NOTE 2.      RECENT ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

Recently issued accounting standards to be adopted in 2017 or later      

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and International Accounting Standards Board issued their converged standard on revenue recognition in May 2014. The standard provides a comprehensive, industry-neutral revenue recognition model intended to increase financial statement comparability across companies and industries and significantly reduce the complexity inherent in today’s revenue recognition guidance. The various ASUs related to Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606) have been listed below:

The Company is currently analyzing the effect of the standard across all of its revenue streams to evaluate the impact of the new standard on revenue contracts. This includes reviewing current accounting policies and practices to identify potential differences that would result from applying the requirements under the new standard. Most of the Company’s services are primarily short-term in nature, and the assessment at this stage is that the Company does not expect the adoption of the new revenue recognition standard to have a material impact on its financial statements. The Company plans to adopt the standard in the first quarter of 2018 using the modified retrospective method by recognizing the cumulative effect of initially applying the new standard as an adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings. The Company has engaged a consultant to assist the Company with implementation of this standard.

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases, which require lessees to recognize assets and liabilities on the balance sheet for the rights and obligations created by all leases with terms of more than 12 months. The ASU also will require disclosures designed to give financial statement users information on the amount, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. These disclosures include qualitative and quantitative information. The amendments in this update are effective for the Company’s financial statements issued for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within annual periods beginning after December 15, 2018. Earlier application is permitted as of the beginning of an interim or annual reporting period. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this standard on its consolidated financial statements.

In August 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-15, Statement of Cash Flow Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Cash Payments, which addresses eight specific cash flow issues with the objective of reducing the existing diversity in practice in how certain cash receipts and cash payments are presented and classified in the statement of cash flows. The amendments in this update are effective for the Company’s financial statements issued for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2017, and interim periods within annual periods. Earlier adoption is permitted for any entity in any interim or annual reporting period. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this standard on its consolidated financial statements.

In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-01, Business Combinations (Topic 805): Clarifying the Definition of a Business, which requires an entity to evaluate if substantially all of the fair value of the gross assets acquired is concentrated in a single identifiable asset or a group of similar identifiable assets; if so, the set of transferred assets and activities is not a business. The guidance also requires a business to include at least one substantive process and narrows the definition of outputs by more closely aligning it with how outputs are described in ASC 606. The amendments in the update are effective for the Company’s financial statements issued for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, and interim periods within those years. Early adoption is permitted. We do not expect this standard to have a material impact on the Company’s reported results of operations or financial position.

In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-04, Intangibles-Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment, which eliminates the requirement to calculate the implied fair value of goodwill (i.e., Step 2 of the current goodwill impairment test) to measure a goodwill impairment charge. Instead, entities will record an impairment charge based on the excess of a reporting unit’s carrying amount over its fair value (i.e., measure the charge based on the current Step 1). The standard in this update is effective for the Company’s financial statements issued for fiscal years beginning in 2020. Early adoption is permitted for annual and interim goodwill impairment testing dates after January 1, 2017. We do not expect this standard to have a material impact on the Company’s reported results of operations or financial position.

In February 2017, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2017-06, Plan Accounting: Defined Benefit Pension Plans (Topic 960), Defined Contribution Pension Plans (Topic 962), Health and Welfare Benefit Plans (Topic 965), Employee Benefit Plan Master Trust Reporting (“ASU 2017-06”). ASU 2017-06 relates primarily to the reporting by an employee benefit plan (a plan) for its interest in a master trust. A master trust is a trust for which a regulated financial institution (bank, trust company, or similar financial institution that is regulated, supervised, and subject to periodic examination by a state or federal agency) serves as a trustee or custodian and in which assets of more than one plan sponsored by a single employer or by a group of employers under common control are held. Under Topic 960, investments in master trusts are presented in a single line item in the statement of net assets available for benefits. Similar guidance is not provided in Topic 962 or 965, which has resulted in diversity in practice. For each master trust in which a plan holds an interest, the amendments in ASU 2017-06 require a plan’s interest in that master trust and any change in that interest to be presented in separate line items in the statement of net assets available for benefits and in the statement of changes in net assets available for benefits, respectively. The amendments in ASU 2017-06 are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018. Early adoption is permitted.  An entity should apply the amendments in ASU 2017-06 retrospectively to each period for which financial statements are presented. We do not expect this standard to have a material impact on the Company’s reported results of operations or financial position.

In March 2017, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2017-07, Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost (“ASU 2017-07”). The update requires employers to present the service cost component of the net periodic benefit cost in the same income statement line item as other employee compensation costs arising from services rendered during the period. The other components of net benefit cost, including interest cost, expected return on plan assets, amortization of prior service cost/credit and actuarial gain/loss, and settlement and curtailment effects, are to be presented outside of any subtotal of operating income. Employers will have to disclose the line(s) used to present the other components of net periodic benefit cost, if the components are not presented separately in the income statement. ASU 2017-07 is effective for fiscal years and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017, and early adoption is permitted. We do not expect this standard to have a material impact on the Company’s reported results of operations or financial position.