Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

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Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)
12 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2018
Significant Accounting Policies And Estimates Policies  
Basis of Presentation

The consolidated financial statements are prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and the rules of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Liquidity

The Company experienced significant net losses in fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2017. Management has implemented a strategy which includes cost reductions and consolidation of certain operating activities to gain efficiencies as well as identifying strategic acquisitions, financed primarily through a combination of the issuance of equity and debt, to improve the overall profitability and cash flows of the Company.

 

As of September 30, 2018, the Company had cash of approximately $3.2 million which was an increase of approximately $0.4 million from approximately $2.8 million at September 30, 2017. Working capital at September 30, 2018 was approximately $13.1 million, as compared to working capital of approximately $9.5 million for September 30, 2017.

 

Management currently expects that the combination of future cash flow from operations and the availability under the Revolving Credit Facility will provide sufficient liquidity for the next 12 months. See Note 6, for a further discussion of the terms, conditions, status and related matters regarding the Company’s Revolving Credit, Term Loan and Security Agreement and subsequent amendments related to waivers of covenants.

Principles of Consolidation

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts and transactions of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All significant inter-company accounts and transactions are eliminated in consolidation.

Estimates and Assumptions

Management makes estimates and assumptions that can affect the amounts of assets and liabilities reported as of the date of the consolidated financial statements, as well as the amounts of reported revenues and expenses during the periods presented. Those estimates and assumptions typically involve expectations about events to occur subsequent to the balance sheet date, and it is possible that actual results could ultimately differ from the estimates.

Revenue Recognition

Direct hire placement service revenues are recognized when applicants accept offers of employment, less a provision for estimated losses due to applicants not remaining employed for the Company’s guarantee period. Contract staffing service revenues are recognized when services are rendered.

 

Falloffs and refunds during the period are reflected in the consolidated statements of operations as a reduction of placement service revenues and were approximately $2.1 million and $1.5 million in fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2017, respectively. Expected future falloffs and refunds are reflected in the consolidated balance sheet as a reduction of accounts receivable and were approximately $0.2 million and $1.0 million as of September 30, 2018 and September 30, 2017, respectively.

Cost of Contract Staffing Services

The cost of contract services includes the wages and the related payroll taxes, employee benefits of the Company’s contract service employees, and certain other employee-related costs, while they work on contract assignments.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

Highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less when purchased are considered to be cash equivalents. As of September 30, 2018, and September 30, 2017, there were no cash equivalents. The Company maintains deposits in financial institutions in excess of amounts guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Cash and cash equivalents are maintained at financial institutions and, at times, balances may exceed federally insured limits. We have never experienced any losses related to these balances.

Accounts Receivable

The Company extends credit to its various customers based on evaluation of the customer’s financial condition and ability to pay the Company in accordance with the payment terms. An allowance for placement fall-offs is recorded, as a reduction of revenues, for estimated losses due to applicants not remaining employed for the Company’s guarantee period. An allowance for doubtful accounts is recorded, as a charge to bad debt expense, where collection is considered to be doubtful due to credit issues. These allowances together reflect management’s estimate of the potential losses inherent in the accounts receivable balances, based on historical loss statistics and known factors impacting its customers. The nature of the contract service business, where companies are dependent on employees for the production cycle allows for a small accounts receivable allowance. As of September 30, 2018, and September 30, 2017 allowance for doubtful accounts was $0.3 million and $1.7 million, respectively. The Company charges uncollectible accounts against the allowance once the invoices are deemed unlikely to be collectible. The reserve includes permanent placement falloff reserves of $0.2 million and $1.0 million as of September 30, 2018 and September 30, 2017, respectively.

Property and Equipment

Property and equipment are recorded at cost. Depreciation expense is calculated on a straight-line basis over estimated useful lives of five years for computer equipment and two to ten years for office equipment, furniture and fixtures. The Company capitalizes computer software purchased or developed for internal use and amortizes it over an estimated useful life of five years. The carrying value of property and equipment is reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that it may not be recoverable. If the carrying amount of an asset group is greater than its estimated future undiscounted cash flows, the carrying value is written down to the estimated fair value. There was no impairment of property and equipment for fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2017.

Goodwill

Goodwill represents the excess of cost over the fair value of the net assets acquired in the various acquisitions. The Company evaluates goodwill for impairment at least annually. Testing goodwill for impairment allows the Company to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether the existence of events or circumstances leads to a determination that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If the entity determines that this threshold is not met, then performing the two-step impairment test is unnecessary. An impairment loss would be recognized to the extent the carrying value of goodwill exceeds its implied fair value.

Fair Value Measurement

The Company follows the provisions of Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 820, “Fair Value Measurement”, which defines fair value, establishes a framework for measuring fair value and enhances fair value measurement disclosure. Under these provisions, fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability (i.e., the “exit price”) in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.

 

The standard establishes a hierarchy for inputs used in measuring fair value that maximizes the use of observable inputs and minimizes the use on unobservable inputs by requiring that the most observable inputs be used when available. Observable inputs are inputs that market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability developed based on market data obtained from sources independent of the Company. Unobservable inputs are inputs that reflect the Company’s assumptions about the assumptions market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability developed based on the best information available in the circumstances. The hierarchy is described below:

 

Level 1: Quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets that are accessible at the measurement date for assets or liabilities. The fair value hierarchy gives the highest priority to Level 1 inputs.

 

Level 2: Observable prices that are based on inputs not quoted on active markets, but corroborated by market data.

 

Level 3: Unobservable inputs are used when little or no market data is available. The fair value hierarchy gives the lowest priority to Level 3 inputs.

 

The fair value of the Company’s current assets and current liabilities approximate their carrying values due to their short-term nature. The carrying value of the Company’s long-term liabilities represents their fair value based on level 3 inputs. The Company’s goodwill and other intangible assets are measured at fair value on a non-recurring basis using level 3 inputs, as discussed in Note 5.

Earnings and Loss per Share

Basic loss per share is computed by dividing net loss attributable to common stockholders by the weighted average common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted loss per share is computed giving effect to all potentially dilutive common shares. Potentially dilutive common shares may consist of incremental shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options and warrants and the conversion of notes payable to common stock. In periods in which a net loss has been incurred, all potentially dilutive common shares are considered anti-dilutive and thus are excluded from the calculation.

 

Common stock equivalents excluded because their effect is anti-dilutive were 11.0 million and 10.2 million for fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2017, respectively.

Advertising Expenses

The Company expenses the costs of print and internet media advertising and promotions as incurred and reports these costs in selling, general and administrative expenses. Advertising expense totaled $2.3 million and $1.7 million for fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2017, respectively.

Intangible Assets

Customer lists, non-compete agreements, customer relationships and trade names were recorded at their estimated fair value at the date of acquisition and are being amortized over their estimated useful lives ranging from two to ten years using both accelerated and straight-line methods.

Impairment of Long-lived Assets

The Company records an impairment of long-lived assets used in operations, other than goodwill, when events or circumstances indicate that the asset might be impaired and the estimated undiscounted cash flows to be generated by those assets over their remaining lives are less than the carrying amount of those items. The net carrying value of assets not recoverable is reduced to fair value, which is typically calculated using the discounted cash flow method. The Company did not record any impairment during fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2017.

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company accounts for stock-based awards to employees in accordance with FASB ASC 718, “Compensation-Stock Compensation”, which requires compensation expense related to share-based transactions, including employee stock options, to be measured and recognized in the financial statements based on a determination of the fair value of the stock options. The grant date fair value is determined using the Black-Scholes-Merton ("Black-Scholes") pricing model. For all employee stock options, we recognize expense over the requisite service period on an accelerated basis over the employee's requisite service period (generally the vesting period of the equity grant). The Company's option pricing model requires the input of highly subjective assumptions, including the expected stock price volatility, expected term, and forfeiture rate. Any changes in these highly subjective assumptions significantly impact stock-based compensation expense.

 

Options awarded to purchase shares of common stock issued to non-employees in exchange for services are accounted for as variable awards in accordance with FASB ASC 718, “Compensation-Stock Compensation”. Such options are valued using the Black-Scholes option pricing model.

 

See Note 9 for the assumptions used to calculate the fair value of stock-based employee and non-employee compensation. Upon the exercise of options, it is the Company's policy to issue new shares rather than utilizing treasury shares.

Income Taxes

We account for income taxes under the asset and liability method, which requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in the financial statements. Under this method, we determine deferred tax assets and liabilities based on the differences between the financial statement and tax basis of assets and liabilities by using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. The effect of a change in tax rates on deferred tax assets and liabilities is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date.

 

We recognize deferred tax assets to the extent that we believe that these assets are more likely than not to be realized. In making such a determination, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, projected future taxable income, tax-planning strategies, and results of recent operations. If we determine that we would be able to realize our deferred tax assets in the future in excess of their net recorded amount, we would make an adjustment to the deferred tax asset valuation allowance, which would reduce the provision for income taxes.

 

We record uncertain tax positions in accordance with ASC 740 on the basis of a two-step process in which (1) we determine whether it is more likely than not that the tax positions will be sustained on the basis of the technical merits of the position and (2) for those tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold, we recognize the largest amount of tax benefit that is more than 50 percent likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement with the related tax authority.

 

We recognize interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits on the income tax expense line in the accompanying consolidated statement of operations. As of September 30, 2018, no accrued interest or penalties are included on the related tax liability line in the consolidated balance sheet.

Reclassification

Certain reclassifications have been made to the financial statements as of and for the years ended September 30, 2017 to conform to the current year presentation.

Segment Data

The Company provides the following distinctive services: (a) direct hire placement services, (b) temporary professional contract services staffing in the fields of information technology, engineering, medical, and accounting, and (c) temporary contract light industrial staffing. These distinct services can be divided into two reportable segments, Industrial Staffing Services and Professional Staffing Services. Selling, general and administrative expenses are not entirely allocated among light industrial services and professional staffing services. Operating results are regularly reviewed by the chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and to assess its performance. Other factors, including type of business, type of employee, length of employment and revenue recognition are considered in determining these operating segments.