In 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) announced the release of new accounting standards, ASC 842 and IFRS 16, that redefined how organizations must account for leases.

These new leasing standards represent more than just an accounting change, with far-reaching and profound implications on lease/buy decisions, internal process coordination and financial reporting.  Effective lease management must go beyond a one-time compliance perspective by enabling both ongoing management of lease changes and seamless integration with associated finance processes.

Since the release of new lease accounting standards ASC 842 and IFRS 16 in 2018, companies have taken a variety of approaches to comply, but many are now aiming to optimize their lease accounting processes for efficiency and long-term manageability. It is becoming clear that standalone software and offline spreadsheets cannot provide the level of financial integration needed to go the distance for supporting a robust Comply, Optimize, and Transform journey.

Companies faced with the lease accounting compliance deadlines over the past 2-3 years opted for “quick and easy” standalone or offline approaches that emphasized basic compliance over long-term integration, efficiency, and scalability.

As a result, most of these companies are now grappling with major roadblocks when it comes to managing lease accounting compliance in relationship to overall business goals, especially when it comes to coping with dynamically changing lease portfolios.

One of the biggest shortcomings from taking the standalone solution approach is the narrow focus on cataloging existing lease portfolios and analyzing them against the new compliance criteria. In effect, this is like just taking a static snapshot of a constantly changing environment.

So, how can you overcome these shortcomings related to standalone or offline approaches?

With the upcoming already extended deadline for the adoption of ASC 842, the new lease accounting standard in the US, many companies who have already adopted are struggling with managing the accounting under the new standard in spreadsheets or because they already chose a standalone software but are not happy with the results due to a lack of integration, causing reconciling issues or reporting inaccuracies.

As we move into 2021, companies are finalizing their plans, budgets and operational improvement processes for the coming year. One of the key challenges that many organizations face is how best to optimize and integrate their ASC 842 / IFRS 16 compliance within their overall business systems.

As public companies have worked over the past two years to comply with new ASC 842 and IFRS 16 leasing standards, they have taken a variety of paths to achieve the initial compliance requirements. Depending on each company’s specific requirements and the extent of their lease portfolios, their journey to compliance may have been comprehensive or might have taken a limited approach with a “path of least resistance” philosophy to minimize disruptions. 

However, those companies that took a limited approach using standalone solutions or spreadsheets are now discovering they’re stuck in a dead-end with regard to integrating and optimizing lease compliance within their overall business operations.

As the leading experts in SAP Leasing Solutions for ASC 842 and IFRS 16, we've seen it all and we know what works. Integration can be hard. Data validation is required far more than you expected and reporting is anything but a snap, especially if you need data from your ERP as well as your leasing solution.