll better look at numbers.