"Get started now!" may seem like tired advice for
adopting a new accounting rule — especially the recently
issued revenue recognition standard1, which won't be
effective until Jan. 1, 2017, for calendar-year public companies
and 2018 for nonpublic firms. But these seemingly distant dates are
no excuse for delay: Successful adoption of the standard may
require that new processes be in place as early as next year. It is
indeed time for audit committees to begin work on implementing this
wide-ranging, extraordinarily significant accounting standard.
Audit committees should now be discussing with management its
assessment of the impact of the standard — not just on
financial statements, but also on company operations, policies and
procedures. "There can be many implications for the new
standard on various parts of the business," says Jeff French,
national managing partner of Grant Thornton LLP's Consumer and
Industrial Products practice. "Will it have an effect on
