a) All IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) compliant financial statements will have a accounting policies statement preceding the 'Notes to the accounts'. This accounting policy section will outline how revenue is recognised and how this is recorded in the financial statements. There is a trend for financial market regulatories to require auditors to provide a summary of 'key audit matters' in their opinion to the accounts - which details the key risk areas in the financial statements for an entity.

b) Aggressive in this context likely means that revenue (and earnings) were being improperly accounted for in the current period. My guess in this context relates to revenue recognition. For instance if I sell SAAS product for $1000 setup and $100 per month and I expect the customer to stay on average 10 years - how do I recognise this revenue?

The aggressive accounting would recognise revenue of $1000 (setup) and $1200 (subscription) in the first year. But it may be fairer (and potentially more appropriate) to recognise $100 (10% of the setup costs as customer expected to stay 10 years - apportion over this period) and $1200 (subscription) in the first year.

On this simple alteration in treatment revenue could differ from $2200 to $1300. NB: This is an oversimplification and the actual recognition criteria depends on scenario, nature and company policies.

Cloud accounting (read: SAAS) is still relatively new and very different to traditional licensing and the accounting/finance community is still grappling with the recognition and treatment.