Ind AS 115, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Detailed)

Ind AS 115: The objective of Ind AS 115 is to establish the principles that an entity shall apply to report useful information to users of financial statements about the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from a contract with a customer.

The standard applies to all contracts with customers, except the lease contracts within the scope of Ind AS 116, Leases; insurance contracts within the scope of Ind AS 104, Insurance Contracts; financial instruments and other contractual rights or obligations; and non-monetary exchanges between entities in the same line of business to facilitate sales to customers or potential customers.

The core principle of Ind AS 115 is that an entity recognises revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. Revenue shall be recognised by an entity in accordance with this core principle by applying the following five steps:

1. Identify contract with a customer: This Standard defines a ‘contract’ and a ‘customer’ and specifies five mandatory criteria to be met for identification of a contract.

2. Identify performance obligations in contract: At contract inception, assess the goods or services promised and identify as a performance obligation each promise to transfer to the customer either:

• (a) a good or service (or a bundle of goods or services) that is distinct; or
• (b) a series of distinct goods or services that are substantially the same and that have the same pattern of transfer to the customer.

3. Determine transaction price: This Standard uses transaction price approach instead of fair value approach in Ind AS 18 while determining amount of consideration. The transaction price is 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).

The consideration promised may include fixed amounts, variable amounts, or both. If the consideration promised in a contract includes a variable amount, an entity shall estimate the amount of consideration to which the entity will be entitled in exchange for transferring the promised goods or services to a customer. Estimate amount of variable consideration by using either the expected value method or the most likely amount method. The transaction price is also adjusted for the effects of the time value of money if the contract includes a significant financing component for any consideration payable to the customer.

4. Allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract: An entity typically allocates the transaction price to each performance obligation on the basis of the relative stand-alone selling prices of each distinct good or service promised in the contract. If a stand-alone selling price is not observable, an entity estimates it. Sometimes, the transaction price includes a discount or a variable amount of consideration that relates entirely to a part of the contract. The requirements specify when an entity allocates the discount or variable consideration to one or more, but not all, performance obligations in the contract. Any subsequent changes in the transaction price shall be allocated to the performance obligations on the same basis as at contract inception. Amounts allocated to a satisfied performance obligation shall be recognised as revenue, or as a reduction of revenue, in the period in which the transaction price changes.

5. Recognise revenue when the entity satisfies a performance obligation: An entity recognises revenue when it satisfies a performance obligation by transferring a promised good or service to a customer (which is when the customer obtains control of that good or service). The amount of revenue recognised is the amount allocated to the satisfied performance obligation. A performance obligation may be satisfied at a point in time or over time. If an entity does not satisfy a performance obligation over time, the performance obligation is satisfied at a point in time. For performance obligations satisfied over time, an entity recognises revenue over time by selecting an appropriate method (output methods and input methods) for measuring the entity’s progress towards complete satisfaction of that performance obligation.

Treatment of Contract Costs

Ind AS 115 specifies the following requirements for contract costs:

1. Incremental costs of obtaining a contract: Those costs that an entity incurs to obtain a contract with a customer that it would not have incurred if the contract had not been obtained. An entity shall recognise these costs as an asset if the entity expects to recover those costs. Costs to obtain a contract that would have been incurred regardless of whether the contract was obtained shall be recognised as an expense when incurred, unless those costs are explicitly chargeable to the customer regardless of whether the contract is obtained.

2. Costs to fulfil a contract: If costs incurred in fulfilling a contract are not within scope of another Standard, entity shall recognise an asset from the costs incurred to fulfil a contract only if some specified criteria are met. If costs incurred in fulfilling a contract are within scope of another Standard, entity shall account for those costs in accordance with those other Standards.

Contract costs recognised as an asset shall be amortised on a systematic basis that is consistent with the transfer to the customer of the goods or services to which the asset relates.

An impairment loss shall be recognised in profit or loss to the extent that the carrying amount of contract costs recognised as an asset exceeds the remaining amount of consideration that the entity expects to receive in exchange for the goods or services to which the asset relates after deducting the costs that relate directly to providing those goods or services and that have not been recognised as expenses.

Presentation

When either party to a contract has performed, an entity shall present the contract in the balance sheet as a contract asset or a contract liability, depending on the relationship between the entity’s performance and the customer’s payment.

• If a customer pays consideration, or an entity has a right to an amount of consideration that is unconditional (i.e. a receivable), before the entity transfers a good or service to the customer, the entity shall present the contract as a contract liability when the payment is made or the payment is due (whichever is earlier).
• If an entity performs by transferring goods or services to a customer before the customer pays consideration or before payment is due, the entity shall present the contract as a contract asset, excluding any amounts presented as a receivable.
• An entity shall present any unconditional rights to consideration separately as a receivable.

Sale with a right of return

To account for the transfer of products with a right of return (and for some services that are provided subject to a refund), an entity shall recognise all of the following:

• revenue for the transferred products in the amount of consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled (therefore, revenue would not be recognised for the products expected to be returned);
• a refund liability; and
• an asset (and corresponding adjustment to cost of sales) for its right to recover products from customers on settling the refund liability.

Warranties

If customer has the option to purchase warranty separately, the warranty is a distinct service because the entity promises to provide the service to the customer in addition to the product that has the functionality described in the contract. In that case, entity shall account for the promised warranty as a performance obligation and allocate a portion of the transaction price to that performance obligation.

Principal versus agent considerations

When another party is involved in providing goods or services to a customer, the entity shall determine whether the nature of its promise is a performance obligation to provide the specified goods or services itself (i.e. the entity is a principal) or to arrange for those goods or services to be provided by the other party (i.e. the entity is an agent). An entity determines whether it is a principal or an agent for each specified good or service promised to the customer. A specified good or service is a distinct good or service (or a distinct bundle of goods or services) to be provided to the customer. If a contract with a customer includes more than one specified good or service, an entity could be a principal for some specified goods or services and an agent for others.

Repurchase agreements

Repurchase agreements generally come in three forms viz. (i) an entity’s obligation to repurchase the asset (a forward); (ii) an entity’s right to repurchase the asset (a call option); and an entity’s obligation to repurchase the asset at the customer’s request (a put option).

Bill-and-hold arrangements

A bill-and-hold arrangement is a contract under which an entity bills a customer for a product but retains physical possession of the product until it is transferred to the customer at a point in time in the future. Ind AS 115 specifies four criteria that must be fulfilled for a customer to have obtained control of a product in a bill-and-hold arrangement.

Disclosure

The objective of the disclosure requirements is for an entity to disclose sufficient information to enable users of financial statements to understand the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from contracts with customers. To achieve that objective, an entity shall disclose qualitative and quantitative information about all of the following:

• its contracts with customers
• the significant judgements, and changes in the judgements, made in applying this Standard to those contracts and
• any assets recognised from the costs to obtain or fulfil a contract with a customer

Appendix D of Ind AS 115 gives guidance on the accounting by operators for public-to-private service concession arrangements. This Appendix applies to both (a) infrastructure that the operator constructs or acquires from a third party for the purpose of the service arrangement; and (b) existing infrastructure to which the grantor gives the operator access for the purpose of the service arrangement. Infrastructure within the scope of this Appendix shall not be recognised as property, plant and equipment of the operator because the contractual service arrangement does not convey the right to control the use of the public service infrastructure to the operator.

• Ind AS 107