Consider the following excerpts from revenue recognition disclosure notes:
1. eBay: “The transaction price is allocated to each performance obligation based on its stand-alone selling price (SSP). In instances where SSP is not directly observable, we generally estimate selling prices based on when they are sold to customers of a similar nature and geography. These estimates are generally based on pricing strategies, market factors, strategic objectives and observable inputs.”
2. Oracle: “We are unable to establish the SSP for our cloud licenses and on-premise licenses based on observable prices given the same products are sold for a broad range of amounts (that is, the selling price is highly variable) and a representative SSP is not discernible from past transactions or other observable evidence. As a result, the SSP for a cloud license and an on-premise license included in a contract with multiple performance obligations is determined by applying an . . . approach whereby all other performance obligations within a contract are first allocated a portion of the transaction price based upon their respective SSPs, with any (remaining) amount of transaction price allocated to cloud license and onpremise license revenues.”
3. Lockheed Martin: “We primarily sell customized solutions unique to a customer’s specifications. When it is necessary to allocate the transaction price to multiple performance obligations, we typically use the expected cost plus a reasonable profit margin to estimate the standalone selling price of each product or service.”
4. EMCOR: “The Company determines the standalone selling price based on the price at which the performance obligation would have been sold separately in similar circumstances to similar customers. If the standalone selling price is not observable, the Company estimates the standalone selling price taking into account all available information such as market conditions and internal pricing guidelines.”
5. EMCOR: “In certain circumstances, the standalone selling price is determined using an expected profit margin on anticipated costs related to the performance obligation.”
Required:
Based only on the information provided in each excerpt, identify the approach used by the company to estimate stand-alone selling prices.
