LeaseAccelerator launched a new online training curriculum that will accelerate adoption of and compliance with the new ASC 842 and IFRS 16 standards. The new experiential learning platform will help users in quickly climb the learning curve required to master the systems that enable the new lease accounting standards.

Some of the biggest obstacles to achieving long-term compliance with the new lease accounting standards revolve around learning, knowledge sharing and diffusion. Historically, there has been little reason for lessees to maintain skills in lease management and accounting. But to comply with the new standards, Fortune 1000 companies will now need to build centers of excellence staffed with teams of leasing experts. With a small talent pool to draw upon in the market, companies will need to build the expertise in-house through a combination of training and development programs.

“Enabling the user community to rapidly gain proficiency in the technical expertise and systems needed for ASC 842 and IFRS 16 compliance will be a make-or-break issue for compliance on day two and beyond” said Michael Keeler, CEO of LeaseAccelerator. “That is why we are investing several million dollars in an advanced learning management system and an experienced team of instructional design professionals to build out our curriculum. Our objective is not just to help our customers but to advance our learning programs to be state-of-the-art for our industry.”

LeaseAccelerator’s training platform leverages experiential learning strategies and interactive media technologies. Animated personas guide users step-by-step through the training modules. Short-form video tutorials both show and tell how to perform common tasks in the application. Following each demonstration, participants get hands-on experience with each LeaseAccelerator application – Sourcing, Management and Accounting – through live simulations on the training platform. To reinforce key concepts, users are tested with multiple choice quizzes at regular intervals.

The online training curriculum provides beginner, intermediate and expert level instruction in:

• Lease Accounting – Booking, classification, modification, reassessment and end-of-term recordation of leases, as well as monthly close activities such as cutoff, reconciliation and general ledger export.
• Lease Management – Tracking of leases throughout the lifecycle, including updating rent, location and cost center, as well as mid-term and end-of-term buyouts, renewals and terminations.

“In the next six months, tens of thousands of accountants around the world need to become experts in the new standards and the systems enabling them” said Mark Koppersmith, vice president of customer experience at LeaseAccelerator “Traditional training approaches are not going to scale fast enough. Achieving mass adoption in the short time frame will require an experiential learning platform that enables users to quickly climb the learning curve. That is why we built it and initial feedback from customers and partners has been extremely positive – several have called it ‘a game changer’.”