IFRS 15: Revenue Recognition

IFRS 15 At A Glance

IFRS 15 establishes a single and comprehensive framework which sets out how much revenue is to be recognized, and when. The core principle is that a vendor should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the vendor expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services.

IFRS in Practice: IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers

On 28 May 2014, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers. IFRS 15 sets out a single and comprehensive framework for revenue recognition, which supersedes (IAS 18 Revenue and IAS 11 Construction Contracts) and the accompanied Interpretations. In common with other recently issued IFRSs, IFRS 15 includes comprehensive application guidance and illustrative examples, together with a detailed section which sets out how the IASB reached its decisions about the new requirements (the Basis for Conclusions).

The standard also introduces an overall disclosure objective together with significantly enhanced disclosure requirements for revenue recognition. These are accompanied by an explicit statement that immaterial information does not need to be disclosed and that the disclosure requirements should not be used as a checklist. In practice, even if the timing and profile of revenue recognition did not change, new and/or modified processes might have been needed in order to obtain the necessary information.