Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Revenue Recognition

v3.22.4
Revenue Recognition
9 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2022
Revenue Recognition  
Revenue Recognition

12. Revenue Recognition

The Company derives its revenues primarily from system sales, service contracts and professional services. Revenues are recognized when control of the systems and services is transferred to the Company’s customers in an amount that reflects the consideration it expects to be entitled to in exchange for those services.

The Company determines revenue recognition through the following steps:

Identification of the contract, or contracts, with a customer
Identification of the performance obligations in the contract
Determination of the transaction price
Allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract
Recognition of revenue when, or as, the Company satisfies a performance obligation

The Company recognizes revenue when performance obligations identified under the terms of contracts with its customers are satisfied, which generally occurs, for systems, upon the transfer of control in accordance with the contractual terms and conditions of the sale. The majority of the Company’s revenue associated with systems is recognized at a point in time when the system is shipped to the customer. Revenue from service contracts and post-shipment performance obligations is recognized when or as those obligations are satisfied. The Company primarily offers assurance-type standard warranties that do not represent separate performance obligations and will separately offer and price extended warranties that are separate performance obligations for which the associated revenue is recognized over-time based on the extended warranty period. The Company records amounts billed to customers for reimbursement of shipping and handling costs within revenue. Shipping and handling costs associated with outbound freight after control over a system has transferred to a customer are accounted for as fulfillment costs and are included in cost of goods sold. Sales taxes and other usage-based taxes are excluded from revenue.

Comprehensive Factory Protection Plan (“FPP”) service contracts require payment at the beginning of the contract period. Advance payments are not considered a significant financing component as they are typically received less than one year before the related performance obligations are satisfied. These payments are treated as a contract liability and are classified in deferred revenue in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. Once control transfers to the customer and the Company meets the revenue recognition criteria, the deferred revenue is recognized in the Condensed Consolidated Statement of Operations. The deferred revenue relating to the annual maintenance service contracts is recognized in the Condensed Consolidated Statement of Operations on a straight-line basis over the expected term of the contract.

Significant Judgments - Contracts with Multiple Performance Obligations

The Company enters into contracts with its customers that often include promises to transfer multiple products, parts, accessories, FPP and services. A performance obligation is a promise in a contract with a customer to transfer products or services that are distinct. Determining whether products and services are distinct performance obligations that should be accounted for separately or combined as one unit of accounting may require significant judgment.

Products, parts and accessories are distinct as such services are often sold separately. In determining whether FPP and service contracts are distinct, the Company considers the following factors for each FPP and services agreement: availability of the services from other vendors, the nature of the services, the timing of when the services contract was signed in comparison to the product delivery date and the contractual dependence of the product on the customer’s satisfaction with the professional services work. To date, the Company has concluded that all of the FPP and services contracts included in contracts with multiple performance obligations are distinct.

The Company allocates the transaction price to each performance obligation on a relative standalone selling price (“SSP”) basis. The SSP is the price at which the Company would sell a promised product or service separately to a customer. Judgment is required to determine the SSP for each distinct performance obligation.

The Company determines SSP by considering its overall pricing objectives and market conditions. Significant pricing practices taken into consideration include the Company’s discounting practices, the size and volume of the Company’s transactions, the customer demographic, the geographic area where systems and services are sold, price lists, its go-to-market strategy, historical sales and contract prices. The determination of SSP is made through consultation with and approval by the Company’s management, taking into consideration the go-to-market strategy. As the Company’s go-to-market strategies evolve, the Company may modify its pricing practices in the future, which could result in changes to SSP.

In certain cases, the Company is able to establish SSP based on observable prices of products or services sold separately in comparable circumstances to similar customers. The Company uses a single amount to estimate SSP when it has observable prices.

If SSP is not directly observable, for example when pricing is highly variable, the Company uses a range of SSP. The Company determines the SSP range using information that may include market conditions or other observable inputs. The Company typically has more than one SSP for individual products and services due to the stratification of those products and services by customer size and geography.

The following table presents disaggregated revenue by business group (in thousands):

Nine Months Ended December 31,

    

2022

    

2021

Microturbine Products

$

28,201

$

28,234

Accessories

1,572

949

Total Product and Accessories

29,773

29,183

Parts, Service and Rentals

 

29,260

 

24,704

Total Revenue

$

59,033

$

53,887

The following table presents disaggregated revenue by geography based on the primary operating location of the Company’s customers (in thousands):

Nine Months Ended December 31,

    

2022

    

2021

United States

$

38,798

$

26,052

Mexico

 

2,684

 

2,142

All other North America

 

1,384

 

480

Total North America

 

42,866

 

28,674

Russia

 

2,138

 

3,099

All other Europe

8,377

8,911

Total Europe

10,515

12,010

Asia

 

1,732

 

1,755

Australia

 

2,529

 

3,861

All other

 

1,391

 

7,587

Total Revenue

$

59,033

$

53,887

Contract Balances

The Company’s contract liabilities consist of advance payments for systems as well as deferred revenue on service obligations and extended warranties. The current portion of deferred revenue is included in current liabilities under deferred revenue and the non-current portion of deferred revenue is included in deferred revenue non-current liabilities in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets.

As of December 31, 2022, the balance of deferred revenue was approximately $10.5 million compared to $10.2 million as of March 31, 2022. The overall increase of $0.3 million was due to an increase in deferred revenue attributed to FPP contracts. Changes in deferred revenue during the nine months ended December 31, 2022 are as follows (in thousands):

FPP Balance, beginning of the period

$

4,544

FPP Billings

 

14,624

FPP Revenue recognized

 

(14,296)

Balance attributed to FPP contracts

 

4,872

DSS Program

447

Deposits

 

5,197

Deferred revenue balance, end of the period

$

10,516

Deferred revenue attributed to FPP contracts represents the unearned portion of the Company’s contracts. FPP contracts are generally paid quarterly in advance, with revenue recognized on a straight-line basis over the contract period. As of December 31, 2022, approximately $4.9 million of revenue is expected to be recognized from remaining performance obligations for FPP contracts. The Company expects to recognize revenue on approximately $4.1 million of these remaining performance obligations over the next 12 months and the balance of $0.8 million will be recognized thereafter.

The DSS program provides additional support for distributor business development activities, customer lead generation, brand awareness and tailored marketing services for each of the Company’s major geography and market vertical. This program is funded by the Company’s distributors and was developed to provide improved worldwide distributor training, sales efficiency, website development, company branding and provide funding for increased strategic marketing activities. DSS program revenue is generally paid quarterly with revenue recognized on a straight-line basis over a calendar year period.

Deposits are primarily non-refundable cash payments from distributors for future orders.

Unsatisfied Performance Obligations

The Company has elected the practical expedient to disclose only the value of unsatisfied performance obligations for contracts with an original expected length greater than one year. The majority of the Company’s revenues resulted from sales of inventoried systems with short periods of manufacture and delivery and thus are excluded from this disclosure.

As of December 31, 2022, the FPP backlog was approximately $71.5 million, which represents the value of the contractual agreement for FPP services that had not been earned and extends through Fiscal 2042.

Practical Expedients

The Company applies a practical expedient to expense costs as incurred for costs to obtain a contract when the amortization period would have been one year or less. These costs are recorded within sales and marketing expenses in the accompanying Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations.