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Note 2 - Basis of Presentation | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2016
Notes to Financial Statements |
Basis of Accounting [Text Block] | 2. Basis of presentation: The accompanying unaudited interim consolidated balance sheets, and the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income and cash flows reflect all adjustments, consisting of normal recurring adjustments, that are, in the opinion of management, necessary for a fair presentation of the financial position of Tucows and its subsidiaries as at March 31, 2016 and the results of operations and cash flows for the interim periods ended March 31, 2016 and 2015. The results of operations presented in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations that may be expected for future periods. The accompanying unaudited interim consolidated financial statements have been prepared by Tucows in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Certain information and footnote disclosure normally included in the Company's annual audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes have been condensed or omitted. These interim consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes follow the same accounting policies and methods of application used in the annual financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the Company's audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto for the year ended December 31, 2015 included in Tucows' 2015 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 9, 2016. In the prior period, the Company recorded the effective portion of the gain or loss upon settlement of hedged currency forward contracts in “Loss on currency forward contracts” and reclassified the same amount from “General and administrative expense” to the income statement line item for the hedged item. The Company has determined that the reclassification of the effective portion of gain or loss upon settlement amounts are more appropriately reclassified from “Loss on currency forward contracts” to the income statement line item for the hedged item. As a result, a gain of $0.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015 has been reclassified to “General and administrative expense” from “Loss (gain) on currency forward contracts”. As a result of this reclassification, there was no change to previously reported net income, comprehensive income, income from operations, net revenues, gross profit, reported cash flows or the amounts recorded in the consolidated balance sheets. There have been no material changes to our significant accounting policies during the three months ended March 31, 2016 as compared to the significant accounting policies described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, except for the adoption of Accounting Standard Update No. 2015-17, Income Taxes (Topic 740). The Company's most significant accounting policies are revenue recognition, property and equipment and derivative financial instruments and are included below: (a) Revenue recognition The Company’s revenues are derived from domain name registration fees on both a wholesale and retail basis, the sale of domain names, the provisioning of other Internet services and advertising and other revenue. Amounts received in advance of meeting the revenue recognition criteria described below are recorded as deferred revenue. The Company earns registration fees in connection with each new, renewed and transferred-in registration and from providing provisioning of other Internet services to resellers and registrars on a monthly basis. Service has been provided in connection with registration fees once the Company has confirmed that the requested domain name has been appropriately recorded in the registry under contractual performance standards. Domain names are generally purchased for terms of one to ten years. Registration fees charged for domain name registration and provisioning services are recognized on a straight-line basis over the life of the contracted term. Other Internet services that are provisioned for annual periods or longer, are recognized on a straight-line basis over the life of the contracted term. Other Internet services that are provisioned on a monthly basis are recognized as services are provided. For arrangements with multiple deliverables, the Company allocates revenue to each deliverable if the delivered item(s) has value to the customer on a standalone basis and, if the arrangement includes a general right of return relative to the delivered item, delivery or performance of the undelivered item(s) is considered probable and substantially in the control of the Company. The fair value of the selling price for a deliverable is determined using a hierarchy of (1) Company specific objective and reliable evidence, then (2) third-party evidence, then (3) best estimate of selling price. The Company allocates any arrangement fee to each of the elements based on their relative selling prices. Revenue generated from the sale of domain names, earned from transferring the rights to domain names under the Company’s control, are recognized once the rights have been transferred and payment has been received in full. The Company derives revenues from the provisioning of mobile phone and fixed Internet access services primarily through its Ting website. These revenues are recognized once services have been provided. Revenues for wireless services are billed based on the actual amount of monthly services utilized by each customer during their billing cycle on a postpaid basis. The Company’s billing cycle for each customer is computed based on the customer’s activation date. As a result, the Company estimates the amount of revenues earned but not billed from the end of each billing cycle to the end of each reporting period. In addition, revenues associated with the sale of wireless devices and accessories to subscribers is recognized when title and risk of loss is transferred to the subscriber and shipment has occurred. Incentive marketing credits given to customers are recorded as a reduction of revenue. The Company also generates advertising and other revenue through its online libraries of shareware, freeware and online services presented on its website. Advertising revenue includes revenue derived from cost per action advertising links we display on third party websites who provide syndicated pay-per-click advertising on OpenSRS Domain Expiry Stream domains and the Company’s Portfolio Domains. In addition, the Company uses third party partners to derive pay-per-click advertising on the Tucows.com website. Advertising revenue is recognized on a monthly basis based on the number of cost-per-action services that were provided in the month. Impression based advertising revenue and other revenues are recognized ratably over the period in which it is presented. To the extent that minimum guaranteed impressions are not met, the Company defers recognition of the corresponding revenues until the guaranteed impressions are achieved. In those cases where payment is not received at the time of sale, additional conditions for recognition of revenue are that the collection of the related accounts receivable is reasonably assured and the Company has no further performance obligations. The Company records costs that reflect expected refunds, rebates and credit card charge-backs as a reduction of revenues at the time of the sale based on historical experiences and current expectations. The Company establishes provisions for possible uncollectible accounts receivable and other contingent liabilities which may arise in the normal course of business. Historically, credit losses have been within the Company’s expectations and the provisions the Company has established have been appropriate. However, the Company has, on occasion, experienced issues which have led to accounts receivable not being fully collected. Should these issues occur more frequently, additional provisions may be required. (b) Property and equipment Property and equipment are stated at cost, net of accumulated depreciation. Depreciation is provided on a straight-line basis so as to depreciate the cost of depreciable assets over their estimated useful lives at the following rates:
Asset |  | Rate |
Computer equipment |  |  | 30 | %
Computer software |  |  | 100 | %
Furniture and equipment |  |  | 20 | %
Vehicles and tools |  |  | 20 | %
Fiber network (years) |  |  | 15 |
Customer equipment and installations (years) |  |  | 3 |
Leasehold improvements |  | Over term of lease |
The Company reviews the carrying values of its property and equipment for potential impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. If the estimated undiscounted future cash flows expected to result from the use of the group of assets and its eventual disposition is less than its carrying amount, it is considered to be impaired. The amount of the impairment loss recognized is measured as the amount by which the carrying value of the asset exceeds the fair value of the asset, with fair value being determined based upon discounted cash flows or appraised values, depending on the nature of the assets. Additions to the fiber network are recorded at cost, including all material, labor, vehicle and installation and construction costs and certain indirect costs associated with the construction of cable transmission and distribution facilities. While the Company’s capitalization is based on specific activities, once capitalized, costs are tracked by fixed asset category at the fiber network level and not on a specific asset basis. For assets that are retired, the estimated historical cost and related accumulated depreciation is removed. (c) Derivative Financial Instruments During the three months ended March 31, 2016 and the year ended December 31, 2015 ("Fiscal 2015"), the Company used derivative financial instruments to manage foreign currency exchange risk. The Company accounts for these instruments in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") Topic 815, “Derivatives and Hedging” ("Topic 815"), which requires that every derivative instrument be recorded on the balance sheet as either an asset or liability measured at its fair value as of the reporting date. Topic 815 also requires that changes in the derivative financial instruments’ fair values be recognized in earnings, unless specific hedge accounting and documentation criteria are met (i.e. the instruments are accounted for as hedges). The Company recorded the effective portions of the gain or loss on derivative financial instruments that were designated as cash flow hedges in accumulated other comprehensive income in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets. Any ineffective or excluded portion of a designated cash flow hedge, if applicable, is recognized in net income. For certain contracts, the Company has not complied with the documentation standards required for its forward foreign exchange contracts to be accounted for as hedges and has, therefore, accounted for such forward foreign exchange contracts at their fair values with the changes in fair value recorded in net income. The fair value of the forward exchange contracts is determined using an estimated credit adjusted mark-to-market valuation which takes into consideration the Company's and the counterparty's credit risk. The valuation technique used to measure the fair values of the derivative instruments is a discounted cash flow technique, with all significant inputs derived from or corroborated by observable market data, as no quoted market prices exist for the derivative instruments. The discounted cash flow techniques use observable market inputs, such as foreign currency spot and forward rates.

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