Planning to implement your ASC842/IFRS 16 lease accounting solution in 2019? PeopleSoft can help!
Since 2019 is now upon us, some organizations have already implemented PeopleSoft Lease Administration. Some are in the final stages for go-live preparation. Some organizations have not yet started to implement a solution and are targeting 2019 to do so. The good news is that PeopleSoft has you covered regardless of your project go-live target date. The delivered cutover process lets you target your go-live date. It also provides you with the accounting entries and audit trail you need for a smooth transition.
As I have mentioned in my earlier blogs, the biggest effort for implementing the new accounting rules is identifying your lease data. For many organizations, managing leases is decentralized and is mainly focused on managing the monthly payments. Going forward that all needs to change. Leases all need to be fully documented at a central point. The underlying ROU Assets and Liabilities put on the balance sheet. This is where the challenge lies. Having the time to build your catalog of leases.
When do you plan to go live?
If your target is sometime in 2019, as I stated above, PeopleSoft can help. The integration to Asset Management and the General Ledger is all there. For obvious reasons, going live in January 2019 is easiest and the cutover and transition for the accounting entries requires the least amount of effort. Moving to the new rules requires putting assets and liabilities on the balance sheet. Regardless of when you plan to go-live to go-live, some journal entries will be required to properly reconcile the beginning balances with the new system. But please note that managing the cutover process does become a bit more complex if you target later go-live dates as each passing month just adds an additional layer that needs to be reconciled.
Implementation
Lastly, the one thing that I consider the easiest part of a PeopleSoft Lease Administration project is implementing the module. If your organization will be moving onto Lease Administration, my experience says build your new environment now. Have Lease Administration ready and waiting. Get the easiest part of the project out of the way the soonest. When your lease data is ready, your new environment will ready to go and you can avoid any further delays. I have also seen that including your accountants and users as part of the lease administration build out actually makes gathering your lease data easier. The users will have a clearer picture of the data requirements which in turn will lead to better lease data.
In closing, if you are planning to go live with PeopleSoft Lease Administration in 2019, PeopleSoft makes the process very manageable. It may not make the effort of gathering your lease data go away, but PeopleSoft will provide the accounting entries and audit trail so that you reconcile the process every step of the way.
Thank you for reading and be sure to read our other Lease Administration Blogs.
Steven Brenner, CPA
Senior Principal Consultant
MIPRO Consulting
