Revenue & Expenses
Revenue Recognition
Why a builder selling you a flat under construction might now have to wait until you get the keys before it can call the money 'revenue' — even though you've been paying instalments for two years.
Employee Stock Options (ESOPs)
Why a company can hand an employee something worth crores of rupees, pay no cash for it today, and still have to book a real expense against its profit — years before the employee can even sell a single share.
Related Party Transactions
Why a company selling goods to its own promoter's other business, at a price nobody outside the family would ever agree to, is completely legal — as long as it's disclosed loudly enough for everyone to see.
Foreign Currency Translation
Why an Indian IT company's US dollar revenue can grow nicely in dollar terms and still show disappointing growth in rupees — or the other way around — without a single extra dollar of business won or lost.
Government Grants
Why a cash subsidy a company receives TODAY from the government might not show up as income today at all — sometimes it gets spread across many future years instead.
Cash-settled Share-based Payments (SARs)
Why two employee incentive plans that feel almost identical to the employee receiving them — both tied to the company's share price — can create a completely different, and far less predictable, expense for the company issuing them.