Recent accounting pronouncements |
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Mar. 31, 2017 | |||||||||||||
| New Accounting Pronouncements and Changes in Accounting Principles [Abstract] | |||||||||||||
| Recent accounting pronouncements |
Recent accounting pronouncements
In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. In addition, the FASB has issued additional updates covering technical items and changing the date of adoption. This new standard will change the manner in which we evaluate revenue recognition for all contracts with customers, although the effect of the changes on revenue recognition will vary from contract to contract. We will adopt this standard during our 2019 fiscal year. We have established a cross-functional steering committee which includes representatives from across all our business and support segments. The steering committee is responsible for evaluating the impact of the standard on our operations including accounting, taxation, internal audit and financial systems. Our approach to analyzing these impacts includes reviewing our current accounting policies and practices to identify potential differences that will result from applying the requirements of the new standard to our existing contracts. In addition, we are in the process of evaluating the changes needed to our business processes, systems and controls in order to support revenue recognition and the related disclosures under the new standard. The standard permits a retrospective or cumulative effect transition method. We anticipate that we will adopt the new standard using the retrospective method.
In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases. The new standard will change the manner in which we will present our leasing arrangements. This standard would be effective during our 2020 fiscal year, although early adoption is permitted. We are evaluating the likely effects on our business.
In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-09, Stock Compensation, Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting. We adopted this standard in the current year. The new standard requires us to record the tax benefit or expense related to the vesting of RSUs or the exercise of stock options within our provision for income taxes in the consolidated statement of operations; this benefit was previously reported in the statement of changes in shareholders’ equity. The cash flow effects of the tax benefit will be reported in cash flows from operations; they were previously in cash flows from financing activities. The new standard allows us more flexibility in net settling RSUs as they vest. The new standard also allows for changes in accounting for the forfeiture of stock awards; we will continue to estimate our stock award forfeitures as we expense each award. This new standard has had the following effects in fiscal year 2017:
The new standard does not require us to adjust previously reported results. Accordingly, we have made no changes to our consolidated statements of operations, cash flows or changes in shareholders' equity for any comparative periods.
In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-04, Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment. This standard will not change the manner in which we would identify a goodwill impairment but would change the manner of the calculation of any resulting impairment. Under existing guidance, we would calculate goodwill for each of our reporting units by calculating the fair value of all existing assets and liabilities within that reporting unit and comparing this to the fair value of the reporting unit; to the extent that this difference is less than our existing goodwill balance related to that reporting unit, we would record an impairment. The new standard will require us to calculate goodwill based upon the difference between the fair value and reported value of a reporting unit. This standard would be effective for our 2021 fiscal year, although early adoption is permitted. Our annual goodwill impairment test takes place as of July 1 and we have not yet decided whether we will adopt this standard early.
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