Implementing AASB 15 revenue from contracts with customers: the preparer perspective
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the implementation of AASB 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers to provide insight into preparers’ perspectives on the challenges, costs and benefits experienced in implementing a new and complex standard.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a survey of 143 financial statement preparers engaged in implementing AASB 15.
Findings
The results reveal significant variation in the approach to, and progress in, implementing AASB 15.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides evidence of the role of proprietary costs in implementing a new standard and suggests that preparers adopt a more pragmatic view of the nature of compliance compared to standard-setters.
Practical implications
The evidence in this study strongly suggests that there is little to be gained in deferring effective dates for new standards. It suggests that standard-setters can motivate entities by framing a standard in terms of how it improves the business itself, rather than from a compliance framing.
Originality/value
This study provides a rare perspective on the actual implementation experience of preparers confronted with the introduction of a new standard. Such a perspective is of value to standard-setters and preparers and offers insight to researchers that cannot be gained from traditional capital market archival approaches.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge useful input in the survey design from EY’s Financial Accounting Advisory Group.
Citation
Davern, M., Gyles, N., Potter, B. and Yang, V. (2019), "Implementing AASB 15 revenue from contracts with customers: the preparer perspective", Accounting Research Journal, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 50-67. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARJ-03-2018-0055
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited