Revenue Disclosure Rules on Contract `Backlog’ to Be Altered

Media and entertainment companies, credit card processing enterprises, and other companies won’t have to disclose certain revenue amounts stemming from backlogs deemed to be in “the pipeline,” under U.S. accounting rulemakers’ decisions to amend far-reaching revenue rules.

Footnote reporting on such amounts from certain “remaining performance obligations”—including on royalties from licenses of intellectual property—won’t be required, as they would have been in the version of the revenue recognition standard the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued more than two years ago (ASU 2014-09).

The board also added an effective exception from such quantitative disclosures for series of regular ...