It is a joint funding R&D project with customer. We invoice customer at 5 stages of the project. Before invoicing at each stage, expense accumulated. We don't want the expense to hit P&L as these R&D expense will be offsetted by the 5 invoices. According to GAAP, we have to expense R&D costs when incurred. Can we defer the expense as WIP in the balance sheet until we invoice? If so, where can I find the GAAP rule or FASB code?

Any good website for free GAAP research?:) :)

THanks!