Skip to main content
Version date: 9 April 2024 - onwards
Version 2 of 2

Definition of a customer (paragraph 6 and Appendix A) (paras. BC52-BC57)

paragraph 6 and Appendix A

BC52 The boards decided to define the term 'customer' to enable an entity to distinguish contracts that should be accounted for under IFRS 15 (ie contracts with customers) from contracts that should be accounted for under other requirements.

BC53 The definition of a customer in IFRS 15 refers to an entity's ordinary activities. Some respondents asked the boards to clarify the meaning of ordinary activities; however, the boards decided not to provide additional requirements, because the notion of ordinary activities is derived from the definitions of revenue in the boards' respective conceptual frameworks. In particular, the IASB's Conceptual Framework description of revenue refers specifically to the 'ordinary activities of an entity' and the definition of revenue in FASB Concepts Statement No. 6 refers to the notion of an entity's 'ongoing major or central operations'. As noted in paragraph BC29, the boards did not reconsider those definitions as part of the Revenue Recognition project.