3.Significant Accounting Policies

The information presented below supplements the Significant Accounting Policies information presented in our 2017 Form 10-K, including Revenue Recognition for the adoption of ASC 606, which became effective January 1, 2018. See our 2017 Form 10-K for a description of our significant accounting policies in effect prior to the adoption of the new accounting standard.

Revenue Recognition

We account for revenue in accordance with ASC 606. A performance obligation is a promise in a contract to transfer a distinct good or service to the customer, and is the unit of account in ASC 606. Revenue is measured as the amount of consideration we expect to receive in exchange for transferring goods or providing services. The contract transaction price is allocated to each distinct performance obligation and recognized as revenue when, or as, the performance obligation is satisfied. All of our material sources of revenue are derived from contracts with customers, primarily relating to the provision of business and transaction processing services within each of our segments. We do not have any significant payment terms, as payment is received shortly after goods are delivered or services are provided.

Nature of Services

Our primary performance obligations are to stand ready to provide various forms of transaction processing services, consisting of a series of distinct services that are substantially the same and have the same pattern of transfer over time, and accordingly are combined into a single performance obligation. Our promise to our customers is typically to perform an unknown or unspecified quantity of tasks and the consideration received is contingent upon the customers’ use (i.e., number of transactions processed, requests fulfilled, etc.); as such, the total transaction price is variable. We allocate the variable fees to the single performance obligation charged to the distinct service period in which we have the contractual right to bill under the contract.

Disaggregation of Revenues

The following table disaggregates revenue from contracts by geographic region and by segment for the three months ended March 31, 2018, and 2017:

	Three months ended March 31,
	2018						2017
	ITPS		HS		LLPS		ITPS		HS		LLPS
United States	$	269,939	$	58,632	$	22,598	$	106,347	$	59,078	$	23,385
Europe	35,283		—		—		28,300		—		—
Other	6,715		—		—		1,150		—		—

Total	$	311,937	$	58,632	$	22,598	$	135,797	$	59,078	$	23,385

Contract Balances

The following table presents contract assets and contract liabilities recognized at March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017:

	March 31,		December 31,
	2018		2017
Accounts Receivable, net	$	238,680	$	229,704
Deferred revenues	16,793		13,717
Costs to obtain and fulfill a contract	20,814		22,929
Customer deposits	36,542		31,656

Accounts receivable includes $34.3 million and $27.9 million as of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, respectively, representing amounts not billed to customers. We have accrued the unbilled receivables for work performed in accordance with the terms of contracts with customers.

Deferred revenues relate to payments received in advance of performance under a contract. A significant portion of this balance relates to service contracts where we received payments for upfront conversions/implementation type activities of which do not transfer a service to the customer but rather are used in fulfilling the related performance obligations that transfer over time. The advance consideration received from customers is deferred over the contract term. We recognized revenue of $7.1 million during the three months ended March 31, 2018 that had been deferred as of December 31, 2017.

Costs incurred to obtain and fulfill contract are deferred and expensed on a straight-line basis over the estimated benefit period, which is generally the contract term. We recognized $2.4 million of amortization for these costs in the first quarter of 2018 within depreciation and amortization expense. These costs represent incremental external costs or certain specific internal costs that are directly related to the contract acquisition or transition activities and can be separated into two principal categories: contract commissions and transition/set-up costs. Examples of such capitalized costs include hourly labor and related fringe benefits and travel costs. Applying the practical expedient in ASC 340-40-25-4, we recognize the incremental costs of obtaining contracts as an expense when incurred if the amortization period would have been one year or less. These costs are included in Selling, general and administrative expenses. The effect of applying this practical expedient was not material.

Customer deposits consist primarily of amounts received from customers in advance for postage. The majority of the amounts recorded as of December 31, 2017 were used to pay for postage with the corresponding postage revenue being recognized during the quarter ended March 31, 2018.

Performance Obligations

At the inception of each contract, we assess the goods and services promised in our contracts and identify each distinct performance obligation. The majority of our contracts have a single performance obligation, as the promise to transfer the individual goods or services is not separately identifiable from other promises in the contracts. For the majority of our business and transaction processing service contracts, revenues are recognized as services are provided based on an appropriate input or output method, typically based on the related labor or transactional volumes.

Some of our contracts have multiple performance obligations, including contracts that combine software implementation services with post-implementation customer support. For contracts with multiple performance obligations, we allocate the contract’s transaction price to each performance obligation using our best estimate of the standalone selling price of each distinct good or service in the contract. The primary method used to estimate standalone selling price is the expected cost plus a margin approach, under which we estimate our expected costs of satisfying a performance obligation and add an appropriate margin for that distinct good or service. We also use the adjusted market approach whereby we estimate the price that customers in the market would be willing to pay. In assessing whether to allocate variable consideration to a specific part of the contract, we consider the nature of the variable payment and whether it relates specifically to its efforts to satisfy a specific part of the contract. Certain of our software implementation performance obligations are satisfied at a point in time, typically when customer acceptance is obtained.

When evaluating the transaction price, we analyze, on a contract by contract basis, all applicable variable consideration. The nature of our contracts give rise to variable consideration, including volume discounts, contract penalties, and other similar items that generally decrease the transaction price. We estimate these amounts based on the expected amount to be provided to customers and reduce revenues recognized. We do not anticipate significant changes to our estimates of variable consideration.

We include reimbursements from customers, such as postage costs, in revenue, while the related costs are included in cost of revenue.

Transaction Price Allocated to the Remaining Performance Obligations

In accordance with optional exemptions available under ASC 606, we did not disclose the value of unsatisfied performance obligations for (1) contracts with an original expected length of one year or less, and (2) contracts for which variable consideration relates entirely to an unsatisfied performance obligation, which comprise the majority of our contracts. We have certain contracts where we receive a fixed monthly fee in exchange for a series of distinct services that are substantially the same and have the same pattern of transfer over time. These contracts comprise substantially all of the amounts for which we expect to recognize revenue for the following amounts related to fixed consideration associated with remaining performance obligations in each of the future periods noted:

Estimated Remaining Fixed Consideration for Unsatisfied Performance Obligations
2018	213,796,515
2019	250,487,172
2020	119,914,305
2021	59,989,281
2022	34,163,699
2023 and thereafter	11,548,764

Total	$	689,899,736