WHEN companies should recognise revenues on their books is one of the most contentious and consequential issues in the staid profession of accounting. For simple sales of goods the timing is usually straightforward, but in the areas of services and long-term contracts it gets murky fast. Companies may manipulate the “top line” of their accounts—their revenues—say, by booking sales they are not yet sure of (to boost their reported profits) or not booking sales that they are certain of.

In Britain the controversy surfaced again after HP’s takeover of Autonomy in 2011. The American firm later took a big write-down on its purchase, blaming it in part on the British software firm having pumped up its reported revenues by counting expected subscription fees as current sales .

Revenue recognition is perhaps the biggest headache for investors trying to compare companies in different countries. The GAAP standard used in the United States is Byzantine, with more than 100 different protocols for various permutations of transactions and industries, whereas the IFRS rules applied in most of the rest of the world offer only broad guidance.

Following 12 years of consultation, on May 28th the boards that control the two accounting systems released a new joint standard they hope will put these issues to rest. Scheduled to take effect in 2017, it represents a neat middle ground, adopting the IFRS’s principle of one size to fit all industries, but with GAAP-style clarity. It spells out how companies will have to break down sales contracts into their component obligations and allocate the total value among them, estimating the worth of any variable fees they expect, like performance bonuses. Firms will then recognise the revenue assigned to each individual element as it is completed.(Economist)

翻译：

公司应当认识到其报表上所列载的收入项在有着固定准则的专业会计上是最容易引起争议以及一系列问题内容之一。就简单的商品销售而言，其时间的记录是简单的明了的，但是在服务以及长期合同领域，记录的问题就变得模糊而复杂。公司有可能会巧妙的操纵他们账目上的“头条”—即收入—也就是说，将那些还未最终确定的订单以及那些他们肯定不会有的订单，列为收入项。

在英国，在2011年惠普收购Autonomy之后，争议再一次的浮出水面。美国公司随后将收购的账面价值故意调低，指责英国的软件公司在一定程度上通过将预期的会员费用当成当期销售收入入账以达到通过虚增收入来美化其账目的目的。

收入确认可能投资者试图比较公司不同的账目时最令他们头疼的事情。在美国，一般公认会计准则是拜占庭式的，这项准则针对各行各业的不同事物的之间的穿插交易制定了100多项的错综复杂的条款，与此同时世界其他地方所用的国际财务报告准则却仅仅是提供了广泛的直到。

经过十二年的协商之后，在5月28日控制两个会计系统的委员会发布出了一个新的联合标准他们希望可以用来解决这些问题。这个标准计划将于2017年生效，它描绘了一个干净的中间地带，采纳了国际财务报告准则的统一标准来适应各行各业，但是会像一般公认会计原则那样清楚明了。它阐述了公司应当怎样将销售合同分解为义务的组成和并且如何将总值分配其间，如何预估他们所期望的各种可变费用诸如绩效奖金等费用的价值。公司也将承认这些已经完成的被分配到每个单元的收入。