Intermediate Accounting, 8/e 5–159
Communication Case 5–7
The critical question that student groups should address is how to account for
punches in the punch card and the option to possibly receive a free ice cream cone
that it provides. Students should benefit from participating in the process, interacting
first with other group members, then with the class as a whole.
The preferred solution should include the idea that the sale of an ice cream cone
to a person who has a card involves two performance obligations:
1. Providing the ice cream cone
2. Eventually providing an additional ice cream cone, if and when a customer
reaches 10 punches on a card and redeems the card for the free cone.
Students should recognize that each punch on the punch card contributes to an
option to receive a future ice cream cone. That option is capable of being distinct
because it could be sold or provided separate from selling a cone, and it is separately