This article, "2021 FASB Innovation Summit: Notable Accounting Experts Discuss Implementation," originally appeared on LeaseQuery.com.
Summary provided by MaterialAccounting.com: This summary of the 2021 FASB Innovation Summit includes expert quotes about implementing the new accounting standards.
LeaseQuery recently conducted a free virtual event to help private organizations as they move to adopt FASB’s new accounting standard, ASC 842. Nearly 700 event attendees received advice that will help facilitate their organizations’ implementation process.
There were presentations from experts at LeaseQuery, RSM, RGP, and LSL CPAs. Attendees left the summit with a better understanding of ASC 842 adoption and an idea of what their business will look like post-transition.
Memorable takeaways from the FASB summit
We have highlighted some of the most important quotes from the summit below. If you’re seeking a more in-depth look at ASC 842, you can watch the 2021 FASB Summit On Demand. The recording will give you more insight into adopting the new standard.
Sarah O’Sullivan, CPA, Director of Product, LeaseQuery
“One of the first things you really need to do to be successful at this is to understand what your current process is, where your leases are, who is involved with those leases, and what policy changes you might be looking at because of [ASC] 842.”
“This is not an accounting-only implementation. There are a lot of departments that are involved in this. You’re going to be talking to legal, and your treasury department, and people out in the field depending on the nature of your business and if you have locations elsewhere, supply chain procurement, there’s a lot of hands that are going to touch this.”
Gail Gray, CPA, Partner, LSL CPAs
“This is one of the larger standards that has come out in a long time, so getting everybody’s head around it, I think, is gonna be the most important component.”
“Make sure that you look at your policies, you customize your policies for your lease standards so that when you get to conversations like materiality you know what you’re using. So, documenting your policies, documenting processes, you want to actually make sure that as you’re coming up with your policies, you’re also coming up with your processes so that you can train your team across the board so everybody is doing it the same way.”
Bob Malinowski, Senior Director, Technical Accounting Consulting, RSM
“There is a fair level of effort involved with obtaining a full lease population, and it’s critically important because one of the first things any auditor is going to ask is ‘how do you know that you have a full lease population?’. In the past, under 840, this really wasn’t that important, because most leases were operating leases without any balance sheet impact…but going forward, now that everything is on the balance sheet, it is critically important to make sure every, or all material leases anyway, are appropriately identified.”
“On the front-end, this [lease] assessment, understanding the lease landscape, understanding where leases are located, this is very important so that you do have a decent idea of the number and types of leases so that you can use that to help inform your technology solution decision in your ongoing processes.”
Ellen Class, Senior Director, Finance Transformation, RGP
“Have a good internal audit department … it’s really important that we consider what internal audit does differently from external audit so that they can identify these frauds that might be missed by your external auditors.”
“It’s good to see the use of technology, especially if you’re working at a larger company, where it really helps you identify what the risks of fraud potential are.”
Summary
During the FASB Innovation Summit, attendees received advice from accounting experts on the best practices for implementing ASC 842. The discussions clarified some of the challenges organizations face during adoption and the ways a lease accounting software, such as LeaseQuery, can help the process run smoothly. Watch the Summit recording to learn more.
The post 2021 FASB Innovation Summit: Notable Accounting Experts Discuss Implementation appeared first on LeaseQuery.
