Handbook: Segment reporting

Key impacts

• Segment reporting has consistently been a hot topic for financial statement preparers, auditors, investors, the SEC and the FASB ever since the FASB first issued guidance on the subject in 1997. ASC 280, Segment Reporting, was issued to address concerns from financial statement users that prior segment information had not provided enough detail about registrants’ business performance.
• Despite the FASB’s efforts, the SEC staff has expressed concerns over several years about the lack of compliance. Specifically, the SEC’s concerns are that too few segments are being disclosed and not all required information about reported segments is being presented.
• ASC 280 is challenging to apply because it is based on the management approach, meaning that an entity’s internal organizational structure dictates how segment information is compiled and presented. This approach requires an entity to make many judgments as it applies foundational principles in ASC 280 – such as identifying the chief operating decision maker (CODM) – to its unique internal organizational structure.

This handbook explains the principles of ASC 280 and discusses many of the challenges that entities have had in applying those principles. It also discusses the challenge of determining the type and level of financial information used by the CODM to assess performance and allocate resources. We explore these challenges and more through extensive interpretive guidance and examples.