Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Revenue Recognition

v3.22.1
Revenue Recognition
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2022
Revenue Recognition  
Revenue Recognition

5.          Revenue Recognition:

The Company’s revenues primarily result from the sale of various technology products and services, including third-party products, third-party software and third-party maintenance, software support and services. The Company recognizes revenue as control of the third-party products and third-party software is transferred to customers, which generally happens at the point of shipment or fulfilment and at the point that our customers and vendors accept the terms and conditions of the arrangement for third-party maintenance, software support and services.

The Company has contracts with certain customers where the Company’s performance obligation is to arrange for the products or services to be provided by another party. In these arrangements, as the Company assumes an agency relationship in the transaction, revenue is recognized in the amount of the net fee associated with serving as an agent. These arrangements primarily relate to third party maintenance, cloud services and certain security software whose intended functionality is dependent on third party maintenance.

The Company allows its customers to return product for exchange or credit subject to certain limitations. A liability is recorded at the time of sale for estimated product returns based upon historical experience and an asset is recognized for the amount expected to be recorded in inventory upon product return. The Company also provides rebates and other discounts to certain customers which are considered variable consideration. A provision for customer rebates and other discounts is recorded as a reduction of revenue at the time of sale based on an evaluation of the contract terms and historical experience.

The Company considers shipping and handling activities as costs to fulfill the sales of products. Shipping revenue is included in net sales when control of the product is transferred to the customer, and the related shipping and handling costs are included in cost of products sold. Taxes imposed by governmental authorities on the Company’s revenue producing activities with customers, such as sales taxes and value added taxes, are excluded from net sales.

The Company disaggregates its operating revenue by segment, geography and timing of revenue recognition, which the Company believes provides a meaningful depiction of the nature of its revenue. See segment Note 15.

Hardware and software products sold by the Company are generally delivered via shipment from the Company’s facilities, drop shipment directly from the vendor, or by electronic delivery of keys for software products. The majority of the Company’s business involves shipments directly from its vendors to its customers. In these transactions, the Company is generally responsible for negotiating price both with the vendor and customer, payment to the vendor, establishing payment terms with the customer, product returns, and has risk of loss if the customer does not make payment. As the principal with the customer, the Company recognizes revenue upon receiving notification from the vendor that the product was shipped. Control of software products is deemed to have passed to the customer when they acquire the right to use or copy the software under license as substantially all product functionality is available to the customer at the time of sale.

The Company performs an analysis of the number of days of sales in-transit to customers at the end of each reporting period based on an analysis of commercial delivery terms that include drop-shipment arrangements. This analysis is the basis upon which the Company estimates the amount of net sales in-transit at the end of the period and adjusts revenue and the related costs to reflect only what has been delivered to the customer. Changes in delivery patterns may result in a different number of business days estimated to make this adjustment. The Company also performs a weighted average analysis of the estimated number of days between order fulfillment and beginning of the renewal term for term licenses recorded on a gross basis, and a deferral estimate is recorded for term license renewals fulfilled prior to commencement date.

Generally, software products are sold with accompanying third-party delivered software assurance, which is a product that allows customers to upgrade, at no additional cost, to the latest technology if new capabilities are introduced during the period that the software assurance is in effect. The Company evaluates whether the software assurance is a separate performance obligation by assessing if the third-party delivered software assurance is critical or essential to the core functionality of the software itself. This involves considering if the software provides its original intended functionality to the customer without the updates, if the customer would ascribe a higher value to the upgrades versus the up-front deliverable, if the customer would expect frequent intelligence updates to the software (such as updates that maintain the original functionality), and if the customer chooses to not delay or always install upgrades. If the Company determines that the accompanying third-party delivered software assurance is critical or essential to the core functionality of the software license,

the software license and the accompanying third-party delivered software assurance are recognized as a single performance obligation. The value of the product is primarily the accompanying support delivered by a third party and therefore the Company is acting as an agent in these transactions and recognizes them on a net basis at the point the associated software license is delivered to the customer. The Company sells cloud computing solutions that utilize third-party vendors to enable customers to access data center functionality in a cloud-based solution, including storage, computing and networking and access to software in the cloud that enhances office productivity, provides security or assists in collaboration. The Company recognizes revenue for cloud computing solutions for arrangements with one-time invoicing to the customer at the time of invoice on a net basis as the Company is acting as an agent in the transaction. For monthly subscription-based arrangements, the Company is acting as an agent in the transaction and recognizes revenue as it invoices the customer for its monthly usage on a net basis. For software licenses where the accompanying third-party delivered software assurance is not critical or essential to the core functionality, the software assurance is recognized as a separate performance obligation, with the associated revenue recognized on a net basis at the point the related software license is delivered to the customer.

The Company also sells some of its products and services as part of bundled contract arrangements containing multiple deliverables, which may include a combination of products and services. For each deliverable that represents a distinct performance obligation, total arrangement consideration is allocated based upon the standalone selling prices (“SSP”) of each performance obligation. SSP is determined based on the price at which the performance obligation is sold separately. If the standalone selling price is not observable through established standard prices, we use judgement and estimate the standalone selling price considering available information such as market pricing and pricing related to similar products.

The Company records freight billed to its customers as net sales and the related freight costs as cost of sales when the underlying product revenue is recognized. For freight not billed to its customers, the Company records the freight costs as cost of sales. The Company’s typical shipping terms result in shipping being performed before the customer obtains control of the product. The Company considers shipping to be a fulfillment activity and not a separate performance obligation.

The Company pays commissions and related payroll taxes to sales personnel when customers are invoiced. These costs are recorded as selling general and administrative expenses in the period earned as all our performance obligations are complete within a short window of processing the order.