The current model organizes the project into preliminary-project, application- development, and post-implementation-operation stages. A dated cost ledger then asks what activity occurred, not merely which department incurred it.
Planning and alternatives work differs from coding, configuration, interfaces, installation, and testing inside a supported application-development window. Training and routine post-implementation operation remain separately visible; data conversion, upgrades, maintenance, and mixed contracts require their own facts rather than a stage label pasted onto the invoice.
The schedule must stop at readiness and preserve abandoned components. Its green total confirms only the supplied stage classifications and arithmetic. It does not prove project authorization, probable completion, unit of account, or the absence of significant unresolved risk.
Apply the distinction
For a nonadopting 2027 entity, $45,000 of alternatives work is expensed, $180,000 of supported application development is capitalized, and $30,000 of training is expensed. The activity dates control the result.
Authority
Read ASC 350-40-25-2 for capitalization of application-development-stage costs under the current model.
Put the concept to work
Apply this concept
- Classify dated preliminary-project, application-development, and post-implementation-operation costs under the declared current Subtopic 350-40 model and reconcile capitalized and expensed totals.
Learning resources
Choose a lesson, try an application, or inspect the sources behind this concept.
Build on these ideas
- Internal-use software — Apply
To apply this concept: Required. The project-stage model applies only after internal-use scope is supported.