New accounting guidance

Lease accounting – In February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued accounting guidance that revises the accounting for leases. Under the new guidance, lessees are required to recognize a right-of-use asset and a lease liability for substantially all leases. The new guidance will continue to classify leases as either financing or operating, with classification affecting the pattern of expense recognition. The accounting applied by a lessor under the new guidance will be substantially equivalent to current lease accounting guidance. The new guidance was effective January 1, 2019 and was applied using a modified retrospective approach through a cumulative effect adjustment to retained earnings as of January 1, 2019. The prior period comparative information has not been recasted and continues to be reported under the accounting guidance in effect for those periods.

The new guidance provides a number of optional practical expedients in transition. We elected the "package of practical expedients," which allows us not to reassess under the new guidance our prior conclusions about lease identification, lease classification and initial direct costs. We did not elect the use-of-hindsight practical expedient. In addition, the new guidance provides practical expedients for an entity’s ongoing lessee accounting. For certain property and information technology equipment leases, we have elected to separate payments for lease components from non-lease components. For all other leases, we have elected to not separate lease and non-lease components. We have elected the short-term lease recognition exemption for all leases that qualify which means we will not recognize right-of-use assets or lease liabilities for these leases with a term of twelve months or less.

The most significant effects of adoption relate to the recognition of right-of-use assets and lease liabilities on our balance sheet for operating leases and providing new disclosures about our leasing activities. In addition, we derecognized existing assets and debt obligations for a sale-leaseback transaction that qualified for sale accounting under the new guidance. The gain associated with this change in accounting was recognized through opening retained earnings as of January 1, 2019. The adoption did not have a material impact on our results of operations.

In March 2019, the FASB issued accounting guidance which amended the new leasing guidance. Under these amendments, lessors that are not manufacturers or dealers will use their cost, less any discounts that may apply, as the fair value of the underlying asset, and lessors within the scope of Financial Services-Depository and Lending guidance will present all principal payments received under leases within investment activities on the statement of cash flows. We adopted the new guidance effective January 1, 2019, and the adoption did not have a material impact to our financial statements.

See Note 10 for additional information.

The cumulative effect of initially applying the new lease guidance to our consolidated financial statements on January 1, 2019 was as follows:



Consolidated Statement of Financial Position
(Millions of dollars)	Balance as of December 31, 2018		Cumulative Impact from Adopting New Lease Guidance			Balance as of January 1, 2019
Assets
Prepaid expenses and other current assets	$	1,765	$	(17	)	$	1,748
Property, plant and equipment - net	$	13,574	$	(26	)	$	13,548
Noncurrent deferred and refundable income taxes	$	1,439	$	(77	)	$	1,362
Other assets	$	2,332	$	713		$	3,045

Liabilities
Accrued expenses	$	3,573	$	(27	)	$	3,546
Other current liabilities	$	1,919	$	209		$	2,128
Long-term debt due after one year
Machinery, Energy & Transportation	$	8,005	$	(362	)	$	7,643
Other liabilities	$	3,756	$	538		$	4,294

Shareholders' equity
Profit employed in the business	$	30,427	$	235		$	30,662

Measurement of credit losses on financial instruments – In June 2016, the FASB issued accounting guidance to introduce a new model for recognizing credit losses on financial instruments based on an estimate of current expected credit losses. The new guidance will apply to loans, accounts receivable, trade receivables, other financial assets measured at amortized cost, loan commitments and other off-balance sheet credit exposures. The new guidance will also apply to debt securities and other financial assets measured at fair value through other comprehensive income. The new guidance is effective January 1, 2020, with early adoption permitted beginning January 1, 2019. An implementation team is currently evaluating data requirements and methodologies to assess the effect of the new guidance on our financial statements. We plan to adopt the new guidance effective January 1, 2020.

Premium amortization on purchased callable debt securities – In March 2017, the FASB issued accounting guidance related to the amortization period for certain purchased callable debt securities held at a premium. Securities held at a premium will be required to be amortized to the earliest call date rather than the maturity date. The guidance was effective January 1, 2019, and the adoption did not have a material impact on our financial statements.

Derivatives and hedging – In August 2017, the FASB issued accounting guidance to better align hedge accounting with a company’s risk management activities, simplify the application of hedge accounting and improve the disclosures of hedging arrangements. The guidance was effective January 1, 2019. The adoption primarily resulted in the reclassification of our gains (losses) for designated ME&T foreign exchange contracts from Other income (expense) to components of Operating profit in the Consolidated Statement of Results of Operations. This presentation change was applied prospectively and did not have a material impact on our financial statements.

Reclassification of certain tax effects from accumulated other comprehensive income – In February 2018, the FASB issued accounting guidance to allow a reclassification from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings for stranded tax effects resulting from U.S. tax reform legislation. We adopted the guidance effective January 1, 2019, and the resulting reclassification was included in the period of adoption. The adoption did not have a material impact on our financial statements.

Defined benefit plan disclosures – In August 2018, the FASB issued accounting guidance that revises the annual disclosure requirements for employers by removing and adding certain disclosures for these plans. The applicable requirements that were removed include the disclosure of the amount of prior service cost (credit) that will be amortized from Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) into net periodic benefit cost for the next fiscal year and the effect of a one-percentage-point change in the assumed health care cost trend rates on the service and interest cost components of other postretirement benefit cost and on the accumulated postretirement benefit obligations. The new disclosure requirements include the weighted average interest crediting rates for cash balance plans and other plans with promised interest crediting rates and narrative description of the reasons for significant actuarial gains and losses related to changes in benefit plan obligations or assets for the period. The new guidance is required to be applied on a retrospective basis. The guidance is effective January 1, 2020, with early adoption permitted. We plan to adopt the new guidance effective January 1, 2020, and do not expect the adoption to have a material impact on our financial statements.

Cloud computing arrangements – In August 2018, the FASB issued accounting guidance that aligns the accounting for implementation costs incurred in a cloud computing arrangement service contract with the internal use software costs model. Under the new standard, costs that meet certain criteria will be required to be capitalized on the balance sheet and subsequently amortized over the term of the hosting arrangement. The guidance is effective January 1, 2020, with early adoption permitted. The new guidance allows for either prospective or retrospective transition. We plan to adopt the new guidance effective January 1, 2020 on a prospective basis. We do not expect the adoption to have a material impact on our financial statements.