It's time to get serious about the compliance timeline.

As we enter the final few months before the new FASB 842 lease requirements take effect, we know one thing for sure. Very few people are ready. PwC's accounting survey tells the story (that continues to shock us all)... Only 1% of companies are ready. 34% are still early in the assessment phase. 83% of all companies are less than 50% complete with the project. And one-third are unsure or doubtful they will meet the effective date. So basically, that means everyone's scrambling to meet the deadline.

We wrote last month about changes that FASB has made to the new ASC 842 lease accounting standard to simplify the transition for lessees and lessors. This post dives into more detail about what the new transition option means and what it doesn’t.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has approved pending simplification of the new ASC 842 lease accounting requirements, eliminating the need for look-back financial statements .

Lease data is the heart of FSB ASC 842 compliance

Data is going to be your key to FASB ASC 842 compliance. And it’s proven to be tougher than most companies expected. The new rule will require you to abstract as many as 55 data elements from leases in order to determine the lease status and meet compliance requirements. Because lease data is at the heart of FASB ASC 842 compliance, we created this checklist and worksheet to help you. It’s a comprehensive checklist of the data you’ll need to collect in order to correctly classify and report on each lease.

AMTdirect's software solution and RSM's middle market insights provide a seamless path to compliance with new lease accounting, reporting requirements.

The new FASB ASC 842 and IFRS 16 lease accounting mandates constitute a significant challenge for mid-sized organizations. They require a level of scrutiny on real estate and equipment leases that has never been seen before.   While most retailers already have all of the data necessary for compliance in a digital system, most other organizations may be starting from scratch when it comes to lease compliance.