Goodwill impairment includes a long process with several decisions, including the composition of reporting units, the potential election of the Accounting Alternative for private companies,1 and the adoption timeframe of the new guidance communicated in ASU 2017-04 (FASB 2017). The case text purposefully does not provide students with information about the company's elections with regard to the alternative and adoption decisions. Furthermore, the case is intentionally vague with regard to the grouping of the two companies for reporting purposes. This was done for two reasons. First, this lack of information prevents students from anchoring upon case facts to develop their decision framework for Requirement 1. The first requirement asks students to develop a process that addresses different types of situations and, thus, it is important that students consider the variety of scenarios that become relevant due to the guidance in Topic 350, Subtopic 20, (the Goodwill subtopic...

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