Revenue Recognition (Notes)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]

Revenue from Contract with Customer [Text Block]

REVENUE

The Company disaggregates revenue from contracts with customers by product, service, timing of revenue recognition, and geography. A summary by the Company’s reportable segments follows:

Three months ended March 31, 2022	U.S. Operations		Swiss Operations		Western European Operations		Chinese Operations		Other Operations		Total
Product Revenue	$	248,807	$	33,910	$	138,009	$	167,989	$	117,900	$	706,615
Service Revenue:
Point in time	60,154		7,168		36,223		10,327		28,600		142,472
Over time	16,860		2,192		18,654		4,390		6,608		48,704
Total	$	325,821	$	43,270	$	192,886	$	182,706	$	153,108	$	897,791

Three months ended March 31, 2021	U.S. Operations		Swiss Operations		Western European Operations		Chinese Operations		Other Operations		Total
Product Revenue	$	205,191	$	30,167	$	136,899	$	143,325	$	111,333	$	626,915
Service Revenue:
Point in time	51,591		6,891		35,630		9,342		27,877		131,331
Over time	15,177		2,223		19,821		3,407		5,516		46,144
Total	$	271,959	$	39,281	$	192,350	$	156,074	$	144,726	$	804,390

    A breakdown of net sales to external customers by geographic customer destination for the three months ended March 31 follows:

	2022		2021
Americas	$	352,689	$	303,339
Europe	249,784		241,377
Asia / Rest of World	295,318		259,674
Total	$	897,791	$	804,390

The Company's global revenue mix by product category is laboratory (57% of sales), industrial (38% of sales) and retail (5% of sales). The Company's product revenue by reportable segment is proportionately similar to the Company's global mix except the Company's Swiss Operations is largely comprised of laboratory products, while the Company's Chinese Operations has a slightly higher percentage of industrial products. A breakdown of the Company’s sales by product category for the three months ended March 31 follows:

	2022		2021
Laboratory	$	513,550	$	444,627
Industrial	343,738		310,777
Retail	40,503		48,986
Total	$	897,791	$	804,390

The payment terms in the Company’s contracts with customers do not exceed one year and therefore contracts do not contain a significant financing component. In most cases, after appropriate credit evaluations, payments are due in arrears and are recognized as receivables. Unbilled revenue is recorded when performance obligations have been satisfied, but not yet billed to the customer. Unbilled revenue as of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021 was $33.9 million and $32.1 million, respectively, and is included within accounts receivable. Deferred revenue and customer prepayments are recorded when cash payments are received or due in advance of the performance obligation being satisfied. Deferred revenue primarily includes prepaid service contracts, as well as deferred installation.

Changes in the components of deferred revenue and customer prepayments during the periods ended March 31, 2022 and 2021 are as follows:

	2022		2021
Beginning balances as of January 1	$	192,648	$	149,106
Customer pre-payments/deferred revenue	182,539		162,765
Revenue recognized	(156,141)		(127,985)
Foreign currency translation	(3,366)		(3,556)
Ending balance as of March 31	$	215,680	$	180,330

The Company generally expenses sales commissions when incurred because the contract period is one year or less. These costs are recorded within selling, general, and administrative expenses. The Company has not disclosed the value of unsatisfied performance obligations other than customer pre-payments and deferred revenue above as most contracts have an expected length of one year or less and amounts greater than one year are immaterial.