Note 4 - Accounts Receivable, Transit Accounts Receivable and Transit Accounts Payable

9 Months Ended

Sep. 27, 2014

Receivables [Abstract]

Loans, Notes, Trade and Other Receivables Disclosure [Text Block]

4. Accounts Receivable, Transit Accounts Receivable and Transit Accounts Payable

The Company’s accounts receivable are comprised as follows:

	September 27, 2014			December 28, 2013
Billed	$	46,018		$	35,415
Accrued and unbilled		6,022			7,895
Work-in-progress		9,489			13,394
Allowance for doubtful accounts and sales discounts		(1,000	)		(978	)
Accounts receivable, net	$	60,529		$	55,726

Unbilled receivables primarily represent revenues earned whereby those services are ready to be billed as of the balance sheet ending date. Work-in-process primarily represents revenues earned under contracts which the Company contractually invoices at future dates.

From time to time, the Company’s Engineering segment enters into agreements to provide, among other things, construction management and engineering services.  Pursuant to these agreements, the Company a) may engage subcontractors to provide construction or other services; b) typically earns a fixed percentage of the total project value; and c) assumes no ownership or risks of inventory.  Under the terms of the agreements, the Company is typically not required to pay the subcontractor until after the corresponding payment from the Company’s end-client is received. Upon invoicing the end-client on behalf of the subcontractor or staffing agency the Company records this amount simultaneously as both a “transit account receivable” and “transit account payable” as the amount when paid to the Company is due to and generally paid to the subcontractor within a few days. The Company typically does not pay a given transit account payable until the related transit account receivable is collected. The Company’s transit accounts payable generally exceeds the Company’s transit accounts receivable but absolute amounts and spreads fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter in the normal course of business. The transit accounts receivable was $6.9 million and related transit accounts payable was $7.0 million, for a net liability of $0.1 million, as of September 27, 2014. The transit accounts receivable was $4.0 million and related transit accounts payable was $3.9 million, for a negligible net asset, as of December 28, 2013.