Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Pool Corporation (the Company, which may be referred to as we, us or our) prepared the unaudited interim Consolidated Financial Statements following U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for interim financial information. As permitted under those rules, we have condensed or omitted certain footnotes and other financial information required for complete financial statements.

The interim Consolidated Financial Statements include all normal and recurring adjustments that are necessary for a fair presentation of our financial position and operating results. All significant intercompany accounts and intercompany transactions have been eliminated.

A description of our significant accounting policies is included in our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K. You should read the interim Consolidated Financial Statements in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and accompanying notes in our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K. The results for our three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the expected results for our fiscal year ending December 31, 2020.

Newly Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

On January 1, 2020, we adopted Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments, and all related amendments, which are codified into Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 326, using the cumulative-effect transition method related to our trade receivables. This new standard changes the way companies evaluate credit losses for most financial assets and certain other instruments. For trade and other receivables, held-to-maturity debt securities, loans and other instruments, entities are required to use a new forward-looking “expected loss” model to evaluate impairment, potentially resulting in earlier recognition of allowances for losses. The new standard also requires enhanced disclosures, including the requirement to disclose the information used to track credit quality by year of origination for most financing receivables. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on our financial position or results of operations, and we do not expect the adoption of this guidance to have a material effect on our results of operations in future periods. See Allowance for Doubtful Accounts within this note for more information.

We adopted ASU 2017-04, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment, for our interim impairment tests performed in the period ended March 31, 2020. This new standard eliminates the requirement to calculate the implied fair value of goodwill to measure a goodwill impairment charge (commonly referred to as Step 2 under the previous guidance). Rather, the measurement of a goodwill impairment charge is based on the excess of a reporting unit’s carrying value over its fair value (Step 1 under the previous guidance). The impact of the new standard is dependent on the specific facts and circumstances of individual impairments, if any. The adoption of this guidance did not impact our results of operations, statement of financial position or cash flows.

On January 1, 2020, we adopted ASU 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, on a prospective basis. This new standard aligns the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract with the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred to develop or obtain internal-use software and hosting arrangements that include an internal-use software license. The adoption of this guidance did not materially impact our results of operations, statement of financial position or cash flows.

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

We record trade receivables at the invoiced amounts less an allowance for doubtful accounts for estimated losses we may incur if customers do not pay. We perform periodic credit evaluations of our customers, and we typically do not require collateral. Consistent with industry practices, we generally require payment from our North American customers within 30 days, except for sales under early buy programs for which we provide extended payment terms to qualified customers.

Upon adoption of ASU 2016-13, we did not recognize an adjustment to the beginning balance of retained earnings as the impact from adoption was not material. Our estimate of future losses is made by management based upon historical bad debts, customer receivable balances, age of customer receivable balances, customers’ financial conditions and current and forecasted economic trends, including certain trends in the housing market, the availability of consumer credit and general economic conditions (as commonly measured by Gross Domestic Product or GDP). We monitor housing market trends through review of the House Price Index as published by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which measures the movement of single-family house prices. Our assessment of future losses in the first nine months of 2020 further considered the uncertainty of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on forecasted economic trends. At the end of each quarter, we also perform a reserve analysis of all accounts with balances greater than $20,000 that are more than 60 days past due. During the year, we write off account balances when we have exhausted reasonable collection efforts and determined that the likelihood of collection is remote. These write-offs are charged against our allowance for doubtful accounts.

The following table summarizes the changes in our allowance for doubtful accounts (in thousands):


	Nine Months Ended
	September 30,
		2020		2019
Balance at beginning of period		$	5,472	$	6,182
Bad debt expense		1,667		2,639
Write-offs, net of recoveries		(1,844)		(2,642)
Balance at end of period		$	5,295	$	6,179

Goodwill and Intangibles Impairment

As discussed in Note 1 to the Consolidated Financial Statements in our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K, goodwill represents the excess of the amount we paid to acquire a company over the estimated fair value of tangible assets and identifiable intangible assets acquired, less liabilities assumed. We test goodwill and other indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment annually as of October 1st and at any other time when impairment indicators exist.

In the first quarter of 2020, we determined certain impairment triggers for our Australian reporting units had occurred due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on expected future operating cash flows. We performed interim goodwill impairment analyses, which included discounted cash flow analyses, and determined that the estimated fair values of our Australian reporting units no longer exceeded their carrying values. In the period ended March 31, 2020, we recorded impairment equal to the total goodwill and intangibles carrying amounts of our five Australian reporting units, which included goodwill impairment of $3.5 million and intangibles impairment, related to the Pool Systems tradename and trademark, of $0.9 million. We also considered the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the expected future operating cash flows of the remainder of our reporting units. Although we do not currently anticipate any long-term impacts for the overall business, we continue to monitor reporting units that we consider more at risk; this includes one reporting unit in Italy with a goodwill balance of $3.7 million at September 30, 2020, and three reporting units in Quebec, Canada, with an aggregate goodwill balance of $2.6 million at September 30, 2020.

The determination of our reporting units’ goodwill and intangibles fair values includes numerous assumptions that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The principal assumptions, all of which are considered Level 3 inputs, used in our cash flow analyses consisted of changes in market conditions, forecasted future operating results (including sales growth rates and operating margins) and discount rates (including our weighted-average cost of capital).

Income Taxes

We reduce federal and state income taxes payable by the tax benefits associated with the exercise of nonqualified stock options and the lapse of restrictions on restricted stock awards. To the extent realized tax deductions exceed the amount of previously recognized deferred tax benefits related to share-based compensation, we record an excess tax benefit. We record all excess tax benefits as a component of income tax benefit or expense on the Consolidated Statements of Income in the period in which stock options are exercised or restrictions on awards lapse. We recorded excess tax benefits of $8.5 million in the third quarter of 2020 compared to $4.5 million in the third quarter of 2019 and $22.6 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2020 compared to $21.1 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2019.

Retained Earnings

We account for the retirement of treasury shares as a reduction of Retained earnings (deficit). As of September 30, 2020, the Retained earnings on our Consolidated Balance Sheets reflects cumulative net income, the cumulative impact of adjustments for changes in accounting pronouncements, treasury share retirements since the inception of our share repurchase programs of $1.5 billion and cumulative dividends of $647.5 million.

Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss

The table below presents the components of our Accumulated other comprehensive loss balance (in thousands):


	September 30,				December 31,
	2020		2019		2019
Foreign currency translation adjustments	$	(10,447)	$	(13,156)	$	(10,127)
Unrealized losses on interest rate swaps, net of tax	(11,155)		(649)		(232)
Accumulated other comprehensive loss	$	(21,602)	$	(13,805)	$	(10,359)

Recent Accounting Pronouncements Pending Adoption

The following table summarizes the recent accounting pronouncements that we plan to adopt in future periods:


Standard	Description	Effective Date	Effect on Financial Statements and Other Significant Matters



ASU 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740), Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes	Simplifies the accounting for income taxes by eliminating certain exceptions related to the approach for intraperiod tax allocation, the methodology for calculating income taxes in an interim period and the recognition of deferred tax liabilities for outside basis differences. Most amendments are required to be applied on a prospective basis, while certain amendments must be applied on a retrospective or modified retrospective basis.	Annual periods beginning after December 15, 2020	We are currently evaluating the effect this standard will have on our financial position, results of operations and related disclosures. We do not expect that there will be a material impact to the financial statements as a result of adopting this ASU.
ASU 2020-04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848), Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting	Provides temporary optional guidance to ease the potential burden in accounting for reference rate reform. The new guidance provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying generally accepted accounting principles to transactions affected by reference rate reform if certain criteria are met. These transactions include: contract modifications, hedging relationships, and sale or transfer of debt securities classified as held-to-maturity. Entities may apply the provisions of the new standard as of the beginning of the reporting period when the election is made.	The provisions of this update are only available until December 31, 2022, when the reference rate replacement activity is expected to be completed.	We are currently evaluating the effect this standard will have on our financial position, results of operations and related disclosures.