NOTE 1. BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES FINANCIAL STATEMENT PRESENTATION.  We present our financial statements in a three-column format, which allows investors to see our industrial operations separately from our financial services operations. We believe that this provides useful supplemental information to our consolidated financial statements. To the extent that we have transactions between GE Industrial and GE Capital, these transactions are made on arms- length terms, are reported in the respective columns of our financial statements and are eliminated in consolidation. See Note 24 for further information. Effective December 31, 2020, in order to enhance our financial statement presentation, we voluntarily made the following reporting changes for all periods presented: Our financial statements are prepared in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which requires us to make estimates based on assumptions about current, and for some estimates, future, economic and market conditions which affect reported amounts and related disclosures in our financial statements. Although our current estimates contemplate current and expected future conditions, as applicable, it is reasonably possible that actual conditions could differ from our expectations, which could materially affect our results of operations and financial position. In particular, a number of estimates have been and will continue to be affected by the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The severity, magnitude and duration, as well as the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, are uncertain, rapidly changing and difficult to predict. As a result, our accounting estimates and assumptions may change over time in response to COVID-19. Such changes could result in future impairments of goodwill, intangibles, long-lived assets and investment securities, revisions to estimated profitability on long-term product service agreements, incremental credit losses on receivables and debt securities, a decrease in the carrying amount of our tax assets, or an increase in our insurance liabilities and pension obligations as of the time of a relevant measurement event. In preparing our Statement of Cash Flows, we make certain adjustments to reflect cash flows that cannot otherwise be calculated by changes in our Statement of Financial Position. These adjustments may include, but are not limited to, the effects of currency exchange, acquisitions and dispositions of businesses, businesses classified as held for sale, the timing of settlements to suppliers for property, plant and equipment, non-cash gains/losses and other balance sheet reclassifications. We have reclassified certain prior-year amounts to conform to the current-year’s presentation. Unless otherwise noted, tables are presented in U.S. dollars in millions. Certain columns and rows may not add due to the use of rounded numbers. Percentages presented are calculated from the underlying numbers in millions. Earnings per share amounts are computed independently for earnings from continuing operations, earnings from discontinued operations and net earnings. As a result, the sum of per-share amounts may not equal the total. Unless otherwise indicated, information in these notes to consolidated financial statements relates to continuing operations. Certain of our operations have been presented as discontinued. We present businesses whose disposal represents a strategic shift that has, or will have, a major effect on our operations and financial results as discontinued operations when the components meet the criteria for held for sale, are sold, or spun-off. See Note 2 for further information. CONSOLIDATION.  Our financial statements consolidate all of our affiliates, entities where we have a controlling financial interest, most often because we hold a majority voting interest, or where we are required to apply the variable interest entity (VIE) model because we have the power to direct the most economically significant activities of entities. We reevaluate whether we have a controlling financial interest in all entities when our rights and interests change. REVENUES FROM THE SALE OF EQUIPMENT. Performance Obligations Satisfied Over Time.  We recognize revenue on agreements for the sale of customized goods including power generation equipment, long-term construction projects and military development contracts on an over-time basis as we customize the customer's equipment during the manufacturing or integration process and obtain right to payment for work performed. We recognize revenue as we perform under the arrangements using the percentage of completion method which is based on our costs incurred to date relative to our estimate of total expected costs. Our estimate of costs to be incurred to fulfill our promise to a customer is based on our history of manufacturing or constructing similar assets for customers and is updated routinely to reflect changes in quantity or pricing of the inputs. We provide for potential losses on these agreements when it is probable that we will incur the loss. Our billing terms for these over-time contracts are generally based on achieving specified milestones. The differences between the timing of our revenue recognized (based on costs incurred) and customer billings (based on contractual terms) results in changes to our contract asset or contract liability positions. See Note 9 for further information. GE 2020 FORM 10-K  63 • changed our presentation of GE Industrial restructuring program costs. Previously these costs were recorded within Corporate Items and Eliminations. Now these costs are recorded within segment profit, except for significant, higher-cost programs that continue to be recorded within Corporate Items and Eliminations; • changed the presentation of our Statement of Financial Position to reflect the classification of assets and liabilities into current and non-current and revised the definition of operating working capital in our Statement of Cash Flows. For the classification of certain current assets and liabilities, we use the duration of our operating cycle, which may be longer than one year; • began presenting research and development expenses separately as part of costs and expenses in our consolidated Statement of Earnings (Loss). These costs were previously reported in costs of goods and services sold; and • ceased reporting GE Capital as an equity method investment within the GE Industrial column. This change has no impact on the GE Capital or Consolidated columns. Consistent with our historical practice, all commercial transactions between GE Industrial and GE Capital continue to be reported on arms-length terms and are eliminated upon consolidation.