Understand ASC 842: The first step, which is the most challenging, is understanding the requirements of ASC 842. It is a radical departure from past practice. Clients must grasp changes in the definition of a lease, lease payments, initial direct costs, lease term, discount rates, and allocation of consideration to lease and non-lease components. Lease… Read More »
Lease accounting software is not a substitute for a good lease accountant. The person entering the data in a lease accounting software must understand the lease accounting requirements and interpret lease contracts correctly. Leases that require frequent reassessments of discount rates, lease terms, lease payments, and lease classification are not good candidates for such software.… Read More »
A company with more than ten active leases must consider a lease accounting solution. The new accounting standard requires more sophisticated financial calculations and detailed monitoring and tracking of leases. Companies will find it extremely challenging to use spreadsheets for lease accounting because of the following limitations of spreadsheets: Lack of ability to track changes: One cannot track changes in spreadsheets. Employees can deliberately or inadvertently overwrite spreadsheet data. Therefore, spreadsheets do not meet internal… Read More »
iLeaseXpress is a cloud-based lease accounting solution providing compliance to the ASC 842 lease accounting standard for private companies that have less than 15 leases. Powered by iLeasePro, the company’s flagship lease accounting solution, iLeaseXpress offers companies with smaller lease portfolios the ability to transition to and adopt the complex ASC 842 lease accounting standards for… Read More »
We’ve been addressing the changes FASB proposed and implemented in ASC 842 over the past couple of articles, including the changes in rate implicit in the lease, determination of IBR and leases embedded in contracts. After the break, FASB members, preparers and others reassembled to discuss another change; lease modifications. Here, the main issue was with regards to the complexity and costs involved with applying lease modifications in the books. This… Read More »
We previously discussed how FASB had discussed changes in ASC 842: Lease Accounting in Rate Implicit in the lease as well as the determination of IBR. The board has also outlined the concern presented by some preparers about the identification of leases embedded within a contract. The main issue was that entities spent significant amounts of time trying to identify and account… Read More »
The problem of determining the rate implicit in a lease also presented a concern that most preparers used the incremental borrowing rate (IBR) as the discount rate. However, that wasn’t the only concern that came to light during FASB’s roundtable in September 2020. Apart from the rate implicit, members also discussed the IBR; i.e., how those that have adopted ASC 842 determine the IBR. It… Read More »
One of the areas of the new lease standard that has not received that much attention is executory costs. However, as lessees consummate new leases that must be transitioned into the new standard, this is an area that should not be overlooked. Executory Costs that Transfer a Good or Service The new lease standard only… Read More »
In June 2017, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (“GASB”) issued Statement No. 87 – Leases which establishes new accounting standards to be applied to all lease transactions for state and local governments. The Standard is effective for fiscal periods beginning after December 15, 2019 with earlier application encouraged. The governmental standard follows most of the… Read More »
Our LinkedIn group, FASB and IASB Lease Accounting Changes, is growing fast. We are closing in on 500 members. This is a great group to discuss the FASB and IASB Lease Accounting changes with as you begin thinking about preparing for the changes. https://www.linkedin.com/groups/FASB-IASB-Lease-Accounting-Changes-3852961 For more information on iLeasePro please visit: https://ileasepro.com/