Webinar recap – key takeaways on simplifying lease disclosure management in OneStream

Lease accounting has come a long way since the introduction of IFRS 16 and ASC 842. While the initial challenge for many organisations was understanding the new requirements and gathering the necessary data, the focus has increasingly shifted towards managing lease information efficiently, maintaining control and reducing the reliance on manual processes.

In our recent webinar, Simplifying Lease Disclosure Management in OneStream, we explored how organisations can approach these challenges and demonstrated our lease disclosure management solution for OneStream.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the session…

The initial challenge around lease accounting has evolved

When IFRS 16 was introduced, many organisations were starting from scratch. That meant a huge manual effort gathering up lease agreements, establishing their lease portfolios and working out how to apply the new requirements.

Today, although there are Finance teams which already have established processes, many are continuing to manage leases through spreadsheets or legacy systems. This creates a different set of challenges, particularly when moving to a new solution and reconciling historical calculations with a new calculation methodology.

The lesson is that a successful transition requires more than simply migrating data from one solution or system to another. Organisations need to understand and manage differences between the old and new approaches, including any resulting calculation variances.

Usability and guided workflows are important

Lease accounting is not necessarily the responsibility of a team of lease specialists. The solution therefore needs to make the process accessible to the wider Finance team.

The webinar demonstrated how familiar OneStream workflows can be used to manage responsibilities and guide users through the lease process, while making use of existing OneStream master data where appropriate.

A structured workflow can help provide greater consistency and control, particularly where lease information is maintained across multiple entities or locations.

Automation can simplify complex calculations

A lease portfolio can involve a wide range of variables, from payment frequency and discount rates to payment increases, residual values and lease modifications.

Automating the underlying calculations can reduce manual intervention while providing a consistent approach to calculating liabilities, right-of-use assets, depreciation and interest.

The solution demonstrated during the webinar also uses daily interest calculations, providing a more granular approach than some spreadsheet-based models.

Visibility and auditability matter

Being able to produce a numbers and financial reports is only part of the challenge. Finance teams also need to understand where that number came from.

The demo of our lease accounting solution showed how users can drill from aggregated results into individual lease calculations and underlying payment schedules. An audit view also provides visibility of changes made to a lease over time, helping users understand what has changed and why.

This level of transparency is particularly valuable when validating calculations or responding to audit queries.

Lease accounting needs to accommodate change

Leases rarely remain static throughout their entire lifecycle. Extensions, changes to payments, rebates, impairments and other modifications can all affect the accounting treatment.

A controlled process for recording revisions (including the reason for a change) helps maintain an accurate history of the lease and its associated calculations.

It is also important to support different accounting standards, particularly where organisations need to manage both IFRS 16 and ASC 842. Although the initial calculations may be similar, subsequent treatments can differ.

Bringing lease accounting into the wider Finance environment

Lease accounting does not need to sit in isolation from the rest of your finance processes. Your lease disclosure process can sit alongside your organisation's existing OneStream environment, using relevant entity structures, meta data and information already maintained within the platform. This helps to support downstream processes, including providing journal information for posting into an ERP or consolidation model.

Ultimately, effective lease disclosure management is about more than compliance. It is about creating a controlled, transparent and sustainable process that Finance teams can manage as their lease portfolios evolve.

Next steps

Want to see the solution in action? Watch the webinar recording below or arrange a one-to-one demonstration of our lease disclosure management solution for OneStream.

If you would like to book a personalised demo session for our lease accounting solution, contact us using the form below: