Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Basis of Presentation (Policies)

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Basis of Presentation (Policies)
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2012
Basis of Presentation [Abstract]  
Revenue Recognition

Revenue Recognition—The Company recognizes revenue from services related to asset management and administration, licensing and professional services fees.

 

   

Asset management and administration fees—The Company derives revenues from fees charged as a percentage of the assets that are managed or administered on its technology platform by financial advisors, financial institutions, and their clients (collectively “customers”) and for services the Company provides to its customers. Such services include investment manager due diligence and research, portfolio diagnostics, proposal generation, investment model management, rebalancing and trading, portfolio performance reporting and monitoring solutions, billing, and back office and middle-office operations and administration. Investment decisions for assets under management or administration are made by our customers. The asset management and administration fees the Company earns are generally based upon a contractual percentage of assets managed or administered on our platform based on preceding quarter-end values. The contractual fee percentages vary based on the level and type of services the Company provides to its customers. Fees related to assets under management or administration increase or decrease based on values of existing customer accounts. The values are affected by inflows or outflows of customer funds and market fluctuations.

 

   

Licensing and professional services fees—

Licensing —The Company derives licensing fees from recurring contractual fixed fee contracts with larger financial institutions or enterprise clients. Licensing contracts allow the customer to provide a unique configuration of platform features and investment solutions for their advisors. The licensing fees vary based on the type of services provided and our revenues received under license agreements are recognized over the contractual term.

The Company’s license agreements do not generally provide its customers the ability to take possession of its software or host the software on its own systems or through a hosting arrangement with an unrelated party. However, in a certain instance, a customer has the ability to take possession of the software, and accordingly, the Company considers this circumstance as a software multiple-element arrangement. As a software multiple-element arrangement, the Company is required to determine whether there is vendor specific objective evidence (“VSOE”) of the various elements, including the software license and service components. The Company has not established VSOE of fair value for the separate components, and accordingly, recognizes revenue from these arrangements at such time as all elements of the arrangement have been delivered.

For the Company’s non-software multiple-element arrangements, the Company allocates the revenue in the arrangement using VSOE or third-party evidence (“TPE”) of selling price, or using the estimated selling price (“ESP”) of deliverables if it does not have VSOE or TPE. VSOE is the price charged when the same or similar product or service is sold separately. Many of the Company’s contracts renew automatically at the same rate as the original contract. The Company defines VSOE as the renewal rates of the standalone transactions.

TPE is determined based on the prices charged by the Company’s competitors for a similar deliverable when sold separately. However, due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient information on competitor pricing and differences in the Company’s product offerings when compared with those of the Company’s peers, the Company generally is unable to reliably determine TPE.

ESP is the Company’s best estimate of selling price of an element in a transaction involving multiple deliverables. If the Company is unable to establish selling price using either VSOE or TPE, the Company uses ESP in the allocation of arrangement consideration. The objective of ESP is to determine the price at which the Company would transact business if the product or service were sold on a standalone basis. The Company determines ESP based on revenue price drivers applied within a narrow range.

For multiple-element arrangements, the consideration allocated to online license fees is recognized on a straight line basis over the initial contract period, which typically ranges from one to five years and commences with the completed implementation date for the related product. The Company generally recognizes revenue for consideration allocated to implementation and consulting services in a multiple-element arrangement as services are performed because these services have standalone value separate from the online license fees.

Professional services—The Company derives professional service fees from providing contractual customized service platform software development, which are recognized under a proportional performance model utilizing an output based approach. The Company’s contracts have fixed prices, and generally specify or quantify interim deliverables.

Substantially all of the Company’s revenues are based on contractual arrangements. Revenues are recognized in the periods in which the related services are performed provided that persuasive evidence of an agreement exists, the fee is fixed or determinable, and collectability is reasonably assured. Cash received by the Company in advance of the performance of services is deferred and recognized as revenue when earned. Certain portions of the Company’s revenues require management’s consideration of the nature of the client relationship in determining whether to recognize as revenue the gross amount billed or net amount retained after payments are made to providers for certain services related to the product or service offering.

The two main factors the Company uses to determine whether to record revenue on a gross or net basis is based on whether:

 

   

the Company has a direct contract with the third party provider; and

 

   

the Company has discretion in establishing fees paid by the customer and fees due to the third party service provider.

When customer fees include charges for third party service providers where the Company has a direct contract with such third party service providers, gross revenue recognized by the Company equals the fee paid by customer. The cost of revenues recognized by the Company is the amount due to the third party provider.

In instances where the Company does not have a direct contract with the third party service provider, the Company does not recognize any revenue or expense. The fees that are collected from the customer by the Company and are remitted to the third party service provider are considered pass through amounts and accordingly are not a component of revenue or cost of revenues.

Deferred Revenue—Deferred revenue primarily consists of implementation and set up fees, professional services, and license fee payments received in advance from customers.

Segments— The Company’s chief operating decision maker is its chief executive officer, who reviews financial information presented on a consolidated basis. Historically, the Company has determined that it has a single reporting segment and operating unit structure. As a result of the acquisitions as discussed in Note 3, the Company has re-examined its reporting and operating structure and has determined it continues to maintain a single reporting and operating unit structure.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In June 2011, the FASB issued authoritative guidance that amends ASC Topic 220, Comprehensive Income, to require that all non-owner changes in stockholders’ equity be presented either in a single continuous statement of comprehensive income or in two separate but consecutive statements, and it eliminates the option to present components of other comprehensive income as a part of the statement of changes in stockholders’ equity. In addition, this guidance requires an entity to present on the face of the financial statements reclassification adjustments for items that are reclassified from other comprehensive income to net income in the statement(s) where the components of net income and the components of other comprehensive income are presented. These amendments are to be applied retrospectively and are effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2011; however, early adoption is permitted. The adoption of this guidance on January 1, 2012 did not have a material impact on the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

In September 2011, the FASB issued authoritative guidance regarding the testing of goodwill for impairment. This guidance allows companies to perform a “qualitative” assessment to determine whether or not the current two-step quantitative testing method, in which a company compares the fair value of reporting units to its carrying amount including goodwill, must be followed. If a qualitative assessment indicates that it is more-likely-than-not that the fair value of a reporting unit is greater than its carrying amount, then the quantitative impairment test is not required. A company may choose to use the qualitative assessment on none, some, or all of its reporting units or to bypass the qualitative assessment and proceed directly to the two-step quantitative testing method. This guidance is effective for annual and interim goodwill impairment tests performed for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2011; however, early adoption is permitted. The adoption of this guidance on January 1, 2012 did not have a material impact on the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.