HomeAuditors Express Concern that Spreadsheets Will Create Compliance Issues with the New Lease Accounting Standards
ATLANTA – (January 15, 2019) – With the FASB and IASB lease accounting standard deadline already here for public companies and quickly approaching for private companies, many are finding that spreadsheets won’t fully support their compliance efforts. The changes to the lease accounting standards impact not only accounting teams but other departments as well, so it is crucial for organizations to maximize their compliance strategies and minimize audit risk.
“Errors, even to the smallest degree, carry audit risk,” said Andy Miller, retired partner from Ernst & Young. According to Risk Management, recent cases illustrate the very real risk posed by improper spreadsheet management. For example, in 2018 a prominent financial institution was fined millions due to a simple user error in a spreadsheet. To help minimize audit risks and improve controls, organizations are turning to software. Automated lease accounting solutions take the risk out of spreadsheets and manual processes, and help make an organization’s accounting fully auditable. This is key because lease accounting will carry downstream impacts to other departments, including the tax group.
Organizations have selected software to have greater confidence in meeting standards like ASC 842 and IFRS 16. “Implementing an automated solution, like PowerPlan, will help organizations quickly comply while reducing audit risk and enabling them to provide audit trails and version tracking,” added Miller.
PowerPlan is a leading lease accounting software solution for organizations around the globe. Compliance with the FASB and IASB lease standards began at the beginning of this year for public business entities, while privately held companies have until the start of 2020 to comply. To learn more about PowerPlan’s Lease Accounting Solution, visit https://powerplan.com/solutions/lease-accounting-suite.
