New Accounting Pronouncements
In November 2023, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") No. 2023-07, “Segment Reporting (Topic 280): Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures” (“ASU 2023-07”), which requires public entities to disclose significant segment expenses that are regularly provided to the Company’s Chief Operating Decision Maker (“CODM”) and included in the measure of segment profit or loss. The standard also requires disclosure of the title and position of the CODM, as well as a description of how the CODM uses segment profit or loss information in evaluating performance and allocating resources. The Company adopted ASU 2023-07 in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025. DLH operates as a single reporting segment. Accordingly, the adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
In December 2023, FASB issued ASU 2023-09 "Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures" which provides guidance on the requirements such as the requirement that public business entities on an annual basis (1) disclose specific categories in the rate reconciliation and (2) provide additional information for reconciling items that meet a quantitative threshold. DLH is a public company that reports income tax disclosures and therefore this ASU applies to the Company. ASU 2023-09 is effective for public business entities for fiscal years beginning after Dec. 15, 2024. We will adopt ASU 2023-09 in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026. We are currently evaluating the impacts of the improvements to income tax disclosure.
In November 2024, the FASB issued ASU 2024-03, “Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income (Subtopic 220-40): Expense Disaggregation Disclosures”. To enhance transparency in financial reporting by requiring public business entities to disclose disaggregated information about expenses in their financial statements. The guidance mandates disclosure of specific cost components, such as inventory purchases, employee compensation, depreciation, and amortization, within relevant income statement expense captions, along with qualitative descriptions of any remaining undissected amounts. Entities must also disclose total selling expenses and define these annually. Effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2026, and interim periods in 2027, the ASU allows prospective or retrospective application and permits early adoption. We are currently evaluating the impacts of the improvements to our disclosure.
About New Standards Disclosures
New accounting standards disclosures describe recently adopted pronouncements and those not yet effective, along with management's assessment of their expected impact. This section provides an early warning system for upcoming changes to how a company reports its financial results, often years before the new rules take effect.
Key signals: when management describes a not-yet-adopted standard's impact as "material" or "still being evaluated," it signals potential significant changes to reported metrics upon adoption. Watch for standards that affect a company's core operations — for example, revenue recognition changes for software companies or lease accounting changes for retailers with large store footprints. The transition method chosen (full retrospective versus modified retrospective) affects comparability with prior periods. Companies that delay adoption to the latest permitted date may be struggling with implementation complexity. Compare the disclosed impact assessments against peers in the same industry to gauge whether management's expectations are reasonable.