Groupon Inc. was forced to restate their revenue numbers on the financial statements before being able to offer an Initial Public Offer (IPO) in 2011. Groupon is a company that offers daily deals for local services of their customers. These deals can be bought one day and then used at a future date of the customer’s choosing. These offers are comprised of a set portion for the business owner and a markup commission value for Groupon. Previously Groupon would book the entire value of the sale as revenue and then back out the business owner’s portion of the sale and call the remainder as profit. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has refused this booking procedure and wants Groupon to state revenue as the total value of the sale minus the business owner’s portion of the sale. This brings up an interesting twist on how today’s service based economy can consider booking revenues opposed to a clearer manufactures revenue process. In a traditional manufacturing process it was reasonable to state the total sale numbers of the final products as revenue. I believe this process is acceptable under this traditional way because the timing between purchase of materials and sale of the finished product have different timing. This easily identifiable timing difference between sale and purchase of the product and its components drawls a clear line between the timing of booking revenue and expenses. The fact that the two bookings have different timing allows a company to declare the total sale amount as revenue and later back out the easily traceable expenses to arrive at the profit numbers. In a service based economy this timing difference can often be a grey area. In Groupon’s case the set contracted amount that the original business owners get for each sale is not paid until a sale is made. This ties the expense and revenue numbers directly together.