Accounting policies

What this page is for: the rules behind every entry Claude prepares.

Last reviewed: 2026-10-15, by Head of Finance

Sample policies for a fictional company, shown for format only. Your policies are set by your team and your advisors.

Capitalization

• Threshold: Assets over $2,500 with a useful life over one year.
• Useful lives: Computers 3 years. Furniture 5 years.
• Method: Straight-line, starting the month after the asset is placed in service.
• Internal-use software: [PLACEHOLDER: decision pending on the 2026 website rebuild. See Open questions.]

Prepaid expenses

• Threshold: Invoices over $5,000 that cover more than one month.
• Method: Straight-line by month over the service period. The final month takes any rounding difference.
• Where the schedule lives: Google Drive, Finance/Schedules/Prepaid Schedule.xlsx.
• Skill: skills/prepaid-amortization/

Accruals

• Threshold: Accrue unbilled expenses over $2,500.
• Recurring accruals: Stratus Cloud and Lattice Inference usage (billed in arrears); the outsourced accounting firm (billed the 5th of the following month); quarterly bonuses, accrued monthly at target.
• Reversal: Auto-reverse on the first day of the next month.
• Skill: skills/usage-accrual/

Revenue recognition

• Model: Subscriptions recognized ratably over the service period.
• Annual prepays: Booked to 2400 Deferred Revenue on invoice, released monthly.
• Discounts, credits, and refunds: Recognized as a reduction of revenue in the period granted.
• Services revenue: Onboarding fees recognized when onboarding is complete.

Stock-based compensation

• Source: Carta expense report.
• Booking cadence: [PLACEHOLDER: monthly or quarterly. Owner: Head of Finance.]

Formal policy documents