Byline: JACK NEFF When one big marketers deduct advertising costs to calculate quarterly earnings.

Byline: JACK NEFF

When one big marketers deduct advertising costs to calculate quarterly earnings, they're not really reporting what they exhausted on ads. Instead, they use sales-based estimates sanctioned from a 1970s standard that the same accounting professor sees as outdated and that common marketer, Clorox Co., recently stopped using.

The estimates can undisturbed swings in ad spending and earnings during the first three quarters of the year-a potentially big advantage given that companies can earn a share-price premium for delivering consistent quarterly accrues Companies that use estimates ultimately report actual incurred advertising outlays with their full-year results. however ...