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IFRS16 (Lease accounting)

Lease accounting without the spreadsheets.

IFRS 16 changed how leases appear on your balance sheet. Right-of-use assets, lease liabilities, depreciation, interest — all of it needs calculating, journaling, and disclosing. Every quarter. If your team is doing this manually, they're spending time on compliance mechanics that a system should handle.

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What is IFRS 16?

The standard that put leases on the balance sheet

IFRS 16 put leases on the balance sheet. Every office, vehicle, machinery and equipment contract now requires a right-of-use asset, a lease liability, and ongoing calculations for depreciation and interest. For companies with hundreds of contracts across multiple entities, doing this in spreadsheets is a real burden.

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Right-of-use assets

Recognised on the balance sheet for virtually every lease, with depreciation calculated over the lease term

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Lease liabilities

Present value of future lease payments, calculated over the lease term with interest expense each period

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Journal entries

Depreciation, interest, and payment entries generated automatically — compliant and audit-ready

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Disclosures

The notes your auditor expects — maturity analysis, expense breakdowns, and reconciliation of carrying amounts

The problem

Compliance you can't ignore. Complexity you shouldn't manage by hand.

IFRS 16 is one of those requirements that every affected company must comply with, but nobody looks forward to. The accounting logic isn't simple — modifications, reassessments, variable payments, different lease types — and keeping it all consistent across entities and periods in a spreadsheet is fragile.

Most teams we talk to are either doing it manually and finding it painful, or they've implemented a point solution that doesn't connect to their consolidation. Either way, the lease numbers arrive in the consolidated statements via a manual handoff that introduces risk.

The better approach: lease accounting that runs on the same platform as your consolidation, with calculations automated and journal entries flowing directly into the general ledger.

Automated calculations

Depreciation, interest, and liability balances computed by the system — not by formula

Contract-level detail

Every lease modelled individually — real estate, vehicles, machines, other equipment — with full contract data

GL integration

Journal entries flow directly into your general ledger and consolidation — no manual re-keying

Built-in disclosures

IFRS 16 disclosure requirements produced from the same data — no separate report assembly

Audit-ready workflows

Full traceability from contract to journal — every calculation documented and accessible

Modifications handled

Lease changes, reassessments, and variable payments recalculated automatically

What we deliver

Accounting expertise meets system design

We don't just configure the software. We understand the accounting standard — and we configure a solution that handles the complexity your specific lease portfolio requires.

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Lease data model design

We map your lease portfolio — contract types, payment structures, renewal options, variable components — and design a data model that captures everything the standard requires. The foundation everything else builds on.

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Transition projects

Moving from spreadsheets or a standalone tool to an integrated platform. We migrate your existing lease data, validate the transition calculations, and ensure your opening balances reconcile — without disrupting your reporting cycle.

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Ongoing calculations

Every period: depreciation, interest expense, lease liability movements, and payment processing — all automated. When a lease is modified or reassessed, the system recalculates from the modification date forward.

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Compliant journal entries

Journal entries generated automatically and mapped to your chart of accounts. They post directly to your GL — and if you're consolidating on the same platform, they flow straight into the consolidated statements.

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Disclosure reporting

The notes your auditor will ask for: maturity analysis of lease liabilities, expense breakdowns by category, reconciliation of carrying amounts, and any other IFRS 16 disclosure requirement — generated directly from the lease data.

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Audit support

Complete drill-down from any reported figure to the underlying lease contract and calculation. When the auditor asks how a number was derived, the answer is a click — not a manual trace through a spreadsheet.

Platform fit

We help you choose the right tool for your lease portfolio

Tagetik and Oracle have dedicated IFRS 16 modules. OneStream handles it through custom workflows. We work across all three and recommend the approach that fits your lease portfolio. If you're already on one of these platforms, we extend what you have.

Who this is for

Different roles, different wins

IFRS 16 touches accounting, reporting, and audit. Here's what changes for each.

For the Group Accounting Manager

Get lease numbers you can trust

No more checking spreadsheet formulas before every close. The system calculates, you review. Lease journal entries flow into consolidation automatically — one less manual handoff to worry about.

For the CFO

Balance sheet impact under control

IFRS 16 put material numbers on your balance sheet. You need confidence that those numbers are calculated correctly, disclosed properly, and won't surprise you at year-end. A proper system gives you that.

For the Auditor

Calculations that trace back to contracts

Every right-of-use asset, every liability balance, every journal entry traces back to a specific lease contract with documented terms. The calculation logic is in the system, not in someone's spreadsheet.

Connected services

Lease numbers don't live in isolation

IFRS 16 connects directly to your consolidation, your published reports, and your ongoing support. Here's where the data flows.

Where lease numbers land

Financial Consolidation & Close

IFRS 16 journal entries flow directly into your consolidated financial statements. Running both on the same platform eliminates the manual handoff between lease accounting and group reporting.

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Publish the disclosures

Disclosure Management

IFRS 16 requires specific notes and disclosures. Disclosure management links those directly to the lease data — so your published notes always match the calculations.

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Ongoing support

Managed Services & Support

New leases, modifications, renewals, terminations — your portfolio changes constantly. We support you through each close cycle as your contracts evolve.

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FAQ

Questions about lease accounting

The most common questions from both existing clients and companies looking for solutions to support their lease accounting

It depends. Do you have 30 or 2000 leases? Should the lease accounting tool be configured for the group only or for every individual entity? Implementing our software typically takes everything from a few weeks to a few months. A projects always starts with an assessment of your situation and the complexity of your leases.

Leases have beginnings and ends. Leases have options and conditions that may change. For each contract you find the lease terms and the right discount rate. All this before you can  calculate the present value. Then repeat this for every contract. 

Centralizing lease management is a move forward. With a modern solution you can actively monitor and alter IFRS 16 contracts across entities and jurisdictions. The moment you have more than 20 contracts, you should consider something else than spreadsheets to handle your lease accounting.

We know finance people love their spreadsheets, and quite often rightly so. However, contract management and lease accounting demand solutions more fit for purpose. Index adjustments, changes in the length and scope of contracts, termination and expirations, all with dependency on key personnel. These are just some of the shortcomings of spreadsheets as compared to more robust and scalable solutions. 

Absolutely, as long as you have the people that can be part of the project and learning the solution. Addition of contracts, updated indexes, length of contracts and other required changes will be managed by your team.

Get started

Ready to talk?

30–45 minutes, digital or on-site — no commitment. Tell us what’s keeping your finance team up at night and we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help.

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We are based in Oslo, but projects can be delivered remote or onsite at your place.