Revenue recognition is a critical issue for companies. Proper revenue accounting can be complex, particularly when vendors provide a mix of products and services, making it difficult to determine the appropriate timing and amount of revenue to be recognized. Financial reporting standards require disentangling multiple revenue streams to ensure that revenue is not recognized before it is earned. Compliance with recognition standards can affect access to capital, firm valuation, and employee bonuses. Errors can have severe consequences, including earning restatements. The case discusses key issues in revenue recognition, with particular focus on transactions with multiple deliverables. It uses Fluidigm Corporation to illustrate revenue recognition principles. This company sells a range of products, including analytical instruments, disposables, software, and services. The case also illustrates the evolving nature of revenue recognition standards, and the consequences of guidance changes on financial reporting and company procedures.

The case discusses the current US and international accounting guidance regarding the disclosure of contingent and environmental liabilities, including FAS 5 and IAS 37. It then addresses the role of socially responsible investors and other factors that gave rise to the FASB revisiting its guidance. The case details the proposed new guidance and includes perspectives from various constituent groups (financial statement preparers and users) on its pros and cons. The case concludes with an example of existing guidance in practice using Novartis AG. It includes Novartis' financial and other quantitative disclosures regarding environmental liabilities, and its liability from a dumpsite in Bonfol, Switzerland, in particular.

International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39, Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement, has attracted considerable controversy throughout its development. Major European financial institutions and political agencies lobbied heavily against the development of certain provisions within the standard. Jacques Chirac, the president of France, suggested that the accounting treatment prescribed in IAS 39 threatens the stability of the European economic structure. Despite its efforts to accommodate constituents' concerns, the International Accounting Standards board refused to fully concede to lobby pressure and implemented a compromise standard in March 2004. As a result, the European Union's Accounting Regulatory Committee voted to recommend that the European Commission only partially adopt IAS 39, effectively "carving-out" two provisions that were the focal point of debate. Explores the history of IAS 39, describes the IAS 39 prescribed accounting treatment for fair value and cash flow hedges, outlines heavily debated issues surrounding macro hedge accounting, and illustrates the impact of politics in the accounting standard setting process. Also explores the implications of the European Commission's "carve-out" on the viability of the International Accounting Standards board and the board's overriding goal of global harmonization of financial reporting standards.