Pleasant Co. manufactures specialty bike accessories. The company is known for product quality, and it has offered one of the best warranties in the industry on its higher-priced products—a lifetime guarantee, performing all the warranty work in its own shops. The warranty on these products is included in the sales price. Due to the recent introduction and growth in sales of some products targeted to the low price market, Pleasant is considering partnering with another company to do the warranty work on this line of products, if customers purchase a service contract at the time of original product purchase. Pleasant has called you to advise the company on the accounting for this new warranty arrangement.
Instructions
If your school has a subscription to the FASB Codification, go to log in and prepare responses to the following. Provide Codification references for your responses.
(a) Identify the accounting literature that addresses the accounting for the type of separately priced warranty that Pleasant is considering.
(b) When are warranty contracts considered separately priced?
(c) What are incremental direct acquisition costs and how should they be treated?