Handbook: Contingencies, commitments and guarantees

Handbooks | September 2025

Our new in-depth guide to accounting for contingencies, commitments and guarantees – with Q&As, interpretative guidance and examples.

We explain the accounting, presentation and disclosure requirements for loss contingencies, gain contingencies, guarantees, commitments and unconditional purchase obligations.

Applicability

  • ASC 440, ASC 450 and ASC 460
  • All companies

Relevant dates

  • Effective immediately

Key impacts

Companies are frequently faced with contingencies. While the applicable guidance in the area has survived the test of time, the accounting often seems like a rule-of-thumb exercise guided by the virtues of prudence and transparency.

There are many accounting standards that address specific types of contingencies, and we explain one such standard in this Handbook (ASC 460 on guarantees). We also explain the residual standard used when no other standard applies (ASC 450). As a residual standard, ASC 450 is necessarily general in nature, but long-standing practices have filled in some of its gaps.

These standards require making probability assessments and using estimation methodologies. Fortunately, there is a science to the art of assessing and estimating contingencies, which we endeavor to demonstrate throughout this Handbook as we explain the accounting and disclosure models codified in these standards and developed through the years. We also explain the limited disclosure guidance in ASC 440 on commitments.

Report contents

  • Contingencies: Key concepts and scope
  • Loss contingencies: Recognition
  • Loss contingencies: Measurement
  • Loss contingencies: Presentation and disclosure
  • Gain contingencies and loss recoveries
  • Guarantees and product warranties
  • Commitments

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Contingencies, commitments and guarantees

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Meet our team

Image of Valerie Boissou
Valerie Boissou
Partner, Dept. of Professional Practice, and US-France Corridor Leader, KPMG US
Image of Mahesh Narayanasami
Mahesh Narayanasami
Partner, Dept. of Professional Practice, KPMG US

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