Caring for your construction workforce

We have talked about the two recent GAAP updates for years now: 1) changes to the lease accounting and 2) changes to revenue recognition standards. We have speculated what the outcomes are going to be and how they will affect the financial statements, requirements for certain ratio calculations and the like, and finally we have some answers! Both standards were finalized and published, and will be in effect in 2019 and 2020. The new rules for both require more than a couple of hours of reading and can be very confusing.

Two questions we have heard recently: Are the changes intertwined? And do we now need to consider the new revenue recognition standard when we implement the new lease accounting? The answer is a resounding NO!

The new GAAP for revenue recognition is very clear about this: it specifically carves out lease contracts. As a matter of fact, accounting applied by lessors will not change significantly when the new lease rules come into effect. If you are a lessor, you will continue to classify the majority of operating leases as operating leases, and will recognize lease income for those leases on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease. However, if you find the new rules confusing, your BerryDunn team is standing by to help you get the answers you need.

The good news? When it comes to revenue recognition, tax law isn’t changing. The bad news? Thanks to new revenue recognition rules, book to tax differences are changing. And because tax prep generally starts with book income, this means that the construction industry, among others, will need to start changing their thinking about tax liability, too.

The goal of the new rules is to establish standards for reporting useful information in financial statements about the nature, amount, timing, and uncertainty of revenue from long-term contracts with customers. The standards aim to clarify the principles for recognizing revenue. You can apply standards consistently across various transactions, industries, and capital markets — in order to improve financial reporting by creating common guidance for U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The core principle is that you should recognize revenue in an amount and at a time that aligns with expectations for the actual amount to be earned when it is actually earned (i.e., when the goods or services are delivered). That’s different from what we do today. Here are some areas affected by the changes:

Uninstalled materials

Under current GAAP, the costs of uninstalled materials, if constructed specifically for the job, are included in the job cost. Under the new GAAP, contractors will recognize the revenue only to the extent of the cost or will capitalize them as inventory—you will recognize profits later. For tax purposes, uninstalled materials are still included in the job cost. You will have to recognize profits for tax purposes sooner than for book purposes.

Multiple performance obligations

Under the new GAAP, you may have to segregate one contract into two or more performance obligations — those revenues are recognized separately. For tax purposes, it is very difficult to segregate a contract (it requires a tax commissioner’s prior written consent) so a contractor might have to show one contract for tax purposes and two or three contracts for book purposes. For example, if you have a contract for a design build project and generally bid separately for the design phase and construction phase of this type of project, you might have to separate this contract into two performance obligations. For tax purposes, you will continue to treat this project as a single contract. These contracts most likely will have different profit margins and you will have to recognize revenue at a different pace.

 Variable consideration

Under current GAAP, contractors can’t recognize revenue on bonus payments until they are realized, usually at the end of the project. Under the new GAAP, contractors need to gauge the probability of the bonus payments’ being received and may have to include some or all of the bonus payments in the contract price — you will have to recognize revenue sooner. For tax purposes, variable considerations are included in the contract price when contractors can reasonably expect to collect them. The general practice is that tax follows what you record for books for the total contract price. Does this mean that you have to recognize revenue for tax purposes sooner, too? Or will it create a book to tax difference, subject to judgement? The IRS may be issuing some guidance on these issues.

Deferred taxes

With changes in book to tax differences due to changes in timing of when you recognize profits, there will also be a change in deferred taxes.

After implementing the new GAAP, you will need to segregate items like variable consideration and uninstalled materials. Even if your tax method doesn’t change, will you need to maintain and provide the information needed for tax return purposes? More companies might ask the IRS for permission to make accounting method changes for federal income tax purposes. The IRS may consider allowing an automatic method change in order to help companies conform more easily to the new standards. The IRS will also provide guidance on how the new revenue recognition rules affect tax reporting.  

Accounting for GAAP purposes isn’t the same thing as accounting for tax purposes. But when it comes to the new revenue recognition rules, things can get complicated. To learn more about accounting method changes you might need to make, get in touch with your BerryDunn team today and see how the rules may affect your company.

Executive compensation, bonuses, and other cost structure items, such as rent, are often contentious issues in business valuations, as business valuations are often valued by reference to the income they produce. If the business being valued pays its employees an above-market rate, for example, its income will be depressed. Accordingly, if no adjustments are made, the value of the business will also be diminished.

When valuing controlling ownership interests, valuation analysts often restate above- or below-market items (compensation, bonuses, rent, etc.) to a fair market level to reflect what a hypothetical buyer would pay. In the valuation of companies with ESOPs, the issue gets more complicated. The following hypothetical example illustrates why.

Glamorous Grocery is a company that is 100% owned by an ESOP. A valuation analyst is retained to estimate the fair market value of each ESOP share. Glamorous Grocery generates very little income, in part because several executives are overcompensated. The valuation analyst normalizes executive compensation to a market level. This increases Glamorous Grocery’s income, and by extension the fair market value of Glamorous Grocery, ultimately resulting in a higher ESOP share value.

Glamorous Grocery’s trustee then uses this valuation to establish the market price of ESOP shares for the following year. When employees retire, Glamorous Grocery buys employees out at the established share price. The problem? As mentioned before, Glamorous Grocery generates very little income and as a result has difficulty obtaining the liquidity to buy out employees.

This simple example illustrates the concerns about normalizing executive compensation in ESOP valuations. If you reduce executive compensation for valuation purposes, the share price increases, putting a heavier burden on the company when you redeem shares. The company, which already has reduced income from paying above-market executive compensation, may struggle to redeem shares at the established price.

While control-level adjustments may be common, it is worth considering whether they are appropriate in an ESOP valuation. It is important that the benefit stream reflect the underlying economic reality of the company to ensure longevity of the company and the company’s ESOP.

Questions? Our valuation team will be happy to help. 

BerryDunn’s Business Valuation Group partners with clients to bring clarity to the complexities of business valuation, while adhering to strict development and reporting standards. We render an independent, objective opinion of your company’s value in a reporting format tailored to meet your needs. We thoroughly analyze the financial and operational performance of your company to understand the story behind the numbers. We assess current and forecasted market conditions as they impact present and future cash flows, which in turn drives value.

Read this if your CFO has recently departed, or if you're looking for a replacement.

With the post-Covid labor shortage, “the Great Resignation,” an aging workforce, and ongoing staffing concerns, almost every industry is facing challenges in hiring talented staff. To address these challenges, many organizations are hiring temporary or interim help—even for C-suite positions such as Chief Financial Officers (CFOs).

You may be thinking, “The CFO is a key business partner in advising and collaborating with the CEO and developing a long-term strategy for the organization; why would I hire a contractor to fill this most-important role?” Hiring an interim CFO may be a good option to consider in certain circumstances. Here are three situations where temporary help might be the best solution for your organization.

Your organization has grown

If your company has grown since you created your finance department, or your controller isn’t ready or suited for a promotion, bringing on an interim CFO can be a natural next step in your company’s evolution, without having to make a long-term commitment. It can allow you to take the time and fully understand what you need from the role — and what kind of person is the best fit for your company’s future.

BerryDunn's Kathy Parker, leader of the Boston-based Outsourced Accounting group, has worked with many companies to help them through periods of transition. "As companies grow, many need team members at various skill levels, which requires more money to pay for multiple full-time roles," she shared. "Obtaining interim CFO services allows a company to access different skill levels while paying a fraction of the cost. As the company grows, they can always scale its resources; the beauty of this model is the flexibility."

If your company is looking for greater financial skill or advice to expand into a new market, or turn around an underperforming division, you may want to bring on an outsourced CFO with a specific set of objectives and timeline in mind. You can bring someone on board to develop growth strategies, make course corrections, bring in new financing, and update operational processes, without necessarily needing to keep those skills in the organization once they finish their assignment. Your company benefits from this very specific skill set without the expense of having a talented but expensive resource on your permanent payroll.

Your CFO has resigned

The best-laid succession plans often go astray. If that’s the case when your CFO departs, your organization may need to outsource the CFO function to fill the gap. When your company loses the leader of company-wide financial functions, you may need to find someone who can come in with those skills and get right to work. While they may need guidance and support on specifics to your company, they should be able to adapt quickly and keep financial operations running smoothly. Articulating short-term goals and setting deadlines for naming a new CFO can help lay the foundation for a successful engagement.

You don’t have the budget for a full-time CFO

If your company is the right size to have a part-time CFO, outsourcing CFO functions can be less expensive than bringing on a full-time in-house CFO. Depending on your operational and financial rhythms, you may need the CFO role full-time in parts of the year, and not in others. Initially, an interim CFO can bring a new perspective from a professional who is coming in with fresh eyes and experience outside of your company.

After the immediate need or initial crisis passes, you can review your options. Once the temporary CFO’s agreement expires, you can bring someone new in depending on your needs, or keep the contract CFO in place by extending their assignment.

Considerations for hiring an interim CFO

Making the decision between hiring someone full-time or bringing in temporary contract help can be difficult. Although it oversimplifies the decision a bit, a good rule of thumb is: the more strategic the role will be, the more important it is that you have a long-term person in the job. CFOs can have a wide range of duties, including, but not limited to:

• Financial risk management, including planning and record-keeping
• Management of compliance and regulatory requirements
• Creating and monitoring reliable control systems
• Debt and equity financing
• Financial reporting to the Board of Directors

If the focus is primarily overseeing the financial functions of the organization and/or developing a skilled finance department, you can rely — at least initially — on a CFO for hire.

Regardless of what you choose to do, your decision will have an impact on the financial health of your organization — from avoiding finance department dissatisfaction or turnover to capitalizing on new market opportunities. Getting outside advice or a more objective view may be an important part of making the right choice for your company.

BerryDunn can help whether you need extra assistance in your office during peak times or interim leadership support during periods of transition. We offer the expertise of a fully staffed accounting department for short-term assignments or long-term engagements―so you can focus on your business. Meet our interim assistance experts.

So far in our value acceleration article series, we have talked about increasing the value of your business and building liquidity into your life starting with taking inventory of where you are at and aligning values, reducing risk, and increasing intangible value.

In this article, we are going to focus on planning and execution. How these action items are introduced and executed may be just as important as the action items themselves. We still need to protect value before we can help it grow. Let’s say you had a plan, a good plan, to sell your business and start a new one. Maybe a bed-and-breakfast on the coast? You’ve earmarked the 70% in cash proceeds to bolster your retirement accounts. The remaining 30% was designed to generate cash for the down payment on the bed-and-breakfast. And it is stuck in escrow or, worse yet, tied to an earn-out. Now, the waiting begins. When do you get to move on to the next phase? After all that hard work in the value acceleration process, you still didn’t get where you wanted to go. What went wrong?

Many business owners stumble at the end because they lack a master plan that incorporates their business action items and personal action items. Planning and execution in the value acceleration process was the focus of our conversation with a group of business owners and advisors on Thursday, April 11th.

Business valuation master plan steps to take

A master plan should include both business actions and personal actions. We uncovered a number of points that resonated with business owners in the room. Almost every business owner has some sort of action item related to employees, whether it’s hiring new employees, advancing employees into new roles, or helping employees succeed in their current roles. A review of financial practices may also benefit many businesses. For example, by revisiting variable vs. fixed costs, companies may improve their bidding process and enhance profitability. 

Master plan business improvement action items:

• Customer diversification and contract implementation
• Inventory management
• Use of relevant metrics and dashboards
• Financial history and projections
• Systems and process refinement

A comprehensive master plan should also include personal action items. Personal goals and objectives play a huge role in the actions taken by a business. As with the hypothetical bed-and-breakfast example, personal goals may influence your exit options and the selected deal structure. 

Master plan personal action items:

•  Family involvement in the business
•  Needs vs. wants
•  Development of an advisory team
•  Life after planning

A master plan incorporates all of the previously identified action items into an implementation timeline. Each master plan is different and reflects the underlying realities of the specific business. However, a practical framework to use as guidance is presented below.

The value acceleration process requires critical thinking and hard work. Just as important as identifying action items is creating a process to execute them effectively. Through proper planning and execution, we help our clients not only become wealthier but to use their wealth to better their lives. 

If you are interested in learning more about value acceleration, please contact the business valuation services team. We would be happy to meet with you, answer any questions you may have, and provide you with information on upcoming value acceleration presentations.