It’s a slow clap for companies who’ve implemented the new lease accounting standards.

That’s because most organizations made a mad dash for the finish line. In an October 2018 survey by PwC, more than 15 percent of public companies hadn’t even started implementation of FASB ASC 842 that took effect a few months later.

Private companies aren’t far behind.

News of a deadline extension - most likely due to procrastination and an overwhelming to-do list - is hot off the press.

Even for those who did meet the compliance deadline, most would admit it was little better than a hack job with an all-hands-on-deck approach and little-to-no expertise directing the veritable financial circus.

With 6 months to go before public companies submit reporting under the new FASB ASC 842 compliance standards once more, it’s time to start the cleanup process.

Companies must push themselves to rework the way their team functions to create processes, procedures, and controls for long-term success under post-FASB ASC 842 implementation.

More than 80% of American companies lease equipment rather than purchasing it.

That’s a big number.

And the reason you should care about it is even more significant. When your compliance deadline rolls around, all of your equipment leases will have to be noted on your balance sheet.

In the past, this treatment was reserved for capital leases only.

But now the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and its sister governing boards have also decided operating leases - including equipment leases - should move out of the footnotes to join the party on the balance sheet.

But just what is an equipment lease according to the accounting governing boards?

By now, everyone knows about the new lease accounting standard FASB ASC 842. 

It’s taken the lease administration world by storm. Public companies were the first to take on compliance challenges in 2019. And now private companies are implementing new processes to meet their January 1, 2020 deadline.

The rules, their implications, and the challenges have been covered in detail:

• FASB ASC 842 Summary
• 13 Must-Read Articles for Lease Accounting Compliance
• Why Lease Accounting Lagards Face Serious Risks
• The Complete FASB ASC 842 Lease Accounting Resource Center
• New Lease Accounting Standard (ASC 842) – Adoption Readiness Planning

What many organizations are finding out is the immense amount of time, energy and money it takes to implement these new lease accounting standards.

The journey into FASB ASC 842 compliance has been filled with unexpected curves and surprises for both public and private companies in the last few years.

There are countless FASB lease accounting changes to be made, terms that’ve been redefined, and added expenses to take into account.

We want to help you stay as informed as possible about the entire scope of FASB ASC 842 implementation and other lease accounting updates. We’d recommend stalking the most trusted resources on this topic.

You can start by bookmarking these 13.

Waiting to start FASB 842 implementation is like waiting to do your taxes.

Hunky-dory in the beginning...

...but potentially costly, time-consuming and painful in the end.

Just ask any public company that had to do it last year: The longer you wait, the more expensive - in dollars and days - implementation will be.

FASB 842 compliance is hard.

Picking a lease management system can be even harder.

We get it.

Most of the companies offering this software today present similar features in different user interfaces.

And since everyone is clamoring to get the lease standards implemented pronto, many companies - who have little-to-no experience with this industry - have jumped on the lease management software bandwagon.

And they’ll do and say anything to get as many new clients as they can.

In fact, we’ve heard so many cautionary tales from customers and prospects about the shady tactics of these irrefutable lease management systems, we put together a list of the top 3 lies we’ve heard them tell over and over again.

Use them to ask the right questions and choose the best lease management software for your business.