Appendix B — Glossary of Selected Terms

The business or businesses that the acquirer obtains control of in a business combination. This term also includes a nonprofit activity or business that a not-for-profit acquirer obtains control of in an acquisition by a not-for-profit entity.

The entity that obtains control of the acquiree. However, in a business combination in which a variable interest entity (VIE) is acquired, the primary beneficiary of that entity always is the acquirer.

The date on which the acquirer obtains control of the acquiree.

The process of reducing a recognized liability systematically by recognizing gains or by reducing a recognized asset systematically by recognizing losses. In accounting for pension benefits or other postretirement benefits, amortization also means the systematic recognition in net periodic pension cost or other postretirement benefit cost over several periods of amounts previously recognized in other comprehensive income, that is, gains or losses, prior service cost or credits, and any transition obligation or asset.

Investments not classified as either trading securities or as held-to-maturity securities.

The collective noun for multiple instruments with the same terms and conditions granted at the same time either to a single grantee or to a group of grantees. An award may specify multiple vesting dates, referred to as graded vesting, and different parts of an award may have different expected terms. References to an award also apply to a portion of an award.

Rights to receive all or portions of specified cash inflows received by a trust or other entity, including, but not limited to, all of the following:

1. Senior and subordinated shares of interest, principal, or other cash inflows to be passed-through or paid-through
2. Premiums due to guarantors
3. Commercial paper obligations
4. Residual interests, whether in the form of debt or equity.

A transaction or other event in which an acquirer obtains control of one or more businesses. Transactions sometimes referred to as true mergers or mergers of equals also are business combinations. . . .

From the perspective of a lessee, a lease that meets any of the four lease classification criteria in paragraph 840-10-25-1.

Note: The following definition is Pending Content; see Transition Guidance in 842-10-65-1.

Glossary term superseded by Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-02.

Consistent with common usage, cash includes not only currency on hand but demand deposits with banks or other financial institutions. Cash also includes other kinds of accounts that have the general characteristics of demand deposits in that the customer may deposit additional funds at any time and also effectively may withdraw funds at any time without prior notice or penalty. All charges and credits to those accounts are cash receipts or payments to both the entity owning the account and the bank holding it. For example, a bank’s granting of a loan by crediting the proceeds to a customer’s demand deposit account is a cash payment by the bank and a cash receipt of the customer when the entry is made.

Cash equivalents are short-term, highly liquid investments that have both of the following characteristics:

1. Readily convertible to known amounts of cash
2. So near their maturity that they present insignificant risk of changes in value because of changes in interest rates.

Generally, only investments with original maturities of three months or less qualify under that definition. Original maturity means original maturity to the entity holding the investment. For example, both a three-month U.S. Treasury bill and a three-year U.S. Treasury note purchased three months from maturity qualify as cash equivalents. However, a Treasury note purchased three years ago does not become a cash equivalent when its remaining maturity is three months. Examples of items commonly considered to be cash equivalents are Treasury bills, commercial paper, money market funds, and federal funds sold (for an entity with banking operations).

A hedge of the exposure to variability in the cash flows of a recognized asset or liability, or of a forecasted transaction, that is attributable to a particular risk.

Usually an obligation of the acquirer to transfer additional assets or equity interests to the former owners of an acquiree as part of the exchange for control of the acquiree if specified future events occur or conditions are met. However, contingent consideration also may give the acquirer the right to the return of previously transferred consideration if specified conditions are met.

Dividends paid or payable in cash, other assets, or another class of stock and does not include stock dividends or stock splits.

The ratio between a unit of one currency and the amount of another currency for which that unit can be exchanged at a particular time.

The price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.

A hedge of the exposure to changes in the fair value of a recognized asset or liability, or of an unrecognized firm commitment, that are attributable to a particular risk.

Note: The following definition is Pending Content; see Transition Guidance in 842-10-65-1.

From the perspective of a lessee, a lease that meets one or more of the criteria in paragraph 842-10-25-2.

Cash, evidence of an ownership interest in an entity, or a contract that conveys to one entity a right to do either of the following:

1. Receive cash or another financial instrument from a second entity
2. Exchange other financial instruments on potentially favorable terms with the second entity.

Financing activities include obtaining resources from owners and providing them with a return on, and a return of, their investment; receiving restricted resources that by donor stipulation must be used for long-term purposes; borrowing money and repaying amounts borrowed, or otherwise settling the obligation; and obtaining and paying for other resources obtained from creditors on long-term credit.

A currency other than the functional currency of the entity being referred to (for example, the dollar could be a foreign currency for a foreign entity). Composites of currencies, such as the Special Drawing Rights, used to set prices or denominate amounts of loans, and so forth, have the characteristics of foreign currency.

The process of expressing in the reporting currency of the reporting entity those amounts that are denominated or measured in a different currency.

An operation (for example, subsidiary, division, branch, joint venture, and so forth) whose financial statements are both:

1. Prepared in a currency other than the reporting currency of the reporting entity
2. Combined or consolidated with or accounted for on the equity basis in the financial statements of the reporting entity.

An entity’s functional currency is the currency of the primary economic environment in which the entity operates; normally, that is the currency of the environment in which an entity primarily generates and expends cash. (See paragraphs 830-10-45-2 through 830-10-45-6 and 830-10-55-3 through 830-10-55-7.)

The date at which a grantor and a grantee reach a mutual understanding of the key terms and conditions of a share-based payment award. The grantor becomes contingently obligated on the grant date to issue equity instruments or transfer assets to a grantee who delivers goods or renders services or purchases goods or services as a customer. Awards made under an arrangement that is subject to shareholder approval are not deemed to be granted until that approval is obtained unless approval is essentially a formality (or perfunctory), for example, if management and the members of the board of directors control enough votes to approve the arrangement. Similarly, individual awards that are subject to approval by the board of directors, management, or both are not deemed to be granted until all such approvals are obtained. The grant date for an award of equity instruments is the date that a grantee begins to benefit from, or be adversely affected by, subsequent changes in the price of the grantor’s equity shares. Paragraph 718-10-25-5 provides guidance on determining the grant date. See Service Inception Date.

The aggregate of those items of tangible personal property that have any of the following characteristics:

1. Held for sale in the ordinary course of business
2. In process of production for such sale
3. To be currently consumed in the production of goods or services to be available for sale.

The term inventory embraces goods awaiting sale (the merchandise of a trading concern and the finished goods of a manufacturer), goods in the course of production (work in process), and goods to be consumed directly or indirectly in production (raw materials and supplies). This definition of inventories excludes long-term assets subject to depreciation accounting, or goods which, when put into use, will be so classified. The fact that a depreciable asset is retired from regular use and held for sale does not indicate that the item should be classified as part of the inventory. Raw materials and supplies purchased for production may be used or consumed for the construction of long-term assets or other purposes not related to production, but the fact that inventory items representing a small portion of the total may not be absorbed ultimately in the production process does not require separate classification. By trade practice, operating materials and supplies of certain types of entities such as oil producers are usually treated as inventory.

Investing activities include making and collecting loans and acquiring and disposing of debt or equity instruments and property, plant, and equipment and other productive assets, that is, assets held for or used in the production of goods or services by the entity (other than materials that are part of the entity’s inventory). Investing activities exclude acquiring and disposing of certain loans or other debt or equity instruments that are acquired specifically for resale, as discussed in paragraphs 230-10-45-12 and 230-10-45-21.

An agreement conveying the right to use property, plant, or equipment (land and/or depreciable assets) usually for a stated period of time.

Note: The following definition is Pending Content; see Transition Guidance in 842-10-65-1.

A contract, or part of a contract, that conveys the right to control the use of identified property, plant, or equipment (an identified asset) for a period of time in exchange for consideration.

Note: The following definition is Pending Content; see Transition Guidance in 842-10-65-1.

A lessee’s obligation to make the lease payments arising from a lease, measured on a discounted basis.

Net asset value per share is the amount of net assets attributable to each share of capital stock (other than senior equity securities, that is, preferred stock) outstanding at the close of the period. It excludes the effects of assuming conversion of outstanding convertible securities, whether or not their conversion would have a diluting effect.

A form of settling a financial instrument under which the entity with a loss delivers to the entity with a gain shares of stock with a current fair value equal to the gain.

Shares that an entity has not yet issued because the agreed-upon consideration, such as the delivery of specified goods or services and any other conditions necessary to earn the right to benefit from the instruments, has not yet been satisfied. Nonvested shares cannot be sold. The restriction on sale of nonvested shares is due to the forfeitability of the shares if specified events occur (or do not occur).

An entity that possesses the following characteristics, in varying degrees, that distinguish it from a business entity:

1. Contributions of significant amounts of resources from resource providers who do not expect commensurate or proportionate pecuniary return
2. Operating purposes other than to provide goods or services at a profit
3. Absence of ownership interests like those of business entities.

Entities that clearly fall outside this definition include the following:

1. All investor-owned entities
2. Entities that provide dividends, lower costs, or other economic benefits directly and proportionately to their owners, members, or participants, such as mutual insurance entities, credit unions, farm and rural electric cooperatives, and employee benefit plans.

Operating activities include all transactions and other events that are not defined as investing or financing activities (see paragraphs 230-10-45-12 through 45-15). Operating activities generally involve producing and delivering goods and providing services. Cash flows from operating activities are generally the cash effects of transactions and other events that enter into the determination of net income.

From the perspective of a lessee, any lease other than a capital lease. From the perspective of a lessor, a lease that meets the conditions in paragraph 840-10-25-43(d).

Note: The following definition is Pending Content; see Transition Guidance in 842-10-65-1.

From the perspective of a lessee, any lease other than a finance lease.

From the perspective of a lessor, any lease other than a sales-type lease or a direct financing lease.

Revenues, expenses, gains, and losses that under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are included in comprehensive income but excluded from net income.

The party designated in the contract as the buyer delivers the full stated amount of cash to the seller, and the seller delivers the full stated number of shares to the buyer.

Assets that are readily convertible to cash have both of the following:

1. Interchangeable (fungible) units
2. Quoted prices available in an active market that can rapidly absorb the quantity held by the entity without significantly affecting the price. . . .

The currency in which a reporting entity prepares its financial statements.

An agreement under which the transferor (repo party) transfers a financial asset to a transferee (repo counterparty or reverse party) in exchange for cash and concurrently agrees to reacquire that financial asset at a future date for an amount equal to the cash exchanged plus or minus a stipulated interest factor. Instead of cash, other securities or letters of credit sometimes are exchanged. Some repurchase agreements call for repurchase of financial assets that need not be identical to the financial assets transferred.

The period or periods during which an employee is required to provide service in exchange for an award under a share-based payment arrangement. The service that an employee is required to render during that period is referred to as the requisite service. The requisite service period for an award that has only a service condition is presumed to be the vesting period, unless there is clear evidence to the contrary. If an award requires future service for vesting, the entity cannot define a prior period as the requisite service period. Requisite service periods may be explicit, implicit, or derived, depending on the terms of the share-based payment award.

Research is planned search or critical investigation aimed at discovery of new knowledge with the hope that such knowledge will be useful in developing a new product or service (referred to as product) or a new process or technique (referred to as process) or in bringing about a significant improvement to an existing product or process.

Development is the translation of research findings or other knowledge into a plan or design for a new product or process or for a significant improvement to an existing product or process whether intended for sale or use. It includes the conceptual formulation, design, and testing of product alternatives, construction of prototypes, and operation of pilot plants.

A reverse repurchase agreement accounted for as a collateralized borrowing (also known as a reverse repo) refers to a transaction that is accounted for as a collateralized lending in which a buyer-lender buys securities with an agreement to resell them to the seller-borrower at a stated price plus interest at a specified date or in specified circumstances. The receivable under a reverse repurchase agreement accounted for as a collateralized borrowing refers to the amount due from the seller-borrower for the repurchase of the securities from the buyer-lender. In certain industries, the terminology is reversed; that is, entities in those industries refer to this type of agreement as a repo.

A right of setoff is a debtor’s legal right, by contract or otherwise, to discharge all or a portion of the debt owed to another party by applying against the debt an amount that the other party owes to the debtor.

Note: The following definition is Pending Content; see Transition Guidance in 842-10-65-1.

An asset that represents a lessee’s right to use an underlying asset for the lease term.

A method of accounting for a sale-leaseback transaction in which the seller-lessee records the sale, removes all property and related liabilities from its balance sheet, recognizes gain or loss from the sale, and classifies the leaseback in accordance with the Lessees Subsections of Subtopic 840-40.

Note: The following definition is Pending Content; see Transition Guidance in 842-10-65-1.

Glossary term superseded by Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-02.

The date at which the employee’s requisite service period or the nonemployee’s vesting period begins. The service inception date usually is the grant date, but the service inception date may differ from the grant date (see Example 6 [see paragraph 718-10-55-107] for an illustration of the application of this term to an employee award).

An action or event that irrevocably extinguishes the issuing entity’s obligation under a share-based payment award. Transactions and events that constitute settlements include the following:

1. Exercise of a share option or lapse of an option at the end of its contractual term
2. Vesting of shares
3. Forfeiture of shares or share options due to failure to satisfy a vesting condition
4. An entity’s repurchase of instruments in exchange for assets or for fully vested and transferable equity instruments.

The vesting of a share option is not a settlement because the entity remains obligated to issue shares upon exercise of the option.

A contract that gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, either to purchase (to call) or to sell (to put) a certain number of shares at a predetermined price for a specified period of time.

Events or transactions that occur after the balance sheet date but before financial statements are issued or are available to be issued. There are two types of subsequent events:

1. The first type consists of events or transactions that provide additional evidence about conditions that existed at the date of the balance sheet, including the estimates inherent in the process of preparing financial statements (that is, recognized subsequent events).
2. The second type consists of events that provide evidence about conditions that did not exist at the date of the balance sheet but arose subsequent to that date (that is, nonrecognized subsequent events).

An entity, including an unincorporated entity such as a partnership or trust, in which another entity, known as its parent, holds a controlling financial interest. (Also, a variable interest entity that is consolidated by a primary beneficiary.)

Securities that are bought and held principally for the purpose of selling them in the near term and therefore held for only a short period of time. Trading generally reflects active and frequent buying and selling, and trading securities are generally used with the objective of generating profits on short-term differences in price.

Transaction gains or losses result from a change in exchange rates between the functional currency and the currency in which a foreign currency transaction is denominated. They represent an increase or decrease in both of the following:

1. The actual functional currency cash flows realized upon settlement of foreign currency transactions
2. The expected functional currency cash flows on unsettled foreign currency transactions.

An entity that receives a financial asset, an interest in a financial asset, or a group of financial assets from a transferor.

An entity that transfers a financial asset, an interest in a financial asset, or a group of financial assets that it controls to another entity.