2. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND RECENT ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

Significant Accounting Policies and Estimates

Except for the discussion on revenue recognition below, no material changes have been made to the Company’s significant accounting policies disclosed in Note 2 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2018.

REVENUE RECOGNITION

As of October 1, 2018, the Company began applying the provisions of Accounting Standards Codification 606-10, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (“ASC 606”), and all related appropriate guidance using the modified retrospective method applied to those contracts which were not completed as of October 1, 2018. The Company recognizes revenue under the core principle of depicting the transfer of control to the Company’s customers in an amount reflecting the consideration to which the Company expects to be entitled. In order to achieve that core principle, the Company applies the following five step approach: (1) identify the contract with a customer; (2) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (3) determine the transaction price; (4) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (5) recognize revenue when a performance obligation is satisfied.

Upon adoption of ASC 606 we recognized a $933 decrease to the opening balance of retained earnings, net of tax, due to the cumulative impact of adopting the new revenue standards. The comparative information has not been restated and continues to be reported under the accounting standards in effect for those periods. The Company changed its accounting policy for revenue recognition for customer incentives that provide free products and tiered pricing. For free products, the new revenue standards require that a portion of the transaction price be allocated to the free product and deferred until the product has been delivered. We previously accrued for undelivered free product as a charge to cost of sales. In prior fiscal years, in accordance with ASC 605, we did not consider prospective tiered pricing to represent a material right.

The cumulative effect of the changes made to our Consolidated Balance Sheet as of October 1, 2018 for the adoption of the new revenue standards was as follows:

	Balance at September 30, 2018		Adjustments Due to ASC 606			Balance at October 1, 2018
Deferred income tax assets	$	5,840	$	261		$	6,101
Accrued expenses, income taxes payable and other current liabilities		82,983		(47	)		82,936
Other long-term liabilities		13,046		1,241			14,287
Retained earnings	$	471,673	$	(933	)	$	470,740

We have determined that the effect of applying the new revenue standards during the quarter ended December 31, 2018 was immaterial to our financial statements compared to revenue guidance in effect before the adoption of the new revenue standards. As a result, for the quarter ended December 31, 2018, we are not disclosing the quantitative amount by which each financial statement line item is affected by the application of the new revenue standards.

As part of the adoption of ASU 606, the Company elected to use certain allowed practical expedients. For the Company’s contracts that have an original duration of one year or less as of the adoption date, the Company uses the practical expedient applicable to such contracts and does not consider the time value of money. Further, because of the short duration of these contracts, the Company has not disclosed the transaction price for the future performance obligations as of the end of each reporting period for contracts having an expected duration of one year or less. See Note 3. for disaggregated revenue, the reconciliation of contract balances and transaction price allocation to remaining performance obligations for contracts expected to remain effective beyond one year.

Performance Obligations and Material Rights

At contract inception, the Company assesses the goods and services promised in its contracts with customers and identifies a performance obligation for each material promise to the customer. A performance obligation is a promise in a contract to transfer a distinct good or service, or a bundle of goods or services, to the customer, and is the unit of accounting under ASC 606. A contract’s transaction price is allocated to each distinct performance obligation and recognized as revenue when, or as, the performance obligation is satisfied. A majority of the Company’s contracts have a single performance obligation which represents, in most cases, the products, equipment or services being sold to the customer. Some contracts include multiple performance obligations including prospective tiered price discounts or delivery of free product that we have concluded represents a material right. Contracts with prospective tiered price discounts require judgment in determining if that discount represents a material right.

Contracts vary in length and payment terms vary by the type and location of the Company’s customers and the products or services offered. However, the term between invoicing and when payment is due is typically not significant and has no significant financing components. Customers pay in accordance with negotiated terms upon receipt of goods or completion of services. For these contracts, the transaction price is determined upon establishment of the contract that contains the final terms of the sale, including the description, quantity, and price of goods or services purchased. In certain instances, we receive consideration from a customer prior to transferring goods or services to the customer under the terms of a sales contract. In such cases, we record deferred revenue until the performance obligation is satisfied, which represents a contract liability, and is included in the contract liabilities discussed in Note 3 of this Form 10-Q.

The Company recognizes revenue related to product sales at a point in time following the transfer of control of such products to the customer, which generally occurs upon shipment, or delivery depending on the terms of the underlying contracts. The Company considers control to have transferred upon shipment or delivery because the Company has a present right to payment at that time, the customer has legal title to the asset, the Company has transferred physical possession of the asset, and the customer has significant risks and rewards of ownership of the asset. Revenue is recognized on consignment sales when control transfers to the customer, generally at the point of customer usage of the product. The Company also records revenue for services provided to the pipeline and oilfield energy industries. These services include preventive maintenance, repair and specialized isolation sealing on pipelines and training. Revenue is recorded at a point in time when the services are completed as this is when right to payment and customer acceptance occurs.

For sales contracts that contain multiple performance obligations, the Company allocates the transaction price to each performance obligation identified in the contract based on relative standalone selling prices or estimates of such prices. Standalone selling price, once established, is then used to allocate total consideration proportionally to the various performance obligations within a contract. Most contracts where we have determined there to be multiple performance obligations relate to where we have identified a material right to exist such that we provide prospective tiered pricing discounts or free product. When we invoice for products shipped under these contracts, we defer the revenue associated with these rights on the balance sheet as a contract liability. Revenue is recognized when the customer exercises the option to purchase goods at a discount in the case of the prospective tiered pricing discounts or when we ship the free product.

Variable Consideration

The primary type of variable consideration present in the Company’s contracts are rebates and early payment discounts, both of which are immaterial. Early payment discounts are offered on a limited basis and are not significant. The Company also offers rebates based upon cumulative volume of purchases within a quarter and accrues for the rebate obligation within the quarter that the rebate is earned. ASC 606 did not change the accounting for rebates under ASC 605.

Costs to Obtain and Fulfill a Contract

For certain contracts within the Performance Materials segment, commissions are paid to sales agents based upon a percentage of end-customer invoice value. Agents are paid the commissions after funds are received by the Company from its customers. Under ASC 340, sales commissions are required to be capitalized and expensed over the associated contract period. However, as a practical expedient, the Company does not capitalize commissions as the associated contracts are generally one year or less in duration. For shipping and handling activities performed after a customer obtains control of the goods, the Company has elected to account for these costs as activities to fulfill the promise to transfer the goods and included in cost of sales.

EFFECTS OF RECENT ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, "Leases" (Topic 842). The provisions of ASU 2016-02 require a dual approach for lessee accounting under which a lessee would recognize a right-of-use asset and a corresponding lease liability. Leases will be classified as either finance or operating leases. For finance leases, a lessee will recognize interest expense and amortization of the right-of-use asset, and for operating leases, the lessee will recognize a straight-line total lease expense. The guidance also requires qualitative and specific quantitative disclosures to supplement the amounts recorded in the financial statements, to afford better understanding of an entity's leasing activities, including any significant judgments and estimates. ASU 2016-02 will be effective for us beginning October 1, 2019, but early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of implementation of this standard on our financial statements.

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-13, "Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments" (Topic 326). The provisions of this standard require financial assets measured at amortized cost to be presented at the net amount expected to be collected. An allowance account would be established to present the net carrying value at the amount expected to be collected. ASU 2016-13 also provides that credit losses relating to available-for-sale debt securities should be recorded through an allowance for credit losses. ASU 2016-13 will be effective for us beginning October 1, 2020, but early adoption is permitted as of October 1, 2019. We are currently evaluating the impact of implementation of this standard on our financial statements.

In March 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-07 "Improving the Presentation of Net Period Pension Cost and Net Period Postretirement Benefit Cost" (Topic 715). The provisions of ASU 2017-07 provided specific guidance on the presentation of the components of net benefit cost. We adopted this standard ASU 2017-07 effective October 1, 2018 and applied it retrospectively. Pursuant to the adoption, net service costs are recorded as fringe benefit expense under cost of goods sold and operating expenses, and all other costs are recorded in the Other income (expense), net in our Consolidated Statements of Income (Loss). The impact of the retrospective adoption in fiscal 2018 is not material and therefore not reflected.

In May 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-09 "Scope of Modification Accounting" (Topic 718). The provisions of ASU 2017-09 provide specific guidance about which changes to the term or conditions of a share-based payment require an entity to apply modification accounting. We adopted ASU 2017-09 effective October 1, 2018 and will apply this new standard to the share-based compensation awards, to the extent modified.

In August 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-12 "Derivatives and Hedging" (Topic 815). The provisions of this standard amend the hedge accounting model in ASC 815 to expand an entity's ability to hedge nonfinancial and financial risk components, reduce complexity in fair value hedges of interest rate risk, eliminate the requirement to separately measure and report hedge ineffectiveness, and generally require the entire change in the fair value of a hedging instrument to be presented in the same income statement line as the hedged item. The guidance also eases certain documentation and assessment requirements and modifies the accounting for components excluded from the assessment of hedge effectiveness. ASU 2017-12 will be effective for us beginning October 1, 2019, but early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of implementation of this standard on our financial statements.

In February 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-02 "Income Statement – Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220)". The amendments in this standard allow a company to reclassify the stranded tax effects resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the "Tax Act") from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings. ASU 2018-02 will be effective for us beginning October 1, 2019, but early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of implementation of this standard on our financial statements.

In June 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-07 " Compensation—Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting". The ASU simplified the accounting for share-based payments granted to nonemployees for goods and services, therefore guidance on such payments to nonemployees would be mostly aligned with the requirements for share-based payments granted to employees. ASU 2018-07 will be effective for us beginning October 1, 2019, but early adoption is permitted (but no earlier than the adoption date of Topic 606). We are currently evaluating the impact of implementation of this standard on our financial statements.

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-13 " Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Disclosure Framework—Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement". The ASU provides specific guidance on various disclosure requirements in Topic 820, including removal, modification and addition to current disclosure requirements. ASU 2018-13 will be effective for us beginning October 1, 2020, but early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of implementation of this standard on our disclosures.

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-15 " Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer’s Accounting for Implementation Costs Incurred in a Cloud Computing Arrangement That Is a Service Contract (a consensus of the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force)". The ASU Requires an entity (customer) in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract to follow the guidance in Subtopic 350-40 to determine which implementation costs to capitalize as an asset related to the service contract and which costs to expense. ASU 2018-15 will be effective for us beginning October 1, 2020, but early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of implementation of this standard on our financial statements.