Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Significant Accounting Policies and Estimates (Policies)

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Significant Accounting Policies and Estimates (Policies)
12 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2016
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.

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.

Reverse Stock Split

On October 9, 2015, the Company filed a certificate of change to our amended and restated articles of incorporation with the Secretary of the State of Illinois in order to effectuate a reverse stock split of our issued and outstanding common stock on a 1-for-10 basis (the "Reverse Stock Split"); and increased the total number of authorized shares of Common Stock of the Company from 20,000,000, post Reverse Stock Split, to 200,000,000.

 

The Reverse Stock Split became effective with the FINRA as of the open of business on October 9, 2015. As a result of the Reverse Stock Split, every 10 shares of the Company's pre-Reverse Split common stock was combined and reclassified into one share of the Company's common stock. No fractional shares of common stock were issued as a result of the Reverse Split.

 

Throughout the consolidated financial statements, each instance that refers to a number of shares of the Company's common stock, refers to the number of shares of common stock after giving effect to the Reverse Stock Split, unless otherwise indicated.

Estimates and Assumptions

Management makes estimates and assumptions that can affect the amounts of assets and liabilities reported as of the date of the condensed 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. If differences were to occur in a subsequent period, the Company would recognize those differences when they became known. Significant matters requiring the use of estimates and assumptions include, but may not be limited to, deferred income tax valuation allowances, accounts receivable allowances, accounting for acquisitions, accounting for derivatives and evaluation of impairment. Management believes that its estimates and assumptions are reasonable, based on information that is available at the time they are made.

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.

 

Fall offs and refunds during the period are reflected in the consolidated statements of operations as a reduction of placement service revenues and were approximately $470,000 in fiscal 2016 and $904,000 in fiscal 2015. Expected future fall offs and refunds are reflected in the consolidated balance sheet as a reduction of accounts receivable and were approximately $60,000 and $86,000 as of September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015, respectively.

Cost of Contract Staffing Services

The cost of contract services includes the wages and the related payroll taxes and employee benefits of the Company’s employees 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. At September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015, 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. Based on management’s review of accounts receivable, an allowance for doubtful accounts of approximately $191,000 and $524,000 is considered necessary as of September 30, 2016, and September 30, 2015, respectively. The Company charges uncollectible accounts against the allowance once the invoices are deemed unlikely to be collectible.

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 the years ended September 30, 2016 and 2015.

Goodwill

Goodwill represents the excess of cost over the fair value of the net assets acquired in the various acquisitions. The Company assesses 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 the accounting standard 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, as discussed in Notes 7. 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 4.

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 share equivalents of approximately 577,000 was included in the computation of diluted earnings per share for the year ended September 30, 2016. There were approximately 413,000 and 534,000 of common stock equivalents excluded for the year ended September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015, respectively because their effect is anti-dilutive.

Advertising Expenses

Most of the Company’s advertising expense budget is used to support the Company’s business. Most of the advertisements are in print or internet media, with expenses recorded as they are incurred. For the years ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, included in selling, general and administrative expenses was advertising expense totaling approximately $834,000 and $751,000, 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 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 the years ended September 30, 2016 and 2015.

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company accounts for stock-based awards to employees in accordance with applicable accounting principles, 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 applicable accounting principles. 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 record a provision for income taxes for the anticipated tax consequences of the reported results of operations using the asset and liability method. Under this method, we recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between the financial reporting and tax basis of assets and liabilities, as well as for operating loss and tax credit carryforwards. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using the tax rates that are expected to apply to taxable income for the years in which those tax assets and liabilities are expected to be realized or settled. We record a valuation allowance to reduce our deferred tax assets to the net amount that we believe is more likely than not to be realized.

 

Due to the private sale of shares of common stock to LEED HR during fiscal 2012 and the resulting change in control, the Company may be limited by Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code as to the amount of net operating losses that may be used in future years.

 

Due to the issuance of convertible preferred shares related to the Scribe acquisition, the Company may be limited by Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code as to the amount of net operating losses that may be used in future years.

 

We recognize tax benefits from uncertain tax positions only if we believe that it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities based on the technical merits of the position. Although we believe that we have adequately reserved for our uncertain tax positions, we can provide no assurance that the final tax outcome of these matters will not be materially different. We make adjustments to these reserves when facts and circumstances change, such as the closing of a tax audit or the refinement of an estimate. To the extent that the final tax outcome of these matters is different than the amounts recorded, such differences will affect the provision for income taxes in the period in which such determination is made and could have a material impact on our financial condition and operating results.

Reclassification

Certain reclassifications have been made to the financial statements as of and for the years ended September 30, 2015 to conform to the current year presentation. There is no effect on assets, liabilities, equity or net income.

Segment Data

The Company has two operating business segments a) Contract staffing services and b) Direct hire placement. These operating segments were determined based primarily on how the chief operating decision maker views and evaluates our operations. 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.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In September 2015, the FASB issued ASU 2015-16 - Business Combinations, which requires adjustments to provisional amounts recorded in business combinations to be recognized in the reporting period in which they are identified either separately on the face of the income statement or in the notes to the financial statements. ASU 2015-16 is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2015 and any interim periods within that period, and early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating ASU 2015-16 to determine if this guidance will have a material impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

 

In May 2014, the FASB issued authoritative guidance that provides companies with a single model for use in accounting for revenue arising from contracts with customers and supersedes current revenue recognition guidance, including industry-specific revenue guidance. The new guidance requires a company to recognize revenue to depict the transfer of goods or services to a customer at an amount that reflects the consideration it expects to receive in exchange for those goods or services. It also requires additional disclosure about the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from customer contracts, including significant judgments and changes in judgments and assets recognized from costs incurred to obtain or fulfill a contract. The guidance permits companies to either apply the requirements retrospectively to all prior periods presented, or apply the requirements in the year of adoption, through a cumulative adjustment. The amended guidance also requires additional quantitative and qualitative disclosures. In March 2016, amended guidance was issued to clarify implementation guidance on principal versus agent consideration. In April 2016 an amendment provided clarifications on determining whether a promised license provides a customer with a right to use or a right to access an entity’s intellectual property. In May 2016 an amendment provided narrow scope improvements and practical expedients to reduce the potential diversity, cost and complexity of applying new revenue standard. These amendments, as well as the original guidance, are all effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. The new standard will be effective for the Company beginning January 1, 2018 and the Company intends to implement the standard with the modified retrospective approach, which recognizes the cumulative effect of application recognized on that date. The Company is in the process of evaluating the impact of adoption of this guidance on its financial statements.

 

In November 2015, the FASB issued authoritative guidance which changes how deferred taxes are classified on a company's balance sheet. The new guidance eliminates the current requirement for companies to present deferred tax liabilities and assets as current and noncurrent in a classified balance sheet. Instead, companies will be required to classify all deferred tax assets and liabilities as noncurrent. The new guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016. Early adoption is permitted for all entities as of the beginning of an interim or annual reporting period. The guidance may be applied either prospectively, for all deferred tax assets and liabilities, or retrospectively (i.e., by reclassifying the comparative balance sheet). If applied prospectively, entities are required to include a statement that prior periods were not retrospectively adjusted. If applied retrospectively, entities are also required to include quantitative information about the effects of the change on prior periods. Except for balance sheet classification requirements related to deferred tax assets and liabilities, the Company does not expect this guidance to have an effect on its financial statements. The Company is in the process of evaluating the impact of adoption of this guidance on its financial statements.

 

In March 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") 2016-09, Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting ("ASU 2016-09"). ASU 2016-09 simplifies several aspects of the accounting for share-based payment transactions, including the income tax consequences, classification of awards as either equity or liabilities and classification on the statement of cash flows. This ASU is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2016. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently assessing the potential impact of adopting ASU 2016-09 on its financial statements and related disclosures.

 

In February 2016, the FASB issued authoritative guidance which changes financial reporting as it relates to leasing transactions. Under the new guidance, lessees will be required to recognize a lease liability, measured on a discounted basis; and a right-of-use asset, for the lease term. The new guidance is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2018. Early application is permitted for all entities upon issuance. Lessees and lessors must apply a modified retrospective transition approach for leases existing at, or entered into after, the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented in the financial statements. The Company is in the process of evaluating the impact of adoption of this guidance on its financial statements.

 

In August 2016, the FASB issued authoritative guidance designed to address diversity in how certain cash receipts and cash payments are presented and classified in the statement of cash flows, including: i) contingent consideration payments made after a business combination; ii) proceeds from the settlement of insurance claims; and iii) proceeds from the settlement of corporate-owned life insurance policies. The new guidance is effective for the Company for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted in any interim or annual period. The Company believes the adoption of this guidance will not have a material impact on its financial statements.

 

No other recent accounting pronouncements were issued by FASB and the SEC that are believed by management to have a material impact on the Company’s present or future financial statements.