Through all the controversy, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have both released their new leasing standards (ASC 842 and IFRS 16). The new standards are effective beginning on January 1, 2019 for calendar year-end entities, although the FASB has provided an additional two years for non-public business entities to implement the standard. Lessees are delirious, as both standards will require them to recognize assets and liabilities for the rights and obligations created by leases. Listed companies under IFRS and U.S. GAAP currently disclose approximately USD $3 trillion in off balance sheet lease commitments. As such, these standards are expected to have a significant impact on companies, especially those operating in the airline, travel and leisure, retail, and telecommunications industries. With implementation of the standards currently underway, we’ve compiled a list of accounting resources to help you quickly catch up on ASC 842 and IFRS 16.

Adopting a new standard is always challenging, but not to worry! We have developed a collection of online eLearning courses, as well as compiled a list of the following accounting resources that we believe can help you with your implementation:

From the IASB website:

IFRS 16 Leases – Link to the authoritative guidance (professional subscription required).

Implementation Update: IFRS 16, Leases – This article was published in January of 2017 and takes a look at how companies were doing one year into the implementation process.

From the FASB website:

ASU 2016-02 Leases (Topic 842) – Link to the authoritative guidance.

Leases Project Page – A good starting point for the various resources provided by the FASB.

Leases Educational Resources – This page provides links to the original ASU, any updates related to the ASU, and various publications and videos produced by the FASB to help financial statement preparers implement the new standard.

From GAAP Dynamics:

And here at GAAP Dynamics, we’ve certainly been busy as well! We’ve written several blogs on the topic and have listed them below. In addition, we’ve been helping our clients get a deeper understanding of the new leasing standards (as well as other new standards) through webinars, in-house seminars, and online courses.

• Top 5 Biggest Changes with The New Lease Accounting Standard (ASC 842)
  • New Lease Accounting Standard (ASC 842): Blowing Up the Balance Sheet
  • Is It A Lease? It Matters When Moving from ASC 840 To ASC 842!
  • Lease Payments: What’s Included Under ASC 842 Differs from ACS 840!
  • Sale and Leaseback Accounting: Moving from ASC 840 To ASC 842!
  • Lease Disclosures: Stepping It Up from ASC 840 To ASC 842 
• New Lease Accounting Standards for Lessors: ASC Topic 842 & IFRS 16
• New Lease Accounting Standards for Lessees: ASC Topic 842 & IFRS 16
• Why is Everybody Freaking Out About Embedded Leases? (ASC 842)
• Capacity Lease Agreement: Is it a Lease under ASC 842?
• Determining the Lease Term under ASC 842
• Clarification of Lessee Discount Rates for Leases under ASC 842
• Rates, Rates, and More Rates - Lessor Accounting under ASC 842
• New Lease Accounting Standard (ASC 842 And IFRS 16): CAM and Taxes
• IFRS 16 vs ASC 842: How to Account for Low-Value Leases
• Accounting for Initial Direct Costs under ASC 842
• Taxes and The New Leasing Standard (ASC 842)
• Accounting for Land Easements and Under the New Leasing Standard (ASC 842)
• Transition Relief for Entities Adopting ASC 842

Want to learn more about lessee accounting under ASC 842, check out this free webinar! Be sure to also check out the related Q&A blog from the webinar here. In addition, we've put together a collection of online eLearning courses on ASC 842 with over 3 hours of material!

From accounting firms:

Deloitte’s A Roadmap to Applying to New Leasing Standard – According to its overview, this 750+ page Roadmap combines the accounting requirements in ASC 842 with Deloitte’s interpretations and examples in a thorough, yet reader-friendly, format.

Deloitte’s A Guide to IFRS 16 – At only 115 pages, it is a bit less lengthy than its U.S. GAAP equivalent publication. This guide walks through the accounting requirements for IFRS 16.

Ernst & Young’s (EY) Financial Reporting Developments: Lease Accounting – EY’s Financial Reporting Developments documents (or FRDs [referred to as ‘freds’]) take a comprehensive look at the accounting and reporting for various topics, including leases under ASC 842!

 Meanwhile, EY has also released a document that takes a closer look at the guidelines under IFRS 16, Applying IFRS: A Closer Look at the New Leases Standard. To access these EY links, you may need to create a free account to access their AccountingLink online. We think their documents are always informative, so for us, it’s an easy decision to sign up for an account.

KPMG’s Handbook: Leases – A very comprehensive (950+ pages) guide on the new leasing standard (ASC 842) under U.S. GAAP. The document takes readers through the standard step-by-step, explaining what the requirements really mean, giving examples, and providing the firm’s observations about the requirements.

KPMG’s Financial Reporting View: Leases – This homepage provides quick access to a variety of KPMG resources on the new leasing standard (ASC 842), including the Handbook, other publications, webcasts, and more.

On the IFRS side, KPMG’s Global IFRS Institute provides insight into IFRS 16 with a variety of resources, including publications discussing transition, disclosures, the accounting requirements, and more.

PwC’s Leases Guide – Focusing solely on ASC 842, this approximately 300-page guide provides an in-depth look at the new standard. In addition to getting into the nitty-gritty, the guide provides a variety of examples to explain the new guidance and also summarizes the changes from existing guidance in ASC 840. Additionally, don’t forget to check out PwC’s CFOdirect page on Leases for more insight, videos, and more.

If you’re looking for PwC’s material on IFRS 16, make sure to check out the IFRS Reporting page on the topic. This page includes videos discussing implementation and application, and various publications on IFRS 16.

We hope you find these accounting resources as useful as we do. We love leases, as you can tell by the number of blogs we’ve written on the topic! And, what’s more, we love helping people understand complex accounting topics, so contact us if you would like train your professionals in the requirements of the new standards or if you need help interpreting the guidance for your organization.

Disclaimer

This post is published to spread the love of GAAP and provided for informational purposes only. Although we are CPAs and have made every effort to ensure the factual accuracy of the post as of the date it was published, we are not responsible for your ultimate compliance with accounting or auditing standards and you agree not to hold us responsible for such. In addition, we take no responsibility for updating old posts, but may do so from time to time.