SAP has released the latest enhancements to its revenue accounting platform designed to help CFOs and chief accounting officers master the new IFRS 15/ASC 606 standards. These new accounting standards apply to all entities — public, private, and not-for-profit — that have contracts with customers and will supersede virtually all current revenue accounting requirements.

The SAP Revenue Accounting and Reporting application automates and simplifies revenue accounting and supports companies as they comply with both current and impending accounting standards. This is the first in a series of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) solutions from SAP designed to help finance executives comply with IFRS 15, IFRS 16, and IFRS 9.

“CFOs are facing a perfect storm of accounting regulation, with three major IFRS standards converging in rapid succession,” said Thack Brown, general manager and global head of line of business finance, SAP. “Time to implement these new processes is running out.”

“It takes approximately 18 months for the average Fortune 1000 company to make a change of this magnitude, and we just passed that point in the countdown to the mandatory effective date of the new standards,” Brown said. “Corporate finance departments should act now to ensure that they are prepared for the transition and have the right tools to automate and simplify the process.”

Passed in 2014, and known as ASC 606 in the United States, the new IFRS 15 revenue recognition standard eliminates the transaction and industry-specific revenue recognition guidance under current U.S. GAAP and replaces it with a principle-based approach for determining revenue recognition. The change can affect companies’ reported revenue, how and when they report financial performance, and overall financial decision making. The rule generally takes effect in 2018 for public and 2019 for private companies, and requires multiple quarters of testing and preparation.

New features in the SAP Revenue Accounting and Reporting 1.2 release include cost recognition, capitalized costs integration with project systems and results analysis from SAP, improved contract combination and modification capabilities, and integration with service and billing scenarios in the SAP Customer Relationship Management application, plus advanced features for transition to the new IFRS 15/ASC 606 accounting standards.

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