Adrian Johnson
TLDR:
- An internal audit by Autodesk found discrepancies in its accounting related to multiyear, discounted software license deals.
- The company’s CFO transitioned to chief strategy officer, and an interim CFO was appointed.
Autodesk Inc. released the results of an internal audit, revealing that its practice of signing customers to multiyear, discounted deals for software licenses led to lower income than if customers had been booked as annual, full-price subscriptions. The audit also highlighted a shortfall in free cash flow for early 2024. As a result, the CFO transitioned to chief strategy officer, and an interim CFO was appointed. The company acknowledged relying on multiyear contracts with upfront billing to meet cash flow targets, but changes in filing multiyear subscriptions were recommended following the investigation.
The audit committee found that encouraging multiyear upfront contracts with enterprise customers reduced the overall revenue intake. Despite these discrepancies, executive compensation was not affected. Autodesk is on track with implementing a new transaction model, aiming to achieve its goals for the year. The company will file its annual report as soon as possible and is looking to align its enterprise billing practices for fiscal 2024.