Accounting for digital products

Abstract

Digital products are "content" goods such as software, books, music, or movies which can be digitized and traded on a digital market place. With the increase in trade and ownership of digital products, several important management issues have arisen. Accounting treatment for digital products is one important management issue. It is argued that digital products require regulations in terms of recognition, measurement, valuation, reporting and taxation. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to discuss the accounting problems that arise as a result of the growing importance of digital products in the business environment and to propose suggestions based on the accounting concepts and standards. For this purpose, first, the increasing importance of digital products is briefly explained. Then, the challenge created as a result of expanding trading volume of digital products are discussed in terms of accounting with suggestions for the appropriate accounting for digital products. © 2011, IGI Global.