Contract Assets and Contract Liabilities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Revenue From Contract With Customer [Abstract]

Contract Assets and Contract Liabilities

3. CONTRACT ASSETS AND CONTRACT LIABILITIES

Contract assets and liabilities are reflected in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets within the accounts reflected below.  

Contract Assets

Accounts receivable represent amounts due from the Company’s customers who are concentrated primarily in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. Unbilled represents revenue recognized to date that has not been billed or is not yet contractually billable to the customer. In general, amounts become billable upon the achievement of negotiated contractual events, in accordance with predetermined payment schedules or when a reimbursable expense has been incurred. Amounts classified to unbilled are those billable to customers within one year from the respective balance sheet date.

Accounts receivable and unbilled, net consisted of the following (in thousands):

	As of
	December 31,			December 31,
	2019			2018
Accounts receivable	$	127,877		$	85,120
Unbilled receivables		28,368			49,361
Less: allowance for doubtful accounts		(583	)		(1,032	)
Total accounts receivable and unbilled, net	$	155,662		$	133,449

Unbilled receivables decreased to $28.4 million at December 31, 2019 from $49.4 million at December 31, 2018.

Contract Liabilities

Advanced billings represents cash received from customers, or billed amounts per an agreed upon payment schedule, in advance of services being performed or revenue being recognized.

Advanced billings consisted of the following (in thousands):

	As of
	December 31,		December 31,
	2019		2018
Advanced billings	$	192,359	$	147,935

Advanced billings increased to $192.4 million at December 31, 2019, from $147.9 million at December 31, 2018.  

A rollforward of allowance for doubtful account activity is as follows:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019			2018			2017
Allowance for doubtful accounts - beginning balance	$	(1,032	)	$	(673	)	$	(3,222	)
Current year provision		(263	)		(791	)		(250	)
Write-offs, recoveries and the effects of foreign currency exchange		712			432			2,799
Allowance for doubtful accounts - ending balance	$	(583	)	$	(1,032	)	$	(673	)