The Company earns revenues from clinics that it owns and operates or manages throughout the United States.  In those states where the Company owns and operates the clinic, revenues are recognized when services are performed. The Company offers a variety of membership and wellness packages which feature discounted pricing as compared with its single-visit pricing.  Amounts collected in advance for membership and wellness packages are recorded as deferred revenue and recognized when the service is performed.  In other states where state law requires the chiropractic practice to be owned by a licensed chiropractor, the Company enters into a management agreement with the doctor’s PC.  Under the management agreement, the Company provides administrative and business management services to the doctor’s PC in return for a monthly management fee.  Due to certain implicit variable consideration in these management agreement contracts, and based on past practices between the parties, the Company determined that it cannot meet the probable threshold if it includes all of the variable consideration in the transaction price. Therefore, the Company recognizes revenue under these contracts only when it has a high degree of confidence that revenue will be reversed in a subsequent reporting period.

 

The Company currently franchises its concept across states. The franchise arrangement is documented in the form of a franchise agreement. The franchise arrangement requires the Company to perform various activities to support the brand that do directly transfer goods and services to the franchisee, but instead represent a single performance obligation, which is the transfer of the franchise license. The intellectual property subject to the franchise license is symbolic intellectual property as it does have significant standalone functionality, and substantially all of the utility is derived from its association with the Company’s past or ongoing activities. The nature of the Company’s promise in granting the franchise license is to provide the franchisee with access to the brand’s symbolic intellectual property over the term of the license. The services provided by the Company are highly interrelated with the franchise license and as such are considered to represent a single performance obligation.

 

The transaction price in a standard franchise arrangement primarily consists of (a) initial franchise fees; (b) continuing franchise fees (royalties); (c) advertising fees; and (d) software fees. Since the Company considers the licensing of the franchising right to be a single performance obligation, allocation of the transaction price is required.

 

The Company recognizes the primary components of the transaction price as follows:

 

 

 

In determining the amount and timing of revenue from contracts with customers, the Company exercises significant judgment with respect to collectability of the amount; however, the timing of recognition does require significant judgment as it is based on either the franchise term or the reported sales of the franchisee, of which require estimation. The Company believes its franchising arrangements do contain a significant financing component.

 

Prior to the adoption of ASC the Company generally recognized the entire franchise fee as revenue at the clinic opening date. The impact on the Company's previously reported financial statements of the change from that policy to the policy described above is presented in Note .

 

Under ASC the Company recognizes advertising fees received under franchise agreements as advertising fund revenue. Under previously issued accounting guidance for franchisors, advertising revenue and expense were recognized in the same amount in each period. That guidance was superseded by ASC such that advertising expense now be different than the advertising revenue recognized as described above. The impact of these changes with respect to advertising fees and advertising expenses on the Company's previously reported financial statements was material.

 

The Company currently utilizes regional developers to assist in the development of the brand across certain geographic territories. The arrangement is documented in the form of a regional developer agreement. The arrangement between the Company and the regional developer requires the Company to perform various activities to support the brand that do directly transfer goods and services to the regional developer, but instead represent a single performance obligation, which is the transfer of the development rights to the defined geographic region. The intellectual property subject to the development rights is symbolic intellectual property as it does have significant standalone functionality, and substantially all of the utility is derived from its association with the Company’s past or ongoing activities. The nature of the Company’s promise in granting the development rights is to provide the regional developer with access to the brand’s symbolic intellectual property over the term of the agreement. The services provided by the Company are highly interrelated with the development of the territory and the resulting franchise licenses sold by the regional developer and as such are considered to represent a single performance obligation.

  

The transaction price in a standard regional developer arrangement primarily consists of the initial territory fees. The Company recognizes the regional developer fee as revenue ratably on a straight-line basis over the term of the regional developer agreement commencing with the execution of the regional developer agreement. As these fees are typically received in cash at or near the beginning of the term of the regional developer agreement, the cash received is initially recorded as a contract liability until recognized as revenue over time.

 

The Company believes that the captions contained on the consolidated statements of operations appropriately reflect the disaggregation of its revenue by major type for the years ended and

 

 

Changes in the Company's contract liability for deferred franchise and regional development fees during the year ended and were as follows (in thousands):

 

		Deferred Revenue short and long-term
Balance at December 31, 2016		$	9,598
Recognized as revenue during the year ended December 31, 2017			(1,781	)
Fees received and deferred during the year ended December 31, 2017			3,730
Balance at December 31, 2017		$	11,547
Recognized as revenue during the year ended December 31, 2018			(2,287	)
Fees received and deferred during the year ended December 31, 2018			4,349
Balance at December 31, 2018		$	13,609

 

Changes in the Company's contract assets for deferred franchise costs during the year ended and were as follows (in thousands):

 

		Deferred Franchise Costs short and long-term
Balance at December 31, 2016		$	3,023
Recognized as cost of revenue during the year ended December 31, 2017			(477	)
Costs incurred and deferred during the year ended December 31, 2017			265
Balance at December 31, 2017		$	2,811
Recognized as cost of revenue during the year ended December 31, 2018			(631	)
Costs incurred and deferred during the year ended December 31, 2018			1,309
Balance at December 31, 2018		$	3,489

 

The following table illustrates revenues expected to be recognized in the future related to performance obligations that were unsatisfied (or partially unsatisfied) as of (in thousands):

 

Contract liabilities expected to be recognized in		Amount
2019		$	2,370
2020		$	2,373
2021		$	2,247
2022		$	1,809
2023		$	1,332
Thereafter		$	3,478
Total		$	13,609