Rev Rec for Arrangements that include only SW and PCS/Upgrades--SOP 97-2 be followed?

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The following was a question posed by a CFO during a recent Revenue Recognition webinar:

Undelivered PCS/ upgrades related to "essential" SW are scoped out of SOP 97-2 if HW is included in the arrangement? If an arrangement includes only SW and PCS/Upgrades, would the guidance of SOP 97-2 be followed?
 

The webinar speakers will offer their thoughts, but please feel free to comment and share your perspective as well.

Answers

David Elsbree's Profile

To answer the second question first, software arrangements that do not contain hardware are within the scope of ASC Subtopic 985-605 (SOP 97-2), rather than ASC Subtopic 605-25 (EITF 08-1).

Regarding the first question, if an arrangement contains hardware and both “essential” and “non-essential” software and related PCS/upgrades, the hardware, the essential software, and PCS/upgrades related to the essential software are outside the scope of ASC Subtopic 985-605, and the non-essential software and PCS/upgrades related to the non-essential software are in the scope of ASC Subtopic 985-605.

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