Summary of Significant Accounting Policies	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies	Note 1 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies Basis of Presentation GSE Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of professional and technical engineering, staffing services and simulation software to clients in the power and process industries. References in this report to "GSE" or "we" or "our" or "the Company" are to GSE Systems, Inc. and our subsidiaries, collectively. The consolidated interim financial statements included herein have been prepared by GSE and are unaudited. In the opinion of our management, all adjustments and reclassifications of a normal and recurring nature necessary to present fairly the financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented, have been made. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("U.S. GAAP") have been condensed or omitted. The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 8 of Regulation S-X. The accompanying balance sheet data for the year ended December 31, 2019 was derived from our audited financial statements, but it does not include all disclosures required by U.S. GAAP. The results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily an indication of the results for the full year. These consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 11, 2020. The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Our most significant estimates relate to revenue recognition on contracts with customers, allowance for doubtful accounts, product warranties, valuation of goodwill and intangible assets acquired including the determination of fair value in impairment tests, valuation of long-lived assets to be disposed of, valuation of contingent consideration issued in business acquisitions, valuation of stock-based compensation awards and the recoverability of deferred tax assets. Actual results of these, and other items not listed, could differ from these estimates and those differences could be material. COVID-19 GSE employees began working remotely during the first quarter of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to do so when practical and as mandated by local, state and federal directives and regulations. Employees almost entirely work from home within our Performance Improvement Solutions ("Performance") segment, except when required to be at the client site for essential project work. Our Performance contracts, which are considered an essential service, are permitted to and mostly continue without pause; however, we have experienced certain delays in new business. For our staff augmentation business, we have seen certain contracts for our Nuclear Industry Training and Consulting ("NITC") customers paused or delayed as clients shrink their own on-premise workforces to the minimum operating levels in response to the pandemic; as a result, our NITC segment has experienced a decline in its billable employee base since the start of the pandemic. Although we cannot fully estimate the length or gravity of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to our business at this time, we have experienced delays in commencing new projects and thus our ability to recognize revenue has been delayed for some contracts. We have also experienced order reductions or other negative changes to orders due to the pandemic. We routinely monitor our operating expenses as a result of contract delays and have made adjustments to keep our gross profit at a sustainable level. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect our financial results for the fiscal year 2020 to be lower than fiscal 2019 and forecasts we prepared at the beginning of the 2020 year. Going Concern As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have experienced a negative impact on our fiscal 2020 financial position and results of operations. We will likely continue to experience delays in commencing work on outstanding orders or loss of orders altogether, disruption of our business as a result of worker illness or mandated shutdowns, and decline in our ability to refinance existing indebtedness and access new capital. We signed the Eighth Amendment and Reaffirmation Agreement (the “Eighth Amendment”) with Citizens Bank National Association (the “Bank"), resulting in the full payoff of our long-term debt during the three months ended September 30, 2020, in response to the breach of our Adjusted EBITDA debt covenant during the three months ended June 30, 2020. The Eighth Amendment also altered or removed certain of our debt covenants and required a minimum US liquidity of $3.5 million to be tested biweekly (see Note 10). We continue to experience a negative impact to our results of operations and financial position from the COVID-19 pandemic. Based upon our current projections and outstanding balance on our revolving line of credit, we may be in violation of our leverage ratio in Q1 2021; however, we believe we have various options available to remediate or prevent the potential violation. Our options include continuing to development new revenue opportunities, reducing our operating costs such as our workforce, including reductions in compensation and benefits or eliminating fixed costs such as office space. In addition, we may further pay down outstanding debt balances by repatriating cash held in foreign operations. If necessary, we could potentially refinance our debt obligations, to an asset based or other loan arrangement. Also, working with our bank, we could potentially obtain additional debt amendments, including waivers of potential covenant breaches. We have no assurance that it will be possible to implement any of these on acceptable terms, however. We received $10 million pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program (““PPP”) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) and indicated that without these funds, the risk of employee terminations, layoffs and other drastic cost reductions exists. Although the PPP funds have provided us with additional liquidity, these funds did not prevent us from failing to comply with our minimum Adjusted EBITDA covenant with our Bank during the three months ended June 30, 2020. While the Company expects the PPP loan to be forgiven, we are unable to determine with certainty whether we will receive forgiveness from the Small Business Administration (see Note 4). Including the proceeds from the PPP, we believe we have sufficient cash to meet our operating requirement needs for at least the next twelve months; however, since some of our loan covenants are related to operating performance and our operating performance continues to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we may be in violation with our amended debt covenants during fiscal 2021. If we are unable to maintain compliance with our covenants, the Bank may call our outstanding Revolving Line of Credit due, which may create substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern.

Note 1 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

GSE Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of professional and technical engineering, staffing services and simulation software to clients in the power and process industries. References in this report to "GSE" or "we" or "our" or "the Company" are to GSE Systems, Inc. and our subsidiaries, collectively.

The consolidated interim financial statements included herein have been prepared by GSE and are unaudited. In the opinion of our management, all adjustments and reclassifications of a normal and recurring nature necessary to present fairly the financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented, have been made. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("U.S. GAAP") have been condensed or omitted.

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 8 of Regulation S-X. The accompanying balance sheet data for the year ended December 31, 2019 was derived from our audited financial statements, but it does not include all disclosures required by U.S. GAAP.

The results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily an indication of the results for the full year. These consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 11, 2020.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Our most significant estimates relate to revenue recognition on contracts with customers, allowance for doubtful accounts, product warranties, valuation of goodwill and intangible assets acquired including the determination of fair value in impairment tests, valuation of long-lived assets to be disposed of, valuation of contingent consideration issued in business acquisitions, valuation of stock-based compensation awards and the recoverability of deferred tax assets. Actual results of these, and other items not listed, could differ from these estimates and those differences could be material.

COVID-19

GSE employees began working remotely during the first quarter of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to do so when practical and as mandated by local, state and federal directives and regulations. Employees almost entirely work from home within our Performance Improvement Solutions ("Performance") segment, except when required to be at the client site for essential project work. Our Performance contracts, which are considered an essential service, are permitted to and mostly continue without pause; however, we have experienced certain delays in new business. For our staff augmentation business, we have seen certain contracts for our Nuclear Industry Training and Consulting ("NITC") customers paused or delayed as clients shrink their own on-premise workforces to the minimum operating levels in response to the pandemic; as a result, our NITC segment has experienced a decline in its billable employee base since the start of the pandemic. Although we cannot fully estimate the length or gravity of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to our business at this time, we have experienced delays in commencing new projects and thus our ability to recognize revenue has been delayed for some contracts. We have also experienced order reductions or other negative changes to orders due to the pandemic. We routinely monitor our operating expenses as a result of contract delays and have made adjustments to keep our gross profit at a sustainable level. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect our financial results for the fiscal year 2020 to be lower than fiscal 2019 and forecasts we prepared at the beginning of the 2020 year.

Going Concern

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have experienced a negative impact on our fiscal 2020 financial position and results of operations. We will likely continue to experience delays in commencing work on outstanding orders or loss of orders altogether, disruption of our business as a result of worker illness or mandated shutdowns, and decline in our ability to refinance existing indebtedness and access new capital.

We signed the Eighth Amendment and Reaffirmation Agreement (the “Eighth Amendment”) with Citizens Bank National Association (the “Bank"), resulting in the full payoff of our long-term debt during the three months ended September 30, 2020, in response to the breach of our Adjusted EBITDA debt covenant during the three months ended June 30, 2020. The Eighth Amendment also altered or removed certain of our debt covenants and required a minimum US liquidity of $3.5 million to be tested biweekly (see Note 10). We continue to experience a negative impact to our results of operations and financial position from the COVID-19 pandemic. Based upon our current projections and outstanding balance on our revolving line of credit, we may be in violation of our leverage ratio in Q1 2021; however, we believe we have various options available to remediate or prevent the potential violation. Our options include continuing to development new revenue opportunities, reducing our operating costs such as our workforce, including reductions in compensation and benefits or eliminating fixed costs such as office space. In addition, we may further pay down outstanding debt balances by repatriating cash held in foreign operations. If necessary, we could potentially refinance our debt obligations, to an asset based or other loan arrangement. Also, working with our bank, we could potentially obtain additional debt amendments, including waivers of potential covenant breaches. We have no assurance that it will be possible to implement any of these on acceptable terms, however.

We received $10 million pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program (““PPP”) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) and indicated that without these funds, the risk of employee terminations, layoffs and other drastic cost reductions exists. Although the PPP funds have provided us with additional liquidity, these funds did not prevent us from failing to comply with our minimum Adjusted EBITDA covenant with our Bank during the three months ended June 30, 2020. While the Company expects the PPP loan to be forgiven, we are unable to determine with certainty whether we will receive forgiveness from the Small Business Administration (see Note 4).

Including the proceeds from the PPP, we believe we have sufficient cash to meet our operating requirement needs for at least the next twelve months; however, since some of our loan covenants are related to operating performance and our operating performance continues to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we may be in violation with our amended debt covenants during fiscal 2021. If we are unable to maintain compliance with our covenants, the Bank may call our outstanding Revolving Line of Credit due, which may create substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern.