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Tensoft Privacy Policy

Effective as of May 22, 2018, Tensoft, Inc. (“Tensoft”) has updated our Privacy Policy (“Policy”). For a prior version of our Policy, click here.

This Policy details our commitment to protecting the privacy of individuals who visit our website[s], who register to use the products and services which Tensoft markets for subscription (the “Service”), or who register to attend Tensoft events. This Policy describes how Tensoft collects, uses, and discloses personal data, and the choices you have with respect to that data.

Definitions

Service
Service(s) refers to Tensoft’s subscription services or hosted products.

Personal Data
Personal Data means data about a living individual who can be identified from those data (or from those and other information either in our possession or likely to come into our possession).

Usage Data
Usage Data is data collected automatically by visiting a web site, such as IP addresses.

Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on your device (computer or mobile device).

Data Controller
Data Controller means the natural or legal person who (either alone or jointly or in common with other persons) determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal information are, or are to be, processed.

TensoftData Processors (or Service Providers)
Data Processor (or Service Provider) means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Data Controller.

Data Subject (or User)
Data Subject is any living individual who is using our Service(s) or visiting our website and is the subject of Personal Data.

Information Collection And Use

Tensoft collects several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our Service(s) and website. By using the Service(s) and website(s), you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data
While using our Service(s) or accessing certain pages of our website(s), Tensoft may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Data”). Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:
• Email address
• First name and last name
• Phone number
• Address, State, Province, ZIP/Postal code, City
• Cookies and Usage Data

For website visitors, Tensoft may use your Personal Data to contact you with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email Tensoft sends.

For Tensoft Service(s) users, Tensoft uses your Personal Data to provide the services and support that your employer has contracted with Tensoft to provide, including notifications about service events. In addition, Tensoft may also use your Personal Data to contact you with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email Tensoft sends.

Usage Data
Tensoftmay also collect information how the Service is accessed and used (“Usage Data”). This Usage Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

Tracking Cookies Data
Tensoft uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our website and hold certain information.

Cookies are files with small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Tracking technologies also used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our Service.

You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to access all or some portion of our website.

Use of Data
Tensoft, Inc. uses the collected data for various purposes:
• To provide and maintain our Service(s)
• To notify you about changes to our Service(s)
• To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service when you choose to do so
• To provide customer support for our Service(s)
• To gather analysis or valuable information so that Tensoft can improve our Service(s) and website(s)
• To monitor the usage of our Service(s) and website(s)
• To detect, prevent and address technical issues
• To provide you with news, special offers and general information about other products , services and events which Tensoft offers that are similar to those that you have already purchased or inquired about unless you have opted not to receive such information

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data Under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are from the European Economic Area (EEA), Tensoft, Inc.’s legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described in this Privacy Policy depends on the Personal Data Tensoft collects and the specific context in which Tensoft collects it.

Tensoft, Inc. may process your Personal Data because:
• Tensoft needs to perform a contractual obligation with you
• You have given us permission to do so
• The processing is in our legitimate interests and it’s not overridden by your rights
• For payment processing purposes
• To comply with the law

Retention of Data

Tensoft, Inc. will retain your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. Tensoft will retain and use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal and/or contractual obligations (for example, if Tensoft is required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

Tensoft, Inc. will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our Service, or Tensoft are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

Transfer Of Data

Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction.

If you are located outside of the United States and choose to provide information to us, please note that Tensoft transfers the data, including Personal Data, to the United States and processes it there.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.

Tensoft, Inc. will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and that no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.

Disclosure Of Data

Disclosure for Law Enforcement

Under certain circumstances, Tensoft, Inc. may be required to disclose your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Legal Requirements

Tensoft, Inc. may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
• To comply with a legal obligation
• To protect and defend the rights or property of Tensoft, Inc.
• To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
• To protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public
• To protect against legal liability

Security Of Data

Tensoft takes the security of your data very seriously. We work diligently to protect the Personal Data you provide from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access or disclosure. Given the nature of communications and information processing technology, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. While Tensoft strives to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, Tensoft cannot guarantee its absolute security.

“Do Not Track” Signals

Tensoft does not support Do Not Track (“DNT”). Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked.
You can enable or disable Do Not Track by visiting the Preferences or Settings page of your web browser.

Your Data Protection Rights Under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain data protection rights. Tensoft, Inc. aims to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your Personal Data.

If you wish to be informed what Personal Data Tensoft holds about you and/or if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us at privacy@tensoft.com.

In certain circumstances, you have the following data protection rights:

The right to access, update or to delete the information Tensoft has on you. Whenever made possible, you can access, update or request deletion of your Personal Data directly within your account settings section. If you are unable to perform these actions yourself, please contact us to assist you.

The right of rectification.
You have the right to have your information rectified if that information is inaccurate or incomplete.

The right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your Personal Data.

The right of restriction. You have the right to request that Tensoft restrict the processing of your personal information.

The right to data portability. You have the right to be provided with a copy of the information Tensoft have on you in a structured, machine-readable and commonly used format.

The right to withdraw consent. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where Tensoft, Inc. relied on your consent to process your personal information.

Please note that Tensoft may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.

You have the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority about our collection and use of your Personal Data. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Service Providers

Tensoft may employ third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service (“Service Providers”), to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.

These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

Support Tickets

Tensoft uses a third-party service to provide product support to our customers.

Zendesk
Zendesk provides a customer service and engagement platform that manages customer support requests. Zendesk uses the data collected from Tensoft customers to resolve support issues and requests, and to provide Tensoft with data on these support requests. For more information on the privacy practices of Zendesk, please visit the Zendesk Privacy Terms web page: https://www.zendesk.com/company/customers-partners/privacy-policy.

Hosting Services

Tensoft uses third-party services to provide hosting for our customers.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
AWS provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform in the cloud, including Tensoft customers. AWS has data center locations in the U.S., Europe, Singapore, and Japan. For more information on the privacy practices of AWS, please visit the AWS Privacy Terms web page: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy.

SaaSPlaza
SaasPlaza is a cloud provider of Microsoft Azure and Dynamics Services. SaaSPlaza manages enterprise grade cloud infrastructure for business-critical applications in the Microsoft Cloud for their partners and their customers, including for Tensoft’s Microsoft Dynamics GP customers. For more information on the privacy practices of SaasPlaza, please visit the SaasPlaza Privacy Terms web page: https://www.saasplaza.com/policies.

Managed Services

Tensoft uses a third-party service to manage Tensoft’s hosting environment at AWS.

Connectria

Connectria provides cloud computing, managed hosting and custom hosting solutions, including complex multi-vendor solutions. Connectria support a broad range of technologies, managed services and security. For more information on the privacy practices of Connectria, please visit the Connectria Privacy Terms web page: https://www.connectria.com/legal/privacy_policy.php .


Analytics

Tensoft uses the following third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyze the traffic on our website(s)

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.

For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy Terms web page: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/

Behavioral Remarketing

Tensoft uses remarketing services to advertise on third party websites to you after you visited our website. Tensoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to inform, optimize and serve ads based on your past visits to our Service.

Google AdWords
Google AdWords remarketing service is provided by Google Inc.
You can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize the Google Display Network ads by visiting the Google Ads Settings page: http://www.google.com/settings/ads

Google also recommends installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on – https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout – for your web browser. Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on provides visitors with the ability to prevent their data from being collected and used by Google Analytics.

For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy Terms web page: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/

Payments

Tensoft may provide some paid products and/or services within the Service or on the website that require prepayment, such as online training or user conferences. In that case, Tensoft use third-party services for payment processing (e.g. payment processors).

Tensoft will not store or collect your payment card details. That information is provided directly to our third-party payment processors whose use of your personal information is governed by their Privacy Policy. These payment processors adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of payment information.

The payment processors Tensoft works with are:

PayPal
Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

Links To Other Sites

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. Tensoft strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.

Tensoft has no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Children’s Privacy

Tensoft does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If Tensoft becomes aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, Tensoft will immediately take steps to remove that information from our servers.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

Tensoft may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Tensoft will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

Tensoft will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:
• By email: privacy@tensoft.com

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Revenue Recognition Challenges in the Software Industry

December 17, 2020 by Jason Ochipa

Jason Ochipa

Recognizing revenue can be particularly challenging in the software industry. The challenges can arise from the sales process, the volume / complexity of the sales transactions, the number of inputs required in the revenue process, or from the appropriate accounting standards that apply to your business.  Occasionally you may have all of the above! I’ll summarize some of these challenges here:

Accounting standards and regulatory requirements can add complexity in a number of ways. If you sell multiple related items there are specific guidelines for fair value allocation to each of the items on the sale. Related items would be products or services you would not purchase without each other – for example, a setup fee and a subscription fee which are both needed for a customer to move forward with the purchase. The accounting standards can also impact the timing of revenue if, for example, you have a required customer acceptance process, or if there is substantial dependence on a related event. You could have items that are based on management’s estimate and therefore would need to deal with the potential complexity of a change in the estimate. You could have warranties, or discounts, or any of a number of complexities that require clearly demonstrating compliance with the accounting standards. These types of challenges, if not properly managed, can materially impact revenue reported. They can also slow the velocity and reportability of revenue due to extra manual review of the transactions, and can also substantially increase audit costs.

How you sell to your customers must be considered as part of accounting standards requirement. It is also important for efficient and effective information flow. Accounting standards will require the appropriate sale, or customer agreement, to be represented on a single revenue agreement. In this respect the accounting standards would state: if your agreement is a sales order, then that needs to be the revenue document the standards are applied to. It is important to clearly identify ff your agreement is an invoice, a contract, or an eCommerce transaction. Understanding your sales process, or your go-to-market-model, is important for accounting department productivity as well. If you have a high volume eCommerce-based go-to-market model, you need effective ways to capture data efficiently from that process for revenue recognition. If you have a multi-part contract with the customer that has multiple lines and deliverables and schedules, it is equally important that you efficiently support and integrate with that process. Not all financial professionals have spent time thinking about how you go to market. For revenue recognition, a clear understanding of this is essential.

With the transition requirement for the new revenue recognition standards looming, now is a perfect time to review your sales and revenue recognition policies and procedures.  Many companies are revisiting the systems that impact the revenue cycle to ensure they have the ability to efficiently track and measure sales transactions through the new five step model of:  Identifying the contract, identifying the performance obligations (deliverables), determining the transaction price, allocating the transaction price and recognizing the revenue.  Because the new revenue standard is more principles based, it will require more company judgment and disclosures.  This further heightens the importance of maintaining consistent and reliable revenue information for your company and your auditors.

The volume or complexity of your go-to-market transactions, and the related volume of sales transactions, can add their own challenges. Even simple revenue requirements can become complex with enough volume. Basic contract management (setup fee and subscription for example) becomes challenging when you exceed 100 contracts, while eCommerce transactions can become complex for 1000s of transactions. I have seen customers who have very basic transactions; maybe they sell two SKUs that are amortized over two different periods of time. However, when you consider they are doing 500,000 of these transactions every month – and that there are the occasional returns or other customer support challenges – what is conceptually simple can also be a significant accounting challenge.

The final area that can challenge revenue recognition efficiency is a dependence on outside inputs. There are a variety of these types of required inputs. Sometimes they are part of the billing challenge; for example usage charges, overages, or true-ups. These types of inputs from external systems need to be run through contractual terms for pricing and billing. Another type of requirement leverages work management inputs. This can be from your onboarding system for go live or change events, from your professional services group for percent complete or delivery dependent requirements, or from field technicians or customers for confirmation of go live events. An additional set of inputs can be from your helpdesk or customer support systems where the type of inputs could be everything from customer activation to granting the customer an extended support period or a later start date. All of these types of challenges can require inter-departmental coordination and detailed data movement to accurately support your revenue recognition process.

With these complexities as well as the importance of revenue to financial statement users, it is no surprise that we see so many companies in the news highlighting revenue recognition issues.  We can recall the days of Enron, WorldCom, and the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but examples can still be found today with companies like Valeant and Monsanto restating revenue by over $200 million and being fined almost $100 million.  Even large companies like IBM and Boeing are under SEC investigation for potentially record level revenue restatements.  Revenue recognition consistently ranks in the top five accounting issues with approximately 1,300 companies filing restatements with the SEC between 2005 and 2014.

Today, nearly every company sells their software slightly differently, using variations and combinations of several basic go-to-market models. While there are certain guidelines that all companies must follow, it’s the variety and combinations of go-to-market models employed, the required accounting standard compliance, and the level and potential complexity of internal department events and actions that can create so much complexity around software revenue recognition.

This is why it’s very important to our customers that Tensoft understands these issues and has worked with many other companies who have dealt with the same challenges. When choosing revenue recognition software for your software company, it is critically important that the solution you choose has been designed to handle your industry’s needs. Otherwise, awkward customizations will likely slow down and complicate your revenue recognition process, leaving you with not much of an improvement over the spreadsheets that you’d been using!

For more information about Tensoft’s products and services, please contact us. If you’d like to comment on this article, I encourage you to Tweet, post to Facebook or blog about it!

Find out more:

Revenue Recognition for Technology Companies: Q & A
eCommerce Revenue Recognition Pitfalls for Technology Companies

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