Guiding Professional Accountants to Do the Right Thing

Paul  Healy; V.G.   Narayanan; Penelope  Rossano

Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2015

Guiding Professional Accountants to Do the Right Thing

by Paul Healy, V.G. Narayanan and Penelope Rossano

Abstract

The Ethics Advisory Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) provides training and support for member Chartered Accountants to help them deal with difficult professional situations. Members can seek help through call centers and in-person meetings with accounting experts in the field to discuss how to best handle difficult situations. In addition, the Ethics Advisory Committee meets regularly to identify new issues that raise questions for professional standards. This case examines professional standards for ICAEW Chartered Accountants and a number of challenging ethical situations that members have faced.

Keywords: accounting; ethics; professional conduct;

Language: English

Format: Print

11 pages

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Citation:

Healy, Paul, V.G. Narayanan, and Penelope Rossano. "Guiding Professional Accountants to Do the Right Thing." Harvard Business School Case 115-028, March 2015.

Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2018 (Revised February 2019)

Revenue Recognition at HBP

Paul Healy and Siko Sikochi

In early 2014, Paul Bills, CFO of Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), sat down with David Wan, the company’s CEO, to discuss budget preparations for the coming year. Bills noted that the performance of Corporate Learning, one of HBP’s three business units, would be affected by a business model change for its largest product that required a change in the timing of revenue recognition. Corporate Learning was in the process of revamping its flagship product, Harvard Manage-Mentor (HMM) from version 11.0 (HMM11) to version 12.0 (HMM12). The revamped software would be hosted exclusively on HBP’s server rather than on its clients’ servers, allowing updates to take place continuously. Given the change, accounting standards required HBP to change the recognition of revenue from the date of software delivery (for HMM11) to ratable recognition over its contract life (for HMM12). As Bills and Wan discussed the accounting change, they recognized that its impact on Corporate Learning’s and HBP’s performance could be material and would have to be reflected in the budget. In addition, they wondered how the new accounting would affect the company’s policy for awarding sales incentive compensation on HMM, as well as how they communicated with employees and the firm’s sole shareholder, the Harvard Business School.

Keywords: Accrual Accounting; Budgets and Budgeting; Revenue Recognition; Financial Reporting; Publishing Industry; Education Industry; United States;

Citation:

Healy, Paul, and Siko Sikochi. "Revenue Recognition at HBP." Harvard Business School Case 119-029, August 2018. (Revised February 2019.) View Details

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In early 2014, Corporate Learning, one of three business units at Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), was in the process of revamping its flagship product, Harvard Manage-Mentor (HMM) from version 11.0 (HMM11) to version 12.0 (HMM12). The revamped software would be hosted exclusively on HBP’s server, allowing updates to take place continuously. Given the change, accounting standards required HBP to change the recognition of revenue from the date of software delivery (for HMM11) to ratable recognition over its contract life (for HMM12). As Paul Bills (CFO of HBP) and David Wan (HBP’s CEO) discussed the accounting change, they recognized that its impact on Corporate Learning’s and HBP’s performance could be material and would have to be reflected in the budget. In addition, they wondered how the new accounting would affect the company’s policy for awarding sales incentive compensation on HMM, as well as how they communicated with employees and the firm’s sole shareholder, the Harvard Business School.

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Guiding Professional Accountants to Do the Right Thing

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