Applied AI for Finance and Accounting · Module 8

Technical Memos: 5 Key Terms

By Devon Coombs, CPA, MBA · Teaching Professor of Finance, Santa Clara University · Reviewed August 2026

Technical accounting memos document how an accounting question was framed, researched, and resolved, which makes them a core deliverable in controllership and audit work. Producing one depends on a set of named practices, including issue spotting, the issues memo that lists open questions before any position is taken, and the draft-critique-revise cycle that typically strengthens a first draft. Standards-driven terms such as over-time recognition and right to payment illustrate the revenue questions memos often address, as taught in the free Applied AI for Finance and Accounting course.

These terms are taught in Module 8: Technical Accounting Memo Workflow of the free Applied AI for Finance and Accounting course; the full course glossary collects every chapter in one place.

Draft-critique-revise

A durable pattern in which a draft is produced, then adversarially critiqued, then revised, rather than accepted on the first pass.

Issue spotting

Identifying the accounting question a fact pattern raises before reaching for guidance.

Issues memo

A short technical accounting memo that states the issue, maps it to the guidance, reaches a supported position, and addresses the alternative.

Over-time recognition

Recognizing revenue as performance occurs, permitted when specific criteria are met, such as an asset with no alternative use plus an enforceable right to payment.

Right to payment

An enforceable right to be paid for work completed to date, including a reasonable margin, if the customer cancels; one criterion for over-time recognition.

Put the vocabulary to work: the free calculators and decision guides apply these terms, and the free Applied AI for Finance and Accounting course teaches them in context.