2. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)

12 Months Ended

Aug. 31, 2013

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Estimates

Use of Estimates

Our financial statements and accompanying notes are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Preparing financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, and expenses. These estimates and assumptions are affected by management’s application of accounting policies. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Principles of Consolidation

Principles of Consolidation

The financial statements of Simulations Plus, Inc. include the accounts of Words+ up to November 30, 2011 (FY12), the date of sale of the wholly-owned subsidiary. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions were eliminated in consolidation. The operations of Words+ are presented as “discontinued operations” in the financial statements.

Revenue Recognition

Revenue Recognition

We recognize revenues related to software licenses and software maintenance in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 985-605, “Software - Revenue Recognition”. Software products revenue is recorded when the following conditions are met: 1) evidence of arrangement exists, 2) delivery has been made, 3) the amount is fixed, and 4) collectability is probable. Post-contract customer support ("PCS") obligations are insignificant; therefore, revenue for PCS is recognized at the same time as the licensing fee, and the costs of providing such support services are accrued and amortized over the obligation period.

As a byproduct of ongoing improvements and upgrades for the new programs and new modules of software, some modifications are provided to customers who have already purchased software at no additional charge. Other software modifications result in new, additional cost modules that expand the functionality of the software. These are licensed separately. We consider the modifications that are provided without charge to be minimal, as they do not significantly change the basic functionality or utility of the software, but rather add convenience, such as being able to plot some additional variable on a graph in addition to the numerous variables that had been available before, or adding some additional calculations to supplement the information provided from running the software. Such software modifications for any single product have typically occurred once or twice per year, sometimes more, sometimes less. Thus, they are infrequent. The Company provides, for a fee, additional training and service calls to its customers and recognizes revenue at the time the training or service call is provided.

Generally, we enter into one-year license agreements with customers for the use of our pharmaceutical software products. We recognize revenue on these contracts when all the criteria are met.

Most license agreements have a term of one year; however, from time to time, we enter into multi-year license agreements.We generally unlock and invoice software one year at a time for multi-year licenses. Therefore, revenue is recognized one year at a time.

We recognize the revenue from collaboration research and the revenue from grants equally over their terms. However, we recognize the contract study revenue using the percentage of completion method, depending upon how the contract studies are engaged, in accordance with ASC 605-35, “Revenue Recognition – Construction-Type and Production-Type Contracts”. To recognize revenue using the percentage of completion method, we must determine whether we meet the following criteria: 1) there is a long-term, legally enforceable contract 2) it is possible to reasonably estimate the total project costs, and 3) it is possible to reasonably estimate the extent of progress toward completion.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

Cash and Cash Equivalents

For purposes of the statements of cash flows, the Company considers all highly liquid investments purchased with original maturities of three months or less to be cash equivalents.

Accounts Receivable

Accounts Receivable

We analyze the age of customer balances, historical bad debt experience, customer creditworthiness, and changes in customer payment terms when making estimates of the collectability of the Company’s trade accounts receivable balances. If we determine that the financial conditions of any of our customers have deteriorated, whether due to customer-specific or general economic issues, an increase in the allowance may be made. Accounts receivable are written off when all collection attempts have failed. The Company also estimated the contractual discount obligation for third party funding such as Medicaid, and private insurance companies. Those estimated discounts were reflected in the allowance for doubtful accounts and contractual discounts and included in discontinued operations. Although we experienced significant collection problems with our former Words+ subsidiary, we have not had customers fail to pay on the pharmaceutical software and services side of the business, which now represents our entire business after the sale of our former subsidiary on November 30, 2011.

Capitalized Computer Software Development Costs

Capitalized Computer Software Development Costs

Software development costs are capitalized in accordance with ASC 985-20, “Costs of Software to Be Sold, Leased, or Marketed”. Capitalization of software development costs begins upon the establishment of technological feasibility and is discontinued when the product is available for sale.

The establishment of technological feasibility and the ongoing assessment for recoverability of capitalized software development costs require considerable judgment by management with respect to certain external factors including, but not limited to, technological feasibility, anticipated future gross revenues, estimated economic life, and changes in software and hardware technologies. Capitalized computer software development costs are comprised primarily of salaries and direct payroll-related costs and the purchase of existing software to be used in the Company's software products.

Amortization of capitalized computer software development costs is provided on a product-by-product basis on the straight-line method over the estimated economic life of the products (not to exceed five years). Amortization of software development costs amounted to $716,888 and $668,021 for the years ended August 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. We expect future amortization expense to vary due to increases in capitalized computer software development costs.

We test capitalized computer software development costs for recoverability whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable.

Property and Equipment

Property and Equipment

Property and equipment are recorded at cost, less accumulated depreciation and amortization. Depreciation and amortization are provided using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives as follows:

Equipment	5 years
Computer equipment	3 to 7 years
Furniture and fixtures	5 to 7 years
Leasehold improvements	Shorter of life of asset or lease

Maintenance and minor replacements are charged to expense as incurred. Gains and losses on disposals are included in the results of operations.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

Assets and liabilities recorded at fair value in the Company’s Balance Sheets are categorized based upon the level of judgment associated with the inputs used to measure their fair value. The categories, as defined by the standard, are as follows:

Level Input:	Input Definition:
Level I	Inputs are unadjusted, quoted prices for identical assets or liabilities in active markets at the measurement date.
Level II	Inputs, other than quoted prices included in Level I, that are observable for the asset or liability through corroboration with market data at the measurement date.
Level III	Unobservable inputs that reflect management’s best estimate of what market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability at the measurement date.

The following table summarizes fair value measurements by level at August 31, 2013 for assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis:

	Level I		Level II		Level III		Total
Cash and cash equivalents	$	10,179,298	$	–	$	–	$	10,179,298
Total assets	$	10,179,298	$	–	$	–	$	10,179,298

For certain of our financial instruments, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, accrued payroll and other expenses, accrued bonuses to officers, and accrued warranty and service costs, the carrying amounts are approximate fair value due to their short-term nature.

Advertising

Advertising

The Company expenses advertising costs as incurred. Advertising costs for the years ended August 31, 2013 and 2012 were $38,000 and $79,000, respectively.

Research and Development Costs

Research and Development Costs

Research and development costs are charged to expense as incurred until technological feasibility has been established. These costs include salaries, laboratory experiment, and purchased software which was developed by other companies and incorporated into, or used in the development of, our final products.

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

The Company accounts for income taxes in accordance with ASC 740-10, “Income Taxes” which requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in the financial statements or tax returns.

Under this method, deferred income taxes are recognized for the tax consequences in future years of differences between the tax bases of assets and liabilities and their financial reporting amounts at each year-end based on enacted tax laws and statutory tax rates applicable to the periods in which the differences are expected to affect taxable income. Valuation allowances are established, when necessary, to reduce deferred tax assets to the amount expected to be realized. The provision for income taxes represents the tax payable for the period and the change during the period in deferred tax assets and liabilities.

The California Franchise Tax Board (“FTB”) audited us for the fiscal years ended (“FYE”) August 31, 2007 and 2008. We received refunds as we claimed; however they continued their audit to include FYE 2009 and 2010, and are reviewing 2007 and 2008 R&D credits since those credits were carried forward to FYE 2009 and 2010. In May 2013, we received a letter from FTB stating that an audit will not be conducted for those years at this time; however it may be subject to future audit if they receive new information.

In March 2012, we also received a notice from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) that our FYE 2008 is subject to their examination. In October 2012, the IRS completed their examination of our 2007 tax filing. The outcome of this examination was a decrease of $36,868 in the amount refundable. We received a refund of $151,246 in December 2012.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property

On February 28, 2012, we bought out the royalty agreement with Enslein Research of Rochester, New York. The cost of $75,000 is being amortized over 10 years under the straight-line method. Amortization expense for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2013 and 2012 was $7,500 and $3,750, respectively. Accumulated amortization as of August 31, 2013 and 2012 was $11,250 and $3,750, respectively.

Earnings per Share

Earnings per Share

The Company reports earnings per share in accordance with FASB ACS 260-10. Basic earnings per share is computed by dividing income available to common shareholders by the weighted-average number of common shares available. Diluted earnings per share is computed similarly to basic earnings per share except that the denominator is increased to include the number of additional common shares that would have been outstanding if the potential common shares had been issued and if the additional common shares were dilutive. The components of basic and diluted earnings per share for the years ended August 31, 2013 and 2012 were as follows:

	2013		2012
Numerator
Net income attributable to common shareholders	$	3,141,384	$	3,027,884
Denominator
Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the year		15,996,432		15,763,674
Dilutive effect of stock options		323,551		388,199
Common stock and common stock equivalents used for diluted earnings per share		16,319,983		16,151,873

Stock-Based Compensation

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company accounts for stock options using the modified prospective method in accordance with FASB ASC 718-10, “Compensation-Stock Compensation”. Under this method, compensation costs include: (1) compensation cost for all share-based payments granted prior to, but not yet vested as of September 1, 2006, based on the grant date fair value estimated in accordance with the original provisions of Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (“SFAS”) No. 123 amortized over the options’ vesting period, and (2) compensation cost for all share-based payments granted subsequent to September 1, 2006, based on the grant-date fair value estimated in accordance with the provisions of SFAS No. 123R, amortized on a straight-line basis over the options’ vesting period. Stock-based compensation was $115,740 and $181,521 for the years ended August 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively, and is included in the statements of operations as Consulting, Salaries, and Research and Development expense.

Recently Issued Accounting Standards

Recently Issued Accounting Standards

In July 2012, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2012-02, “Testing Indefinite-Lived Intangible Assets for Impairment” (“ASU 2012-02”), which amended the guidance in ASU 2011-08, “Intangibles-Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Testing Goodwill for Impairment”) to simplify the testing of indefinite-lived intangible assets other than goodwill for impairment. ASU 2012-02 becomes effective for annual and interim impairment tests performed for fiscal years beginning on or after September 15, 2012 and earlier adoption is permitted. We adopted this standard in the first quarter of FYE 2013. We believe adoption did not have a material effect on our financial statements.