Prepaid Commission Expense

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Amortization Of Deferred Charges [Abstract]

Prepaid Commission Expense

9. PREPAID COMMISSION EXPENSE

The Company pays a commission on both System sales and Treatment Session sales. Since the commission paid for System sales is not commensurate with the commission paid for Treatment Sessions, the Company capitalizes commission expense associated with System sales commissions paid that is incremental to specifically anticipated future Treatment Session orders. In developing this estimate, the Company considered its historical Treatment Session sales and customer retention rates, as well as technology development life cycles and other industry factors. These costs are periodically reviewed for impairment.

NeuroStar Advanced Therapy System commissions are deferred and amortized on a straight-line basis over a seven year period equal to the average customer term, which the Company deems to be the expected period of benefit for these costs.

On the Company's balance sheets, the current portion of capitalized contract costs is represented by the current portion of prepaid commission expense, while the long-term portion is included in prepaid commission expense. Amortization expense was $0.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and $0.02 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019.