Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Presentation and Principles of Consolidation
The consolidated financial statements were prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). In the opinion of management, the information herein reflects all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments, except as otherwise noted, considered necessary for a fair statement of results of operations, financial position and cash flows. The consolidated financial statements include the results of Castlight and its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires the Company to make certain estimates, judgments and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. These estimates include, but are not limited to, the determination of the relative selling prices for the Company's services and certain assumptions used in the valuation of its equity awards. Actual results could differ from those estimates, and such differences could be material to the Company's consolidated financial position and results of operations.
Segment Information
The Company's chief operating decision maker, its CEO, reviews the financial information presented on a consolidated basis for purposes of allocating resources and evaluating the Company's financial performance. Accordingly, the Company has determined that it operates in a single reportable segment, cloud-based products.
Revenue Recognition
The Company derives its revenue from sales of cloud-based subscription service and professional services contracts. The Company sells subscriptions to its cloud-based subscription service through contracts that are generally three years in length.
The Company's cloud-based subscription service contracts do not provide customers with the right to take possession of the software supporting the cloud-based service and, as a result, are accounted for as service contracts.
The Company commences revenue recognition for its cloud-based subscription service and professional services when all of the following criteria are met:
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• | there is persuasive evidence of an arrangement; |
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• | the service has been provided to the customer; |
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• | collection of the fees is reasonably assured; and |
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• | the amount of fees to be paid by the customer is fixed or determinable. |
The Company's subscription and professional service arrangements do not contain refund provisions for fees earned related to services performed. The Company does, however, have commitments under service-level agreements, as discussed under "Warranties and Indemnification" below.
Subscription Revenue. Subscription revenue recognition commences on the date that the Company's cloud-based service is made available to the customer, which is considered the launch date, provided all of the other criteria described above are met. Revenue is recognized based on usage or on a straight-line bases if fees are fixed.
Some of the Company's cloud-based subscription arrangements include performance incentives that are generally based upon employee engagement. Fees for performance incentives are considered contingent revenue, and are recognized over the remaining term of the related subscription arrangement commencing at the time they are earned.
Professional Services Revenue. Professional services revenue is primarily comprised of implementation services and communication services related to the Company's cloud-based subscription service. Nearly all of the Company's professional services are sold on a fixed-fee basis. The Company does not have standalone value for its implementation services. Accordingly, the Company recognizes implementation services revenue in the same manner as the associated cloud-based subscription service, beginning on the launch date, provided all other criteria described above have been met. Communication services have standalone value and the associated revenue is recognized over the contractual term, generally one year, commencing when the revenue recognition criteria have been met.
Multiple Deliverable Arrangements. To date, the Company has generated substantially all its revenue from multiple deliverable arrangements consisting of multi-year cloud-based subscription services and professional services, including implementation services and communication services. For arrangements with multiple deliverables, the Company evaluates whether the individual deliverables qualify as separate units of accounting. In order to treat deliverables in a multiple deliverable arrangement as separate units of accounting, the deliverables must have standalone value upon delivery. If the deliverables have standalone value upon delivery, the Company accounts for each deliverable separately and revenue is recognized for the respective deliverables as they are delivered. If one or more of the deliverables do not have standalone value upon delivery, the deliverables that do not have standalone value are generally combined with the Company's cloud-based subscription service, and revenue for the combined unit is recognized over the remaining term of the cloud-based subscription service.
The Company's deliverables have standalone value if we or any other vendor sells a similar service separately. The Company has concluded that it has standalone value for its cloud-based subscription service as it sells these services separately through renewals and for its communication services as other vendors sell similar services separately. Conversely, the Company has concluded that its implementation services do not have standalone value, as the Company and others do not yet sell these services separately. Accordingly, the Company considers the separate units of accounting in its multiple deliverable arrangements to be the communication services and a combined deliverable comprised of cloud-based subscription services and implementation services.
When multiple deliverables included in an arrangement are separable into different units of accounting, the arrangement consideration is allocated to the identified separate units of accounting based on their relative selling price. Multiple deliverable arrangements accounting guidance provides a hierarchy to use when determining the relative selling price for each unit of accounting. Vendor-specific objective evidence, or VSOE, of selling price, based on the price at which the item is regularly sold by the vendor on a standalone basis, should be used if it exists. If VSOE of selling price is not available, third-party evidence, or TPE, of selling price is used to establish the selling price if it exists. If TPE does not exist, the Company estimates the best estimated selling price, or BESP. VSOE does not currently exist for any of its deliverables. Additionally, the Company does not believe TPE is a practical alternative due to differences in its cloud-based subscription service compared to other parties and the availability of relevant third-party pricing information for its cloud-based subscription service and its other services. Accordingly, for arrangements with multiple deliverables that can be separated into different units of accounting, the Company allocates the arrangement fee to the separate units of accounting based on its BESP. The amount of arrangement fee allocated is limited by contingent revenue, if any.
The Company determines BESP for its deliverables by considering its overall pricing objectives and market conditions. This includes evaluating the Company's pricing practices, its target prices, the size of its transactions, historical sales and its go-to-market strategy. The determination of BESP is made through consultation with and approval by management. For financial statement presentation purposes, the Company allocates the fees from its combined units of accounting to subscription and professional services based upon their relative selling price.
Costs of Revenue
Cost of revenue consists of the cost of subscription revenue and cost of professional services revenue.
Cost of subscription revenue primarily consists of data fees, employee-related expenses (including salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation) related to hosting costs of its cloud-based service, cost of subcontractors, expenses for service delivery (which includes call center support), allocated overhead, the costs of data center capacity, amortization of internal-use software and depreciation of owned computer equipment and software. Amortization of internal-use software was $0.9 million and $0.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively.
Cost of professional services revenue consists primarily of employee-related expenses associated with these services, the cost of subcontractors and travel costs. The time and costs of the Company's customer implementations vary based on the source and condition of the data the Company receive from third parties, the configurations that the Company agrees to provide and the size of the customer.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents consist of highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less from the date of purchase. The Company's cash and cash equivalents generally consist of investments in money market funds and U.S. agency obligations. Cash and cash equivalents are stated at fair value.
Marketable Securities
The Company's marketable securities consist of U.S. agency obligations and U.S. treasury securities, with maturities at the time of purchase of greater than three months. Marketable securities with remaining maturities in excess of one year are classified as noncurrent. The Company classifies its marketable securities as available-for-sale at the time of purchase based on its intent and are recorded at their estimated fair value. Unrealized gains and losses for available-for-sale securities are recorded in other comprehensive loss. The Company evaluates its investments to assess whether those with unrealized loss positions are other than temporarily impaired. The Company consider impairments to be other than temporary if they are related to deterioration in credit risk or if it is likely it will sell the securities before the recovery of their cost basis. Realized gains and losses and declines in value judged to be other than temporary are determined based on the specific identification method and are reported in other income, net in the consolidated statements of operations.
Accounts Receivable and Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
Accounts receivable are recorded at the invoiced amount, net of allowances for doubtful accounts. The allowance for doubtful accounts is based on the Company's assessment of the collectability of accounts. The Company regularly reviews the adequacy of the allowance for doubtful accounts by considering the age of each outstanding invoice and the collection history of each customer to determine whether a specific allowance is appropriate. Accounts receivable deemed uncollectable are charged against the allowance for doubtful accounts when identified. For all periods presented, the allowance for doubtful accounts was not significant.
Deferred Commissions
Deferred commissions are the incremental costs that are directly associated with the noncancellable portion of cloud-based subscription service contracts with customers and consist of sales commissions paid to the Company's direct sales force and channel partners. The commissions are deferred and amortized over the noncancellable terms of the related contracts. The deferred commission amounts are recoverable through the future revenue streams under the noncancellable customer contracts. Amortization of deferred commissions is included in sales and marketing expense in the consolidated statements of operations.
Property and Equipment
Property and equipment are stated at cost less accumulated depreciation. Depreciation is recorded using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the respective asset as follows:
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Software | | 3–5 years |
Computer equipment | | 3 years |
Furniture and equipment | | 5–7 years |
Leasehold improvements | | Shorter of the lease term or the estimated useful lives of the improvements |
Maintenance and repairs are charged to expense as incurred, and improvements are capitalized. When assets are retired or otherwise disposed of, the cost and accumulated depreciation are removed from the accounts, and any resulting gain or loss is reflected in the consolidated statement of operations for the period realized.
Restricted Cash
Restricted cash consists of a letter of credit related to the Company's leased office space.
Internal-use Software
For the Company's development costs related to its cloud-based service, the Company capitalizes costs incurred during the application development stage. Costs related to preliminary project and post-implementation stages are expensed as incurred. Capitalized software development costs are included as part of property, plant and equipment and are amortized on a straight-line basis over the technology's estimated useful life, which is generally three years. The amortization expense is recorded as a component of cost of subscription revenue.
The Company did not have any capitalized software development costs for the year ended December 31, 2016. Capitalized software development cost was $2.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2015.
Deferred Revenue
Deferred revenue consists of professional services and cloud-based subscription services that have been billed in advance of revenue being recognized. Additionally, deferred revenue consists of professional services that have been billed and delivered but the revenue is being deferred and recognized together with a cloud-based subscription contract as a combined unit of accounting. The Company invoices its customers for its cloud-based subscription services based on the terms of the contract, which can be annual, quarterly or monthly installments. The Company invoices its customers for its professional services and the first year of communication services generally at contract execution. Deferred revenue that is anticipated to be recognized during the succeeding 12-month period is recorded as current deferred revenue, and the remaining portion is recorded as noncurrent.
Stock-based Compensation
All stock-based compensation to employees is measured based on the grant-date fair value of the awards and recognized in the Company's consolidated statements of operations over the period during which the employee is required to perform services in exchange for the award (generally the vesting period of the award). The Company estimates the fair value of stock options granted using the Black-Scholes option valuation model. For restricted stock units, fair value is based on the closing price of the Company's Class B common stock on the grant date. Compensation expense is recognized over the vesting period of the applicable award using the straight-line method. For awards with performance based and service vesting conditions, compensation cost is recognized over the requisite service period if it is probable that the performance condition will be satisfied based on the accelerated attribution method.
Compensation expense for non-employee stock options and warrants is calculated using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model and is recorded as the options vest. Options subject to vesting are required to be periodically revalued over their service period, which is generally the same as the vesting period.
Income Taxes
The Company accounts for income taxes using the liability method, under which deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on the future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial reporting carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases and tax credit and net operating loss carryforwards. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using the enacted tax rates that are expected to be in effect when the differences are expected to reverse.
The Company assesses the likelihood that deferred tax assets will be recovered from future taxable income, and a valuation allowance is established when necessary to reduce deferred tax assets to the amounts more likely than not expected to be realized.
The Company recognizes and measures uncertain tax positions using a two-step approach. The first step is to evaluate the tax position taken or expected to be taken by determining if the weight of available evidence indicates that it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained in an audit, including resolution of any related appeals or litigation processes. The second step is to measure the tax benefit as the largest amount that is more than 50% likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement. Significant judgment is required to evaluate uncertain tax positions. The Company evaluates its uncertain tax positions on a regular basis. The Company's evaluations are based on a number of factors, including changes in facts and circumstances, changes in tax law, correspondence with tax authorities during the course of audit and effective settlement of audit issues.
Warranties and Indemnification
The Company's cloud-based service is generally warranted to be performed in a professional manner and in a manner that will comply with the terms of the customer agreements.
The Company's arrangements generally include certain provisions for indemnifying customers against liabilities if there is a breach of a customer’s data or if the Company's service infringes a third party’s intellectual property rights. To date, the Company has not incurred any material costs as a result of such indemnifications and have not accrued any liabilities related to such obligations in the financial statements. The Company has entered into service-level agreements with certain customers warranting, among other things, defined levels of performance and response times and permitting those customers to receive credits for prepaid amounts related to subscription services in the event that the Company fails to meet those levels. To date, the Company has not experienced any significant failures to meet defined levels of performance and response times as a result of those agreements.
The Company has also agreed to indemnify its directors and executive officers for costs associated with any fees, expenses, judgments, fines and settlement amounts incurred by any of these persons in any action or proceeding to which any of those persons is, or is threatened to be, made a party by reason of the person’s service as a director or officer, including any action by the Company, arising out of that person’s services as its director or officer or that person’s services provided to any other company or enterprise at the Company's request. The Company maintains director and officer insurance coverage that would generally enable the Company to recover a portion of any future amounts paid. The Company may also be subject to indemnification obligations by law with respect to the actions of its employees under certain circumstances and in certain jurisdictions.
Advertising Expenses
Advertising is expensed as incurred. Advertising expense was $0.6 million, $0.4 million and $0.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
Concentrations of Risk and Significant Customers
The Company's financial instruments that are exposed to concentrations of credit risk consist primarily of cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities and accounts receivable. Although the Company deposits its cash with multiple financial institutions, its deposits, at times, may exceed federally insured limits.
The Company serves its customers and users from outsourced data center facilities located in Colorado and Arizona. The Company has internal procedures to restore all of its production customer facing services in the event of disasters at the Colorado facility. Procedures utilizing currently deployed hardware, software and services at the Company's disaster recovery location in Arizona allow its cloud-based service to be restored within 48 hours during the implementation of the procedures to restore services.
Revenue from customers representing 10% or more of total revenue for the respective years, is summarized as follows:
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| Year Ended December 31, |
| 2016 | | 2015 | | 2014 |
Revenue: | | | | | |
Customer A | 10 | % | | * | | 14 | % |
* Less than 10%
During the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, all of the Company's revenue was generated by customers located in the United States.
Accounts receivable from customers representing 10% or more of total accounts receivable as of the respective dates is summarized as follows:
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| As of December 31, |
| 2016 | | 2015 |
Accounts Receivable: | | | |
Customer B | 18 | % | | 19 | % |
* Less than 10%
Recently Issued and Adopted Accounting Pronouncements
Statement of Cash Flows
In November 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU 2016-18, “Statement of Cash Flows”. The standard requires that a statement of cash flows explain the change during the period in the total of cash, cash equivalents, and amounts generally described as restricted cash or restricted cash equivalents. The standard will become effective for the Company beginning January 1, 2018, and early adoption is permitted. At this point in time, the Company does not intend to adopt the standard early. Based on the Company’s evaluation, the standard will not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.
Consolidation
In October 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU 2016-17, “Consolidation”. The standard addresses how companies evaluate whether a reporting entity is the primary beneficiary of a VIE by changing how the reporting entity that is a single decision maker of a VIE treats indirect interests in the entity held through related parties that are under common control with the reporting entity. The standard will become effective for the Company beginning January 1, 2017. The Company has evaluated the accounting, transition and disclosure requirements of the standard and does not believe the standard will have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.
Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Cash Payments
In August 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2016-1, “Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Cash Payments.” The guidance clarifies how entities should classify certain cash receipts and cash payments on the statement of cash flows and how the predominance principle should be applied when cash receipts and cash payments have aspects of more than one class of cash flows. This guidance will be effective for the Company beginning January 1, 2018 and earlier adoption is permitted in any interim period. The Company is evaluating the accounting, transition and disclosure requirements of the standard and cannot currently estimate the financial statement impact of adoption. At this point in time, the Company does not intend to adopt the standard early.
Stock-based Compensation
In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-09, “Compensation-Stock Compensation: Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment.” The guidance will change how companies account for certain aspects of share-based payments to employees. The standard is intended to simplify several areas of accounting for share-based compensation arrangements, including the income tax impact, classification on the statement of cash flows and forfeitures. The standard is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2016, and early adoption is permitted in any interim or annual period. Accordingly, the standard is effective for the Company beginning January 1, 2017, and the Company has elected not to early adopt. Based on the Company’s evaluation, the standard will not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.
Leases
In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, “Leases.” The guidance will require lessees to put all leases on their balance sheets, whether operating or financing, while continuing to recognize the expenses on their income statements in a manner similar to current practice. The guidance states that a lessee would recognize a lease liability for the obligation to make lease payments and a right-to-use asset for the right to use the underlying asset for the lease term. The guidance will be effective for the Company beginning January 1, 2019 and early adoption is permitted. The Company is evaluating the accounting, transition and disclosure requirements of the standard and cannot currently estimate the financial statement impact of adoption. At this point in time, the Company does not intend to adopt the standard early.
Financial Instruments
In January 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-1, “Financial Instruments.” The guidance provides a new measurement alternative for equity investments that don’t have readily determinable fair values and don’t qualify for the net asset value practical expedient. Under this alternative, these investments can be measured at cost, less any impairment, plus or minus changes resulting from observable price changes in orderly transactions for the identical or a similar investment if the same issuer. This guidance will be effective for the Company beginning January 1, 2018 and earlier adoption is not permitted. The Company is evaluating the accounting, transition and disclosure requirements of the standard and cannot currently estimate the financial statement impact of adoption at this point in time.
Cloud Computing Arrangements
In April 2015, the FASB issued ASU 2015-05, “Customer’s Accounting for Fees Paid in a Cloud Computing Arrangement.” The guidance is intended to help entities evaluate the accounting for fees paid by a customer in a cloud computing arrangement, primarily to determine whether the arrangement includes a sale or license of software. The Company adopted this guidance on January 1, 2016 and the standard did not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.
Revenue Recognition
In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, and has since updated the ASU. This ASU replaces existing revenue recognition standards with a comprehensive revenue measurement and recognition standard and expanded disclosure requirements. The new standard will be effective for the Company beginning January 1, 2018 with early adoption permitted beginning January 1, 2017. The Company has elected not to early adopt the new standard.
The new standard permits two methods of adoption: retrospectively to each prior reporting period presented (full retrospective method), or retrospectively with the cumulative effect of initially applying the guidance recognized at the date of initial application (modified retrospective method). The Company currently plans to adopt under the full retrospective method. However, a final decision regarding the adoption method has not been finalized at this time.
The Company is in the initial stages of its assessment of the impact of the new standard on its accounting policies, processes, and controls, including system requirements. The Company has assigned internal resources and has also engaged a third party service provider to assist in its assessment.
Based on its assessment to date, the Company currently believes a significant impact from the adoption of the new standard will be related to the Company’s costs to fulfill as well as its costs to obtain contracts with customers. For fulfilment costs, the new standard states that an entity shall recognize an asset from the costs incurred to fulfill a contract if certain criteria are met. The Company believes these criteria will be met and these costs will be recognized as an asset under the new standard. The costs to fulfill a contract that are recognized as an asset are then amortized on a systematic basis that is consistent with the transfer to the customer of the goods or services to which the asset relates. The Company currently expenses costs to fulfill a contract when they are incurred. Similar to fulfillment costs, for costs to obtain a contract (which are primarily sales commissions), the standard states that costs to obtain a contract shall be amortized on a systematic basis that is consistent with the transfer to the customer of the goods or services to which the asset relates. The Company currently capitalizes certain sales commissions and amortizes those costs over the non-cancelable portion of its subscription contracts. Under the new standard, the amortization period for the Company’s costs to obtain a contract could be longer. Lastly, based on its assessment, the Company currently believes areas of impact related to the Company’s revenue recognition will be related to the estimation of variable consideration, the accounting for contract modifications, and the allocation of the transaction price to the Company’s multiple performance obligations.
While the Company continues to assess the potential impacts of the new standard, including the areas described above, and anticipates the standard could have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements, the Company does not know or cannot reasonably estimate quantitative information related to the impact of the new standard on the Company’s financial statements at this time.