A previous episode in this blog series gave an overview of How the Digital Solutions Economy (DSE) is Impacting the Medical Device Industry. This new post provides a deeper look at how the leasing of medical equipment along with other bundled services or products presents particular challenges for meshing contracts and lessor accounting with DSE management and revenue recognition.

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.

As leasing arrangements continue to become more diverse and entail complex cross-integration requirements for managing leases within bundled Digital Solutions Economy offerings, it is increasingly important for lessor companies to have a comprehensive understanding of the compliance issues both for lessor accounting under ASC 842 and revenue recognition under ASC 606.

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?