Configuration Data

This section defines the Configuration data required to establish your LeaseAccelerator environment. The tabs are found on the LeaseAccelerator Client Information Workbook (CIW).

Download a PDF version of the Client Implementation guide.

Special Considerations:

• There are 5 tabs that are considered Core. These 5 tabs MUST initially be populated. The 5 tabs are:

  • Companies

  • Addresses

  • People

  • Geo

  • Reporting Area.

• Once the import has been completed, any non-required field can only be added via the UI.

• Several fields on the Configuration tabs contain drop-down boxes to select valid values for these fields. LeaseAccelerator (LA) will reject the imported data file if the values entered are not in the drop-down. Please consult your LAS Implementation Project Manager, or Client Success Manager, if additional values pertain to your organization.

• An import is failed when you receive RED errors. These must be fixed to continue the import process. YELLOW errors will not stop the import; however, these must be reviewed to ensure there are no issues downstream.

Companies Tab

The Companies tab defines those companies that are a part of your leasing program. Each company, however, may perform a different role or function. Examples include:

• Lessees – the legal party to the agreement leasing the equipment or renting the real estate

• Funders – also referred to as lessors: they provide the cash to finance the equipment purchase through a lease agreement

• Entity: Organization you consider to be the Lessee (may be different than actual Lessee). An Entity must have a functional currency selected. Entity is the out-of-the-box company role that Functional Currency is tied to. It is possible to use Lessee with a request to Support.

• Business Units (BU) – an internal reporting group

• Vendors – various other parties such as the equipment manufacturer or supplier, an assignee, or an organization to whom you pay an initial direct cost to or receive a lease incentive from

It is required that data be input into tabs in a top-down manner by order of generality. In other words, if a company is listed as a Parent, it should appear in the tab above, according to the hierarchy.

Note: State/Province entry field is only allowed for the following Countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and the US. For the US, please use the standard 2-character abbreviation. Click here to view the list of acceptable provinces.

You will see that the worksheet asks for an address for each of these companies. We know that companies have many locations, therefore this address should be the primary mailing location.

The Functional Currency field should be populated for any Entity. You may only have one Functional Currency for a single Entity.

Tips:

• In Column I, Country, the US is the first listed Country in the drop-down. Entering anything other than the US will cause an error.

• If you enter address information on the Companies tab, the minimum required fields for system import are City and Country.

• If one of your Company Role Types (Lessee, Entity, BU, etc.) is a part of your General Ledger String, therefore one of the segments, then an associated Ledger Code in column N is required for accurate reporting. You only need to populate this field for those participants that are part of your GL String. A Company may only have one Ledger Code associated with it, so if it listed multiple times because of multiple Company Role Types, ensure it has the same Ledger Code each time.

• While Addresses and Contact information are not required fields for system import, we do recommend that you provide this detail, particularly for your Funders and Vendors, as this will allow you to easily access this information as needed for communication with Funders and Vendors regarding your leases with them.

• A Company can only have one parent and it must be the same for every mention or line item that is used for that Company.

• A Company can also only have one address listed so if that company is listed more than once with different role types, ensure that the address used (if any) is identical each time the company is listed.

Addresses Tab

Addresses are specific workplaces in your organization where employees work and/or equipment may be physically located or shipped to. This would also include the physical location of any leased Real Estate. They are typically associated with a Lessee, Entity, or Business Unit. (There may be a 1: n relationship because companies may have multiple teams “sitting” at a single location.) Please see notes above regarding specific validation reminders pertaining to the address fields.

Please note that if clients want to utilize the Facility Code field on the PIW, they must ensure that an associated Facility Code is entered on this tab when importing the ShipTo addresses. If each address has an associated Facility Code, those Facility Codes may be used on the PIW in lieu of the ShipTo Address fields.

People Tab

Many people participate in your leasing program and have different roles. These people may or may not be users of the system.  LeaseAccelerator captures these people so that they can receive notifications or other information important to their function.  Examples of the roles that people may play and therefore need to be configured in the system are:

• Asset Owners – employees who have fiduciary responsibility for the maintenance and use of the assets. These employees are typically management level and are financially responsible for the equipment.

• Asset Users – employees who have custodial responsibility for the leased assets. These employees may be management or staff level. These employees’ work locations are typically at the equipment’s physical location or in the same area.

• Order Administrators – employees who have “procurement” responsibility for the leased assets, shepherding the administrative process in your organization to finance the acquisition of equipment and securing its delivery to the asset user.

• Analysts – employees responsible for generating the Lease vs. Buy.

• Treasury Approvers – employees typically responsible for approving the lease transaction and may be the responsible party signing the lease documents. These employees are typically management or executive level and are an escalation step for notifications regarding End-of-Term.

• Sourcing contacts – employees responsible for initiating and creating an RFP, reviewing the Proposals and awarding to a Funder/Lessor.

• Accounting Analysts – staff accountant typically responsible for compiling and verifying accounting data associated with a lease, recording journal entries, analyzing monthly results and preparing reconciliations.

• Accounting Approvers – supervisors or managers typically responsible for reviewing and approving accounting data associated with a lease and approving results.

Note: that a person may be listed multiple times if their role types are different, but the company and address information for that person must be identical. Do not list a person multiple times with the same role type and different companies. This tab is used to create a record for that person and as such they can only have one Company associated with them, along with one address.

* User Ids are automatically created using the email address listed for the person listed on each row in the CIW.

Note: The system creates the User Id equal to the values before the ‘@’ in the email address.  These values must be unique. Therefore, if a company is using generic mailboxes distribution lists that have a different email suffix or people, with the same name, but different company email suffix; the automated User Id creation process will fail.

         Correct                                 Incorrect

Geo Tab

Geo is the country that determines the accounting and tax rules that apply to a lease. This is typically the same country as the physical location of the equipment or real estate. However, when various participants and assets are in different countries, this field may not be obvious.

Data is collected using the Geo tab. However, to import the data, please use the Companies tab input where:

• Company Role Type = Geo

• Company Name = Geo Name

• Ledger Code = Ledger Code

Note: Geos cannot have a parent/child relationship within the Geo Role Type; however, Geos can roll up to Reporting Areas. In this case, The Reporting Areas should be listed above the Geos on the Companies tab.

Reporting Area Tab

Reporting Area is used for internal management reporting to group various other organizational divisions together. Originally designed to group geographical locations or regions together, it may be used for other purposes such as lines of business. Reporting Areas may have a hierarchical relationship where one Reporting Area rolls into another. It is suggested that data be input into tabs in a top-down manner by order of generality. In other words, the higher the Reporting Area is in the hierarchy, the earlier it should be entered into the import table. Each Reporting Area used as a rollup must also have a unique row on the table with the Reporting Area Rollup Field blank.

Example: You have 4 countries (US, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil), a hierarchy that groups the countries US with Canada in the North America Area and Argentina with Brazil in the South America Area, and a grand total grouping North and South America in the Americas Area. The following rows would be required on the Companies tab:

Data is collected using the attached Reporting Area tab.  However, to import the data, please use the Companies tab input where:

• Company Role Type = Reporting Area

• Company Name = Reporting Area Name

• Parent Company Name = Reporting Area Rollup

• Ledger Code = Ledger Code

Cost Centers Tab

Cost Centers (CC) are departments within your organization which typically have a budget. Employees, Revenue, Expenses, Assets, Liabilities, and other financial information is recorded in the CC in the General Ledger.

Note: Cost Centers are required when entering a lease. If your organization does not use Cost Centers, then a default of TBD should be used. This Cost Center is automatically created when a new environment is created.

Foreign Exchange Rates Tab

FX (or Currency Translation Factors) are published indices used to convert financial data from one currency to another. These factors are critical to accounting, reporting, and marketplace functions so that accurate comparisons can be made between Geos (countries). 

Foreign Currency Reporting: This feature enables the ability to report accounting information using either the local transaction, functional or reporting currency. This feature is available to all clients with accounting but requires client configuration actions.

There are three potential currencies involved in the accounting flow:

• Contract (Local) Currency:  This is the currency that a contract is denominated in.

• Functional Currency:  This is the currency for which a business entity creates its accounting records. 

• Reporting Currency:  This is the currency that a parent company reports its financial statements in.

There are two processes typically involved in converting transactions or balances from one currency to another:

• Remeasurement: The process of converting a transaction from its local currency to its functional currency. This calculation is done at the transaction level, meaning it is a recalculation that must be done for each individual journal entry. This activity results in a Gain/Loss on Currency Translation, which is part of Net Income.

• Translation: The process used for converting the functional currency financial statements of an entity into the reporting currency used by the parent company.  This is required to consolidate the financial statements of entities with different functional currencies into a single currency. This activity results in an adjustment to equity which is called Other Comprehensive Income (OIC).

Each of these processes uses the Current Fx Exchange rate (or Current Rate); however, the applicable Current Rate differs, based on the type of a conversion (remeasurement or translation) and the type of account (Balance Sheet or Income Statement).

The lease accounting standard is consistent with the above. ASC842 20-55-10 states that the right of use asset is a non-monetary asset while the lease liability is a monetary liability.  Therefore, in accordance with Subtopic 830-10 on foreign currency matters, when accounting for a lease that is denominated in a foreign currency, if remeasurement into the lessee’s functional currency is required, the lease liability is REMEASURED using the current exchange rate (Monetary=spot rate at fiscal month end) while the right of use asset is remeasured using the exchange rate as of the commencement date (Non-Monetary=spot rate at original transaction date).

For the income statement, calculating the weighted average rate may not be practical or may not result in a material difference as compared to using the spot rate at the balance sheet date. Therefore, clients often set an internal practice defining the average rate. This practice impacts a client’s financial statements in all line items, so LeaseAccelerator must be able to mirror those practices for the functional remeasurement and reporting currency translation.

Based on discussions with many clients, we believe the most prevalent methods for calculating the average rate will be:

• Current Fiscal Month End Fx Rate

• Prior Fiscal Month End Fx Rate

• Simple Average Fx Rate 

• Weighted Avg Month End Fx Rate

LeaseAccelerator determines the Current Month Average Rate from existing client Fx data, EXCEPT, if the client chooses the Weighted Avg Month End Fx Rate method. This method requires information from the client.  LeaseAccelerator can’t calculate this value.

As part of the implementation, it is suggested that you import all historical currency translation factors that impact your leases throughout their lives. If a specific rate is not imported, journal entries before the first imported factor will not be reportable or included in amounts reported in functional or reporting currency.

You may update currency translation factors as often as you like using either the bulk import mechanism or the online settings feature. Since factors may change daily, we suggest that you determine the most appropriate frequency for updates with your Accounting and Finance teams.

LeaseAccelerator has two types of rates that can be imported: 1) Spot and 2) Weighted Average. The Weighted Average Month End rate is set through one of four calculations based on a configuration setting:

• Spot rate for the last day of the prior fiscal period.

• Spot rate for the last day of the current fiscal period.

• Spot rate for the last day of the prior fiscal period plus Spot rate for the last day of the current fiscal period divided by 2.

• Weighted Average rate for the last day of the fiscal period.

The Fx Rates are for both Balance Sheet and P&L. LeaseAccelerator does not translate from a non-USD to a non-USD rate. All conversions are based on USD to non-USD only. We do support non-USD to non-USD translation by using a 2-step process: 1^st non-USD to USD then USD to 2^nd non-USD rate.

Note: Some published exchange rates may need to be converted to the standard “From FX to USD” equivalent multiplier by using the inverse of the published index. Please consult with your internal Treasury teams to verify the values provided.

For more information on Foreign Currency Reporting features, please refer to the 17R2.1 Concept of Operations - Fx.

LeaseAccelerator Users Tab

This section identifies the employees who will be users of LeaseAccelerator (LA), the access level they will be granted, the role that they will perform, and the entities they will have access to.

Access level within LA determines the way an individual will use the system (i.e. the rights and privileges granted).

Roles (Can Act As) within LA is an identifier that is assigned for To-Do actions (workflow).

Scope of Access and Scope of Ledgers define the data that a user has visibility to. For example, this can be limited to certain Lessees, Business Units, and/or GEOs.

Notifications Tab

The Notifications tab in the CIW identifies the criteria for each notification configured to drive the automated email notifications on a portfolio level. By using the global notifications tab in Settings, a client can set up notifications to be sent out for every lease schedule entered into the system after configuration by default. If specific notifications are required per lease schedule, clients may override the global notifications by entering schedule notifications either using the PIW or in the UI in Deal Summary once a deal has been booked.

When configuring Notifications, clients may:

• Attach documents that exist within LeaseAccelerator to a notification

• Specify whether the attachment is sent on ONLY the first notification or ALL subsequent notifications

• Specify which User Roles will receive the attachment on the notification

Global Notifications are applicable to schedules after a notification has been configured. They will not apply to any existing leases in the system prior to the configuration of that notification. For more information on Notifications and Templates, please refer to the Product Feature Advisory for Global Notifications Settings.

Economic Life Tab

The Economic Life is a critical attribute for each Product Category. This tab defines the key configuration elements associated with each product category, so you will see that it is pre-populated with the list.

For each product category (or for those that your company anticipates leasing) you will need to insert the corresponding factor. The primary factor is the economic life, which is the value assigned to a product category that signifies the useful life of the leased equipment. This value is used in lease classification testing.

Note: LeaseAccelerator may sometimes refer to Product Category by Asset Class or Asset Type in various documents.

The process to update Economic Life in the UI is:

Depreciation Tab

The Depreciation configuration data defines the methodology and useful lives for each type of asset that you may lease.  Depreciation drives critical calculations in your lease versus buy analysis. Also, it sets the method to be used in determining the depreciation expense of your leased assets where an automatic transfer of ownership exists.

Note: Each country (Geo) that you do business in must have unique entries on the Depreciation table so that the calculations can be aligned appropriately with the tax rate information entered on the Tax Rate table.  It is inappropriate to select all countries when setting your Depreciation Methods. You should only indicate countries you have configured as Geos.

Lessee Rates Tab

Lessee Rates include 3 types of rates used for different purposes in LeaseAccelerator.

• The IBR represents the interest rate at which your company could borrow additional funds to purchase the leased equipment under the same terms and conditions. It is typically defined by your Treasury and Accounting teams. The IBR is critical in the Lease Classification Process and the detail accounting calculations for valuing the leased asset and associated lease liability in accordance with the standards.

• Debt Rate represents the rate at which you could borrow funds through a loan. It may or may not equate to the IBR (as defined by the accounting standard). LeaseAccelerator uses this rate in the lease versus buy analysis.

• Equity Rate represents the return on investment which could be earned by investing the funds. LeaseAccelerator uses this rate in the lease versus buy analysis.

  Note: Rates may be configured for any term but the CIW contains a Drop-down with the most common lease terms. If you have rates for terms not listed in the Drop-down, please let your Implementation Manager or Support know and they can facilitate the configuration. The UI will reflect any terms that a client requests to be configured to enable future maintenance of these terms. Also please note that it is NOT acceptable to put ALL in the Terms field in the CIW.  LeaseAccelerator does interpolate rates so if you do not want to provide rates for every possible term, the system will calculate the right term by using the next lowest and highest rate in the interpolation formula. For that reason, it is recommended to have at least a 1-month rate and a rate for the longest lease term in your portfolio.

LvB Settings Tab

The LvB Net Present Value Settings are used when performing a Lease vs. Buy Analysis. These settings are critical for performing a Lease vs. Buy Analysis. Please work with your Implementation Manager to configure these settings. Each Lessee should be listed on the tab with each of the seven items and the Rate Type that should be used in that calculation.

Salvage Value Tab

Salvage Value is associated with a Product Category. This information is required for the Lease vs. Buy Analysis. To properly configure the Salvage Value, LeaseAccelerator will need to know the associated Lessee, Geo, Term, Percentage, and Effective Date. Salvage Value is used in determining the Depreciable period for the Buy side of the Lease vs Buy. It has no bearing on the Lease side of the analysis. This tab is not importable, and is not needed unless you want default values in the Lease vs Buy Analysis to auto-populate.

Policy Thresholds Tab

The Policy Thresholds are used in the Lease Classification Engine as parameters for specific tests as outlined in the accounting standards. These thresholds are important in that they allow clients to define quantitative metrics to use where the accounting standards allow for judgment, but also require consistency in the actual application of the thresholds through the organization.

The key judgments in the Lease Classification Process are:

• What lease term constitutes the majority of the economic life? (ASC 840 prescribes 75%)

• What % of the PV of Lease Payments versus FMV constitutes substantially all of the Fair Market Value? (ASC840 prescribes 90%)

• What % of the PV of total cash stream of all payments including the Buyout Option defines when a Bargain exists. (ASC840) This is an economic metric to standardize the evaluation across any contract structure for the same type of asset. For example, a contract may have very low recurring payments but a higher balloon payment to Purchase the asset. Another contract may have high recurring payments with a very low buyout payment. Each may constitute a “bargain” to purchase the asset, but a common metric must be used to evaluate the overall economic incentive to buy the asset, not just the nominal buyout price. LeaseAccelerator measures this using the PV of the total payment stream.

• What % of the PV of total cash stream of all payments including the Buyout Option defines when it is reasonably certain that the Buyout or Purchase Option will be exercised. (ASC842)

Lessee Info Tab

The Lessee Info describes information about your company that will be included in your Marketplace RFPs and other key information required to calculate the lease versus buy (LvB) analysis. The Fiscal Year End and Fiscal Year Model data are critical for establishing your accounting functions and must be provided even if you are not using the Marketplace or LvB functionality. This data also facilitates the creation of the Fiscal Calendar in the UI.

Tax Rates Tab

The Lessee Tax Rate table provides detailed tax information for income tax rates at the federal and state level. These rates are important factors in accurately calculating your lease versus buy analyses. The system, however, is currently limited to using only one state rate per LvB request.

Lessee Financials Tab

The Lessee Financials tab provides information about your company that you may want to include in your Marketplace RFPs.  You may choose to input as many or as few of these attributes as you like. If you are a PureLease Marketplace client, it is best practice to provide at least three (3) years of financial information for each Lessee that will be releasing RFP’s as this provides proof of financial stability to the Global Lessor Network. 

Templates Tab

This tab identifies the types of End of Term Notifications to be received by asset owners and users based on criteria established by your company. The template includes the specific text of the email notification. These messages are standardized by template and will be automatically sent for all lease schedules.  For more information on Notifications and Templates, please refer to the Product Feature Advisory for Global Notifications Settings.

Approved Funders Tab

Approved Funders are the companies that your company specifically wishes to participate in the Sourcing process. If an Approved Funder list is provided, ONLY those companies will receive RFPs. Other unspecified Global Leasing Network (GLN) funders will not receive such requests.

Restricted Funders Tab

Restricted Funders are the companies that your company does not wish to receive RFP responses from. You may be disinclined to do business with these organizations due to company policy, practice, or other internal reasons. For example, a competitor of yours may have a subsidiary that provides funding to Lessees and you don’t want to provide them with additional revenue. Therefore, you would list them on this sheet as a Restricted Funder. You may only choose to configure Approved Funders OR Restricted Funders but not both. If Approved Funders are provided, RFP’s will ONLY go to those listed. If Restricted Funders are provided, then RFP’s will go to all Global Lessor Network Funders EXCEPT those listed.