Bill and hold

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A bill and hold transaction occurs when a company recognizes revenue before delivery takes place. Normally a revenue is not recognizable until goods are delivered or services are rendered. [1] Exceptions are made when a customer specifically requests that the vendor delay delivery and has a legitimate business reason for the request.[ citation needed ] [2]

Alleged abuse by Nortel

Nortel Networks Corporation was a multinational telecommunications equipment manufacturer headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. During and right after the optical boom years, Nortel allegedly used bill and hold transactions [3] to inflate the company's revenues during some quarters, allowing company executives to earn millions in bonuses.

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Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1895 as the Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company. Until an antitrust settlement in 1949, Northern Electric was owned principally by Bell Canada and the Western Electric Company of the Bell System, producing large volumes of telecommunication equipment based on licensed Western Electric designs.

FedEx American freight and package delivery company

FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company which focuses on transportation, e-commerce and business services which is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "FedEx" is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company's original air division, Federal Express, which was used from 1973 until 2000. FedEx today is best known for its air delivery service, FedEx Express, which was one of the first major shipping companies to offer overnight delivery as a flagship service. Since then, FedEx also started FedEx Ground, FedEx Office, FedEx Supply Chain, FedEx Freight, and various other services across multiple subsidiaries, often meant to respond to its main competitor, UPS. FedEx is also one of the top contractors of the US government and assists in the transport of some United States Postal Service packages through its service FedEx SmartPost.

Revenue Total amount of income generated by the sale of goods or services

In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive revenue from interest, royalties, or other fees. "Revenue" may refer to income in general, or it may refer to the amount, in a monetary unit, earned during a period of time, as in "Last year, Company X had revenue of $42 million". Profits or net income generally imply total revenue minus total expenses in a given period. In accounting, in the balance statement, revenue is a subsection of the Equity section and revenue increases equity, it is often referred to as the "top line" due to its position on the income statement at the very top. This is to be contrasted with the "bottom line" which denotes net income.

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Deferral Term in accounting

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Adjusting entries

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Revenue recognition

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Matching principle

In accrual accounting, the matching principle instructs that an expense should be reported in the same period in which the corresponding revenue is earned, and is associated with accrual accounting and the revenue recognition principle states that revenues should be recorded during the period in which they are earned, regardless of when the transfer of cash occurs. By recognizing costs in the period they are incurred, a business can see how much money was spent to generate revenue, reducing "noise" from timing mismatch between when costs are incurred and when revenue is realized. Conversely, cash basis accounting calls for the recognition of an expense when the cash is paid, regardless of when the expense was actually incurred.

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Telecommunications billing is the group of processes of communications service providers that are responsible to collect consumption data, calculate charging and billing information, produce bills to customers, process their payments and manage debt collection.

Timeline of major events for Nortel.

References

  1. "SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 101".
  2. "Google Answers: Accounting: Recognizing revenue".
  3. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/ex-nortel-ceo-john-roth-says-hes-cleared/article87339/ [ bare URL ]