government contractor

This Subtopic gives government contractors narrow guidance on inventory affected by contracts terminated for the convenience of the government, plus disclosure of the accounting policy for costs included in contract inventory. If inventory whose costs are in the termination claim is later reacquired by the contractor, the reacquisition value is recorded as a purchase; in "no-cost settlements," where the contractor waives its claim, no sale transaction arises and retained inventory is accounted for under ordinary inventory methods rather than as a purchase.

ASC 405-912 tells federal government contractors how to present and disclose liabilities arising from terminated contracts and from progress/advance payments. Termination loans (even if government-guaranteed) are third-party liabilities shown as current liabilities with cross-reference to the related claim; unliquidated advance payments on a terminated contract are deducted from the claim receivable. Progress and advance payments accounted for as borrowings under 912-310-25-7 are reported as cash received from financing activities.

This subtopic tells government contractors how to account for best-efforts-basis, research-and-development-cost-sharing arrangements with the federal government. When all six scope conditions in 730-912-15-2 are met (qualifying R&D, contractor retains rights to data/results, best-efforts-only obligation, mutual expectation that costs will exceed funding, no contract combination under 606-10-25-9, and the federal government as sole or principal ultimate customer), the arrangement is not a revenue contract under Topic 606. Instead, costs are expensed as R&D as incurred under Topic 730, and customer funding is recorded as an offset to aggregate R&D expense rather than as contract revenue (730-912-25-1).

ASC 912-10 is the Overall subtopic of the Contractors—Federal Government Topic, which layers incremental industry guidance on top of otherwise applicable GAAP for entities doing business with the U.S. federal government. It explains that the federal customer is a sovereign that procures under statutes and regulations governing contractor selection, monitoring, and payment, creating risks not present in commercial dealings. Its scope covers all entities with federal government contracts, specifically cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts and fixed-price war and defense supply contracts terminated for the convenience of the government.