Lease Abstraction post: Taking a second look at your Lease Abstracts from the ASC 842 Compliance Perspective

Taking a second look at your lease abstracts from the ASC 842 compliance perspective

 

The ASC 842 regulations bring a lot of changes to the way leases are treated in financial statements and books of accounts. In this blog, we outline the key challenges businesses face when embarking on their FASB compliance journey. 

Scope of work

While businesses know compliance with the updated FASB regulations entails having to reassess their books of accounts, many tend to underestimate the scope of work. There is a feeling that they have all the data they need and it is just a matter of restructuring it to suit the ASC 842 regulations. However, the ASC 842 regulations require a lot more than just data restructuring and the compliance process is much more time-consuming and labor-intensive than accounted for. As companies get started with the compliance process, they realize that they were mistaken. A lot of them struggle with data in complex spreadsheets that make it difficult to make sense of the vast amount of information contained therein. 

Inaccurate or outdated lease abstracts

Even businesses that have lease management systems in place find that sometimes they are not on top of their lease portfolios and the information in their lease abstracts is outdated and virtually useless. Also, the FASB regulations have brought about changes to the typical lease abstract templates by adding to the data points, making it necessary to include new information to the existing lease abstracts. These data points sometimes do not even exist in the original lease. They may be in the form of email communication, side letters, and other correspondence, which may have not been considered at the time or original abstraction.

Expertise

As discussed above, making your lease abstracts meaningful from the FASB compliance perspective entails a significant lease abstraction template redefinition–something that only an experienced lease abstraction vendor, with in-depth knowledge, perspective, and expertise into the lease abstraction process will be able to offer. 

Scaling to meet the timeline

The FASB compliance process comes with a definite timeline that needs to be adhered to. Also, after you get your leases in order and update your lease abstracts to reflect the information you need for your books of accounts, you should still consistently audit and update your lease abstracts at regular intervals to ensure you stay compliant. 

Bringing a trusted lease abstraction services provider on board can help you mitigate all these challenges effectively, efficiently, and meet your compliance requirements on time. 

Rebolease.com, powered by RE BackOffice, Inc., is a premier provider of lease abstraction, administration, and accounting services. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, we are a global boutique firm, providing high-quality services to top-tier clients across industry verticals, covering every type of lease and on any lease platform. We are proud to be a trusted partner, for 15+ years, to leading retailers, REITs, property owners/managers, and corporate accounts seeking a strategic advantage. All client projects are performed in-house. Please contact us today to learn more.