The new lease accounting standard issued by the Financial
Accounting Standards Board (FASB) goes live in 2019 for public
companies and 2020 for private ones. But a year before that,
companies will be busy trying to implement another major accounting
rule change: the revenue recognition standard. Like the lease
standard, the revenue recognition standard is expected to require
sweeping changes for a wide variety of businesses.
Published in 2014, Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No.
2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, is
effective in 2018 for most public companies and 2019 for most
private companies. It replaces reams of industry-specific guidance
in U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) with a
broad, principles-based method for most businesses to tally
revenues. Retailers generally don't expect to see a significant
change in how or when they record revenues, because a customer
buying, say, sweaters at a store, is a straightforward
