Sky-High, Inc. pays company management bonuses at the end of each year if net income is equal to or greater than a specific percentage of net sales. However, in the past five years, that metric has not been reached. During these past five years, Sky-High has been lowering the requirements for granting credit to customers so that more sales can be generated. However, making those credit changes has caused the companys uncollectible accounts percentage to rise substantially; for last year, it was 8.5% of the years net sales.

Before the past five years, Sky-High had been estimating uncollectible accounts at 3% of net sales. That rate had been effective in that no material adjustments needed to be made at any year-end. The CEO has asked you (the company accountant) to return to using that 3% percentage. His rationale is that the economy is strengthening and so uncollectible accounts should begin to decrease. If the 3% is used, all company management will receive a small bonus for this first time in five years.

1. A change in the estimate of uncollectible accounts is allowed under generally accepted accounting principles. How would such a change be accounted for?