BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2019
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES	BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES Business, consolidation and presentation— Global Payments Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries are referred to herein collectively as "Global Payments," the "Company," "we," "our" or "us," unless the context requires otherwise. On May 27, 2019, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement") with Total System Services, Inc. ("TSYS") providing for the merger of TSYS with and into Global Payments, with Global Payments as the surviving entity (the "Merger"). We consummated the Merger on September 18, 2019. Prior to the Merger, TSYS was a leading global payments provider, offering seamless, secure and innovative solutions to issuers, merchants and consumers. Through our combination with TSYS, we are now a leading pure play payments technology company delivering innovative software and services to our customers globally. See "Note 2—Acquisitions" for more information about the Merger. These unaudited consolidated financial statements include our accounts and those of our majority-owned subsidiaries, and all intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. These unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP") for interim financial information pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). The consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2018 was derived from the audited financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 but does not include all disclosures required by GAAP for annual financial statements. In the opinion of our management, all known adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the results of the interim periods have been made. These adjustments consist of normal recurring accruals and estimates that affect the carrying amount of assets and liabilities. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018. Use of estimates— The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make certain estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reported period. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates. Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements— In February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued ASU 2016-02, "Leases." ASU 2016-02 requires recognition of assets and liabilities for the rights and obligations created by leases and new disclosures about leases. We adopted ASU 2016-02, as well as other related clarifications and interpretive guidance issued by the FASB, on January 1, 2019 using the optional modified retrospective transition method. Under this transition method, we did not recast the prior period financial statements presented. We elected the transition package of three practical expedients, which among other things, allowed for the carryforward of historical lease classifications. We made an accounting policy election to not recognize assets or liabilities for leases with a term of less than twelve months and to account for all components in a lease arrangement as a single combined lease component for all of our then existing asset classes. In connection with the Merger, we acquired right-of-use assets that represent an additional asset class for computer equipment, for which we account for lease and nonlease components separately. The adoption of ASU 2016-02 resulted in the measurement and recognition of lease liabilities in the amount of $274.0 million and right-of-use assets in the amount of $236.0 million as of January 1, 2019. Lease liabilities were measured as the present value of remaining lease payments, and the corresponding right-of-use assets were measured at an amount equal to the lease liabilities adjusted by the amounts of certain assets and liabilities, such as prepaid rent and deferred lease obligations, that we previously recognized on the balance sheet prior to the initial application of ASU 2016-02. To calculate the present value of remaining lease payments, we elected to use an incremental borrowing rate based on the remaining lease term at transition. Recently Issued Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted— In August 2018, the FASB issued 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 (A Consensus of the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force)." ASU 2018-15 provides additional guidance on the accounting for costs of implementation activities performed in a cloud computing arrangement (i.e., hosting arrangement) that is a service contract. The new guidance amends the definition of a hosting arrangement and requires a customer in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract to capitalize certain implementation costs as if the arrangement was an internal-use software project. The amendments in this update also provide additional presentation and disclosure requirements, including requirements to disclose the nature of an entity’s hosting arrangements that are service contracts, as well as quantitative information about capitalized implementation costs and related amortization expense. The guidance will become effective for us on January 1, 2020. We expect to apply the guidance prospectively to all implementation costs incurred after the date of adoption. We are finalizing our comparison of the guidance in ASU 2018-15 to our current accounting and financial reporting practices for costs of implementation activities performed in cloud computing arrangements. We are also evaluating the need for changes to our internal controls. We have not yet completed our assessment or quantified the effect, if any, of ASU 2018-15 on our consolidated balance sheet or our statements of income and cash flows; however, our preliminary expectation is that the adoption of this standard will not have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements. We have historically capitalized implementation costs associated with cloud computing arrangements that are service contracts following the guidance in Subtopic 350-40 and expect to continue to do so pursuant to the clarifications provided in the new guidance. We expect to amortize deferred implementation costs to expense on a straight-line basis over the term of the applicable hosting arrangement. In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, "Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments." The amendments in this update change how companies measure and recognize credit impairment for many financial instruments measured at amortized cost. The new model for current expected credit losses ("CECL") will require us to recognize an estimate of credit losses expected to occur over the remaining life of the financial instruments that are within the scope of the update, including accounts receivable and settlement processing assets, each of which are short-term in nature. Under current GAAP, credit losses on these financial instruments are not recognized until their occurrence is deemed to be probable. The guidance will become effective for us on January 1, 2020. In general, the new guidance will require modified retrospective application to all outstanding financial assets that are within the scope of the update, with a cumulative-effect adjustment, if any, recorded to retained earnings as of the date of adoption. We are continuing to evaluate the effect of ASU 2016-13 on our consolidated financial statements, including comparing how we currently measure and recognize our allowance for doubtful accounts on accounts receivable and our reserve for operating losses and sales allowances to how we would make such measurements applying the new CECL model. We have not yet completed our assessment or quantified the effect, if any, of ASU 2016-13 on our consolidated balance sheet or our statements of income and cash flows; however, we believe the adoption of this new standard may require expanded qualitative disclosures about our financial assets and related allowance for credit losses, as well as implementation of new or modified internal controls. As a result of the Merger, we have expanded our efforts to evaluate the effects of these new standards on the combined company, and we are incorporating TSYS into our evaluation.