How to optimize your equipment leases while accomplishing lease accounting compliance

On-demand webinar summary 

Do you know if you are overpaying for your leases? Unfortunately, many businesses are, but are not aware of it until after they begin tracking their lease data to comply with the new lease accounting standards (ASC 842 and IFRS 16). This is often due to the lack of visibility into lease terms, such as expiration dates, options and more. 

In particular, businesses in the manufacturing industry often have a large volume (hundreds and thousands) of equipment leases that they lack visibility into. This lack of control often costs them a significant amount of money.  

In our recent webinar, How to optimize your equipment leases while accomplishing lease accounting compliance, Joe Fitzgerald, SVP of Lease Market Strategy at Visual Lease, and Jon Hunke, VP of Accounting and EIT at MDU Construction Services Group, shared why and how businesses should optimize their lease portfolios while accomplishing lease accounting.  

Some key takeaways from the webinar include: 

Lease optimization is the next logical step after lease accounting

Although lease accounting is an elaborate and complex process, when done right, it can also provide additional advantages beyond compliance. In fact, in a recent VLDI report, 100% of surveyed senior finance and accounting professionals acknowledged that lease accounting compliance comes with real business benefits.   

This is because once all your lease data is in an easily accessible, reliable location, you’ll be in a better position to analyze your leases and identify new opportunities for savings. This is where lease optimization comes into play.  

Lease optimization will help you make strategic leasing decisions

The process of lease optimization enables you to revisit existing leases and bridge gaps to make better informed business decisions, such as identifying an opportunity to purchase an existing lease rather than continuing to lease a particular asset or property. Optimizing your equipment leases also empowers your business to: 

• Level-set lease rates across your lease portfolio,
• Improve vendor management,
• And more (further defined further in the webinar).

Lease optimization leads to significant cost savings

Having visibility into your leases also enables you to identify areas where you may be overpaying for leases. Before businesses optimized their lease portfolio, many have found that they significantly overpaid for existing leases due to lack of awareness into the contract terms.  

In example, a large manufacturing company lost $105k because they did not realize that their lessor was continuing to bill expenses for surrendered property. 

For more insight about the steps you can take to optimize your lease portfolio, view our on-demand webinar, How to optimize your equipment leases while accomplishing lease accounting compliance.