To be completely as to the point as possible… When it comes to setting up leases for ASC 842 reporting purposes and using Dynamics GP, there are 3 viable options.
Binary Stream’s Property Management
Option 1.) Look into the Property Management tool provided by Binary Stream software. As of this writing (June 2020), Property Management is the only ISV that sits inside Dynamics GP that will provide some-level of ASC 842 lease setup and reporting.
Pros / Cons to Binary Stream's Property Management
Pros
- Available Directly Inside GP
- No Additional Software / Hardware Requirements
- Tight Integration with Dynamics GP
Cons
- On-Prem (like GP)
- Doesn't stack up feature by feature with other lease accounting products
Recommendation from a Lease Accounting Standpoint
If your lease administrators already live in GP, your requirements are simple AND you’re GP environment is nimble, consider this route. It’s not the best solution under the sun for lease accounting but it’s the only viable option available directly inside of GP.
Keep in mind your available GP licenses & the fact that this solution (like most other GP solutions) will be priced on number of GP users and will be a perpetual license. 👍
3rd Party Solutions (ISVs)
Option 2.) Look into the ~dozen or so lease accounting solutions in the marketplace that integrate with Dynamics GP.
One of the beauties of Dynamics GP is that it can literally integrate ANYTHING (web API, flat file, SQL database, etc.). With that, you can purchase an off-the-shelf solution that does nothing but Lease Accounting & likely suit your team well.
Pros / Cons to a 3rd Party Solution
Pros
- Many solutions available
- Solutions offer more features & focus on lease accounting
- Can still integrate with GP
- More nimble to accommodate future lease accounting changes
- Different pricing models available
Cons
- Must develop an integration with GP
- Additional software to maintain
Recommendation from a Lease Accounting Standpoint
If your lease accounting requirements are more involved, you don’t have extra licenses floating around, and/or you don’t mind managing an extra integration and system to reconcile @ month-end, take a look at 3rd party solutions for your lease accounting needs.
Excel & Other Free Tools
Option 3.) Both solutions mentioned above require an additional investment 💰 into or around GP. I would not expect Microsoft to release any sort of additional functionality to assist companies with ASC 842 reporting. Within GP, you have things like ‘Schedule Payments’ & ‘Expense Referrals’ that might be able to assist but you’ll likely be best off just using good ol’ fashioned Microsoft Excel.
One free tool that’s available is Lease Guru (provided by Lease Query). This product will allow you to setup & report on up to 9 leases for free. Speculating but anything past 9 will likely require you to upgrade to the full Lease Query product @ which point, certainly evaluate all available solutions and ensure that’s the product that best fits you.
Did we miss anything or do you have experience handling lease accounting in Microsoft Dynamics GP? Let us know in the comments below.
