IFRS 15 Real estate Revenue complete and accurate recognition

IFRS 15 Real estate

Under IFRS 15 real estate entities recognize revenue over the construction period if certain conditions are met.

Key points

  • An entity must judge whether the different elements of a contract can be separated from each other based on the distinct criteria. A more complex judgment exists for real estate developers that provide services or deliver common properties or amenities in addition to the property being sold.
  • Contract modifications are common in the real estate development industry. Contract modifications might needIFRS 15 Real estate to be accounted for as a new contract, or combined and accounted for together with an existing contract.
  • Real estate managers may structure their arrangements such that services and fees are in different contracts. These contracts may meet the requirements to be accounted for as a combined contract when applying IFRS 15.
  • Real estate management entities are often entitled to several different fees. IFRS 15 will require a manager to consider whether the services should be viewed as a single performance obligation, or whether some of these services are ‘distinct’ and should therefore be treated as separate performance obligations.
  • Variable consideration for entities in the real estate industry may come in the form of claims, awards and incentive payments, discounts, rebates, refunds, credits, price concessions, performance bonuses, penalties or other similar items.
  • Real estate developers will need to consider whether they meet any of the three criteria necessary for recognition of revenue over time.

IFRS 15 core principle

The core principle of IFRS 15 is that revenue reflects the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services.

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The real meaning of Integrated reporting

The real meaning of integrated reporting

Integrated reporting is more than only aimed at informing interested stakeholders about performance achieved against targets, the vision and strategy adopted to serve the stakeholders’ interests, and other factors that can influence business performance in future.

Clearly regulations require companies to exercise transparency. However, a more fundamental reason for reporting lies in accountability: a company needs to account for the impact it has on the stakeholders it relates to. Not exercising such transparency would impose serious risks, including high financing costs to compensate for a lack of transparency or governance or, ultimately, losing the license to operate. By contrast, a transparent approach would not only improve reputation, but also would bind stakeholders such as employees to the company’s objectives.

The reason for including environmental and social factors in reporting

In today’s world companies play a significant role in shaping the future of society. Awareness of this has risen significantly over the last decades, resulting in changed attitudes towards the role business is expected to play.

It also resulted in changes in the views of business leaders about the role they want to play.

Business these days is seen more than ever as the agent of a wide group of stakeholders. Unlike the old paradigm that ‘the business of business is business’, companies accept wider accountability in current times towards the stakeholders whose interests they impact – no longer can companies focus only on the interests of those with a financial interest.

This wider accountability implies that companies have to fulfil the (information) needs of those who provide them with integrated reportingother economic resources such as labour, space, air or natural resources and those who enter into transactions with the organization such as customers. Therefore a company’s current performance and future ability to continue operations and achieve business growth needs to be evaluated on the basis of a comprehensive set of factors that influence these.

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Construction contract – How 2 best account for it in IFRS 15

A construction contract is a contract specifically negotiated for the construction of (a combination of) assets that are closely interrelated in terms of design

Transfer of control for distinct licences

Transfer of control for distinct licencesTransfer of control for distinct licences – IFRS 15 indicates that an entity must determine, at contract inception, whether it will transfer control of a promised good or service over time. If an entity does not satisfy a performance obligation over time, the performance obligation is satisfied at a point in time. A performance obligation is satisfied over time if it meets one of the following criteria: Transfer of control for distinct licences

  • The customer simultaneously receives and consumes the benefits provided by the entity’s performance as the entity performs – by providing hosting services, for example. Transfer of control for distinct licences
  • The entity’s performance creates or enhances an asset that the customer controls as the asset is created
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Satisfaction of performance obligations

Satisfaction of performance obligations – An entity recognises revenue only when it satisfies a performance obligation by transferring control of a promised good or service to the customer. Control of an asset refers to the ability of the customer to direct the use of and obtain substantially all of the cash inflows, or the reduction of cash outflows, generated by the goods or services. Control also means the ability to prevent other entities from directing the use of, and receiving the benefit from, a good or service. Satisfaction of performance obligations

The standard indicates that an entity must determine at contract inception whether it will transfer control of a promised good or service over time. If an entity does not … Read more