Technology companies are rejoicing over a new rule adopted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board yesterday that will accelerate revenue recognition for many of their products.

The FASB voted unanimously and without comment to adopt a consensus of its Emerging Issues Task Force to allow companies more flexibility in how they recognize revenue for products that are bundled with post-sale service or software updates. FASB Technical Director Russell Golden said the final guidance will be posted on FASB’s Website Oct. 2.

Analysts for tech companies like Apple Inc. already are predicting spikes in revenue as a result of the adoption of the rule, although they’re also warning investors to temper their jubilation because it represents faster recognition of revenue, not an actual increase in revenue. Apple has been required to recognize iPhone revenue gradually over as much as two years while the new rule will allow a much greater portion of the revenue to be recognized at the time of sale.

Under existing rules, companies establish selling prices for “multiple-element arrangements” by first looking to the price they would charge for each of the pieces and parts that go into the arrangement. If that data isn’t available, for example because the company doesn’t sell the individual parts or services separately, it can look to competitor pricing information.

The new guidance, contained in EITF Issue No. 08-1, says companies can take it one step further and estimate selling prices for the individual elements of the arrangement and recognize revenue accordingly. Previously, companies were not allowed to use their own internal estimates.

Golden said FASB has received lots of questions about how quickly the new approach can be adopted. It can be adopted immediately, but it must be used for an entire fiscal year and not a portion of a year. So even though it will be issued after Sept. 30, “companies could adopt this for the third quarter, but they must adopt it as of the beginning of the year,” he said.