Nortel Networks Corp. once again will have to restate its financial results to fix accounting mistakes, the company said on Friday as it posted a fourth-quarter loss of $2.2 billion.
Their chief executive maintains that the revenue was just recognized in incorrect periods, from 2002 through 2005.
Revenue recognition is definitely a touchy subject these days, I know we certainly spend more time nowadays on it than we used to. We have checklists to ensure we’ve considered every different aspect of sales arrangements and there is a note to the financial statements concerning how and when revenues are recognized.
Since Nortel is large (complicated) and public (risky), the audit could take quite long and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a handful of public accountants who are there each year more often than they are at their own office.
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