Dot.com Accounting - Anyone's Guess?

Dot.coms are here to stay, and while Congress keeps debating the pros and cons of Internet taxation, accounting procedures for online businesses is one arena in which there are few rules to follow ... and even so, the rules keep changing.

The rules focus on how Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are applied to e-Commerce and online businesses. Discrepancies as to which rules are followed has attracted the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who now has asked the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to step in and investigate 20 issues that may come about due to dot.com accounting.

In turn, the FASB has asked it's Emerging Issues Task Force to step in and report back to them with their findings.

Already, FASB knows one of the contested areas is revenue recognition.

A recent Fortune magazine series [1] outlines clearly and distinctly many of the issues the SEC and now the FASB are investigating:

• Net vs. Gross sales [2]
• "Barter" revenue reporting [3]
• Coupons, discounts and loss leaders [4]
• Fulfillment costs [5]
• Auction accounting [6]