Case study
Accounting firm closes client’s books on time and lowers risk
A privately-held auto rental business of 4 employees with a portfolio of about 290 vehicle leases and additional operating leases approached the firm looking for help with their tax return, year-end close and adoption of ASC 842.
Situation
The Firm is a small, full-service tax, accounting and business consulting firm located in Indianapolis, Indiana, serving a wide variety of small and mid-sized organizations. One of their clients, a privately held auto rental business, approached the Firm late in the year looking for help with their lease accounting before year end.
The Firm’s client is a small business with four employees and a portfolio of about 290 vehicle leases and additional operating leases that are tracked separately using a depreciation solution.
The client came to the Firm for help with their tax return, year-end close and adoption of ASC 842. The client got a late start and were worried they wouldn’t be able to get their leases loaded before the year-end deadline. Additionally, the client didn’t have the internal resources or expertise to manage lease accounting and compliance, so they needed an accounting firm that could manage the process for them.
With the Firm’s lease accounting experience, they knew they wanted to avoid manual calculations, since those create errors and make the close process slower. The Firm knew this client would need a software solution to stay compliant with ASC 842 requirements.
“This compliance project would have taken forever without EZLease. The time savings was astronomical!"
Solution
The Firm evaluated several options in the marketplace and chose EZLease. They liked that the software delivered the compliance their client needed in a user-friendly and cost-effective way, including automated reporting and disclosures, and the ability to generate receivable balances. EZLease’s free trial made it easy to evaluate the software, so the Firm could test out the simple user interface and in-app help that guides users through adding and updating lease data.
To get started, the Firm spent a few weeks researching and validating lease data fields before loading the client’s leases into the solution. Although the client thought they had all their leases captured in a spreadsheet, the Firm discovered an additional 40 leases as part of their due diligence. The bulk import template made it easy to load and update leases, journal entries were easy to figure out, and the disclosures needed for year-end were very simple to generate. Now the Firm spends just a couple of hours each month managing the client’s ASC 842 lease accounting and close process.
Impact
With EZLease, the Firm was able to help their client get compliant well before the deadline. It takes the Firm less than a day to close their client’s lease accounting books with all the required journal entries, disclosures, and cash flow reports. This saves them several days of work each month. “This compliance project would have taken forever without EZLease. The time savings was astronomical!” said a Partner at the Firm.
After implementing EZLease, the Firm’s client has a complete and accurate view of their leases and ASC 842 lease accounting, making them confident they can stay compliant going forward.
