Recent Accounting Guidance

12 Months Ended

May 31, 2017

New Accounting Pronouncements And Changes In Accounting Principles [Abstract]

Recent Accounting Guidance

NOTE 2: RECENT ACCOUNTING GUIDANCE

New accounting rules and disclosure requirements can significantly impact our reported results and the comparability of our financial statements. We believe the following new accounting guidance is relevant to the readers of our financial statements.

During the first quarter of 2017, we retrospectively adopted the authoritative guidance issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) to simplify the presentation of debt issuance costs. This new guidance requires entities to present debt issuance costs related to a recognized debt liability as a direct deduction from the carrying amount of that debt liability, rather than as an asset. This new guidance had a minimal impact on our accounting and financial reporting.

During the second quarter of 2017, we adopted the Accounting Standards Update issued by the FASB in March 2016 to simplify the accounting for share-based payment transactions. The new guidance requires companies to recognize the income tax effects of awards that vest or are settled as income tax expense or benefit in the income statement as opposed to additional paid-in capital. The guidance also provides clarification of the presentation of certain components of share-based awards in the statement of cash flows. Additionally, the guidance allows companies to make a policy election to account for forfeitures either upon occurrence or by estimating forfeitures. We have elected to continue estimating forfeitures expected to occur in order to determine the amount of compensation cost to be recognized each period and to apply the cash flow classification guidance prospectively. Excess tax benefits are now classified as an operating activity rather than a financing activity. The adoption of the new standard resulted in a benefit to net income of $55 million ($0.17 per diluted share) for the year ended May 31, 2017. The first quarter of 2017 was not recast due to immateriality.

On May 28, 2014, the FASB and International Accounting Standards Board issued a new accounting standard that will supersede virtually all existing revenue recognition guidance under generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. This standard will be effective for us beginning in fiscal 2019. The fundamental principles of the new guidance are that companies should recognize revenue in a manner that reflects the timing of the transfer of services to customers and the amount of revenue recognized reflects the consideration that a company expects to receive for the goods and services provided. The new guidance establishes a five-step approach for the recognition of revenue. We are continuing to assess the impact of this new standard on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures, including ongoing contract reviews. We do not anticipate that the new guidance will have a material impact on our revenue recognition policies, practices or systems.

On February 25, 2016, the FASB issued a new lease accounting standard which requires lessees to put most leases on their balance sheets but recognize the expenses on their income statements in a manner similar to current practice. The new standard states that a lessee will recognize a lease liability for the obligation to make lease payments and a right-of-use asset for the right to use the underlying asset for the lease term. Expenses related to leases determined to be operating leases will be recognized on a straight-line basis, while those determined to be financing leases will be recognized following a front-loaded expense profile in which interest and amortization are presented separately in the income statement. Based on our lease portfolio, we currently anticipate recognizing a lease liability and related right-of-use asset on the balance sheet in excess of $13 billion with an immaterial impact on our income statement compared to the current lease accounting model. However, the ultimate impact of the standard will depend on the company’s lease portfolio as of the adoption date. We are currently in the process of evaluating our existing lease portfolios, including accumulating all of the necessary information required to properly account for the leases under the new standard. Additionally, we are implementing an enterprise-wide lease management system to assist in the accounting and are evaluating additional changes to our processes and internal controls to ensure we meet the standard’s reporting and disclosure requirements. These changes will be effective for our fiscal year beginning June 1, 2019 (fiscal 2020), with a modified retrospective adoption method to the beginning of 2018.

In March 2017, the FASB issued an Accounting Standards Update that changes how employers that sponsor defined benefit pension or other postretirement benefit plans present the net periodic benefit cost in the income statement. This new guidance requires entities to report the service cost component in the same line item or items as other compensation costs. The other components of net benefit cost are required to be presented in the income statement separately from the service cost component outside of income from operations. This standard will impact our operating income but will have no impact on our net income or earnings per share. For example, adoption of this guidance would have reduced 2017 operating income by $471 million but would not have impacted our net income. This new guidance will be effective for our fiscal year beginning June 1, 2018 (fiscal 2019) and will be applied retrospectively.