ASC 842 Lease Accounting Software for Life After Adoption.
Every renewal, rent increase, early exit and back-dated correction flows through your schedules, journal entries and disclosures. Black Owl, built by CPAs, keeps all three current and audit-ready. Live in weeks, not quarters.
Bring your hardest lease. We’ll run it live.
Lease Types (ASC 842)
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Operating
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Finance
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Short-Term
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Non-Lease Contracts
Lease Types (ASC 842)
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Sales-Type
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Direct Financing
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Operating
Lease Types Supported Under ASC 842
Lease Entry in Minutes.
- Black Owl's lease entry features a user-friendly interface and intuitive navigation. Input and manage lease data in minutes.
The Hard Part of ASC 842 Starts After Commencement.
Most lease accounting software gets the first calculation right. The problems start in period 12, period 24 and period 60, when the lease changes and the software has to decide what to do with the history.
Lease modification
What ASC 842 requires: Determine whether it is a separate contract (ASC 842-10-25-8). If not, remeasure the liability at the modification date using an updated discount rate, adjust the ROU asset and reassess classification.
Where manual processes break: Rebuilding the amortization schedule from the modification date while keeping prior periods intact.
Partial termination
Change in lease term
Index-based payments
Impairment
Back-dated corrections
Black Owl handles each of these inside the software. A change creates a new version of the lease, the engine computes only what changed, and incremental journal entries reconcile to the prior state. Earlier versions stay intact, so an auditor can see the lease exactly as it stood on any date.
ASC 842 Disclosures, Ready at Period-End.
Spreadsheets tend to creep back in at disclosure time, because the numbers have to tie across the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. Black Owl produces disclosures from the same records that drive the journal entries, so they reconcile by design.
Disclosure Reporting
- Asset Continuity
- Liability Maturity Analysis
- Expense Income
- Cash Flows
- Weighted Average (ASC 842 Only)
- Receivable Maturity Analysis
Management Reporting
- Account Balance by Lease
- Vendor Reconciliation
- Liability Continuity
- Cash Flow
- Maturity Analysis
- Roll Forward by Companies
Lease Administration
- Custom Attributes
- Customizable Reports
- Notifications and Reminders
Disclosure Reporting
- Asset Continuity
- Liability Maturity Analysis
- Expense Income
- Cash Flows
- Weighted Average (ASC 842 Only)
- Receivable Maturity Analysis
Management Reporting
- Account Balance by Lease
- Vendor Reconciliation
- Liability Continuity
- Cash Flow
- Maturity Analysis
- Roll Forward by Companies
Lease Administration
- Custom Attributes
- Customizable Reports
- Notifications and Reminders
Multi-Entity, Multi-Currency, Dual-Standard Reporting.
Groups rarely report under one standard in one currency. Black Owl supports unlimited legal entities and users with no per-seat pricing, and each entity carries its own reporting standard, chart of accounts and booking method.
- Dual reporting: run ASC 842 alongside IFRS 16 or ASPE 3065 from one set of lease data.
- Three currencies on every lease: lease, functional and presentation, kept distinct through every calculation.
- Foreign exchange: daily rate imports, remeasurement of the liability and cumulative translation adjustment.
- Group reporting: consolidated reporting across entities, with shared cost objects.
Discount Rates Handled the Way Auditors Expect.
The discount rate drives the size of every lease liability, and it is one of the first things auditors test. Black Owl stores the rate used for every lease and every remeasurement, so the support for each number is in one place.
- Uses the rate implicit in the lease when it’s readily determinable, and falls back to the incremental borrowing rate when it isn’t.
- Sets the incremental borrowing rate by term and currency at commencement, and updates it whenever a remeasurement requires a new rate.
- Supports the private company risk-free rate election under ASU 2021-09, applied by class of underlying asset rather than entity-wide.
- Keeps the basis and effective date of every rate by lease version, so an auditor can trace any liability back to its rate.
Rate history · Warehouse 12 Illustrative
| Version | Effective | Basis | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commencement | 2024-01-01 | IBR, 10 yr, USD | 5.25% |
| Modification | 2025-07-01 | IBR, 8 yr, USD | 6.10% |
| Term reassessment | 2026-04-01 | IBR, 12 yr, USD | 5.80% |
Every remeasurement keeps the rate and its support.
Journal Entries Without the Month-End Batch Run.
Many lease systems calculate journal entries in a month-end batch, so the entries only exist after the run completes. Black Owl calculates and stores the full set of entries with the lease record, from commencement through the final period. Entries for any past or future period are available immediately, whether you’re closing this month, forecasting next year or answering an auditor’s question about period 18.
- Keeps terms, payments, changes and FX in a versioned lease record.
- Maps entries for every period to your chart of accounts by entity, cost center, project or any other coding your ERP requires.
- Re-runs for a stated as-of date without creating duplicates.
- Posts to your ERP by file upload, SFTP or API, summarized or detailed, including SAP, Oracle, Workday, Microsoft Dynamics, JD Edwards, Sage and QuickBooks.
- Daily foreign exchange rates are automatically imported from any selected financial institution, facilitating automatic currency conversions for functional and reporting purposes.
- This functionality further includes the calculation of month-end journal entries and the Cumulative Translation Adjustments (CTA).
Lessee, Lessor and Sublease Under ASC 842.
Many products started as lessee tools and added lessor functionality later, if at all. Black Owl was built for both from the start, so a head lease and its sublease live in the same system and stay linked.
Lessees get operating, finance, short-term and non-lease treatment. Lessors get sales-type, direct financing and operating accounting. Every lease type flows through the same schedules, journal entries and disclosures.
Built for Audit and Internal Controls.
For public companies and those preparing for an audit, lease accounting is a controls question as much as a calculation one. Black Owl is designed so the evidence exists without anyone assembling it.
- Full Revision History: every change is versioned with who made it, when and why, so a lease is traceable from commencement to today.
- As-Of Results: regenerate any schedule, entry or disclosure as it stood on a past date.
- Segregation of Duties: role-based access and approval workflows keep preparers and approvers separate.
- Auditor Access: read-only access for your auditors instead of exported schedules.
- SOC 1 and SOC 2: SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 reports, single-tenant AWS hosting and single sign-on.
How Black Owl Compares.
| Spreadsheets | First-generation tools | Enterprise suites | Black Owl | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modifications and partial terminations | Rebuilt by hand | Typically recalculated in a separate workbook | Supported, typically through configuration or services | Remeasured automatically, prior periods kept intact |
| Lessee, lessor and sublease | Separate workbooks | Lessee-first, lessor limited or added later | Separate modules | All three in one system, head lease and sublease linked |
| Journal entries for any period | Built manually each period | Available after the month-end batch run | Available after the batch run | Available immediately for any past or future period |
| Disclosures | Rebuilt each quarter | Standard reports, typically finished in Excel | Configurable reports, custom work extra | Generated from the same records as the journal entries |
| Implementation | No setup, ongoing manual effort | Weeks to months of data loading | Months, typically led by consultants | 2 to 8 weeks, run by accountants |
| Pricing model | Staff time | Typically per user or per lease | License plus implementation fees | Unlimited users and entities, no per-seat pricing |
| Independent assurance | None | Varies | Typically SOC reports | SOC 1 & SOC 2 Type 2 |
Who Uses Black Owl
for ASC 842
- CFOs and controllers who want a predictable close.
- Lease accountants who spend too much time rebuilding schedules after every change.
- CPA and advisory firms managing ASC 842 for multiple clients, each with its own entities and standards.
- Lessors and equipment finance companies that need sales-type and direct financing lessor accounting.
- Multi-entity groups and private equity portfolios consolidating leases across companies, currencies and ERPs.
Frequently Asked Questions.
Answers to the questions finance teams ask most when choosing ASC 842 lease accounting software.
What is ASC 842 lease accounting software?
ASC 842 lease accounting software stores your lease contracts and calculates the lease liability, right-of-use asset, amortization, interest and lease cost required under ASC 842. It generates the journal entries and disclosures, and it keeps them current as leases change through modifications, renewals, terminations and remeasurements.
How does ASC 842 differ from ASC 840?
Under ASC 840, operating leases stayed off the balance sheet. ASC 842 requires lessees to recognize a right-of-use asset and lease liability for virtually all leases longer than 12 months, while keeping the operating and finance classification for the income statement. It also changed lessor accounting, the definition of a lease and the disclosure requirements.
When did ASC 842 become effective?
ASC 842 took effect for public business entities for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and for private companies and most other entities for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2021.
How does software account for a lease modification under ASC 842?
The software first determines whether the modification is a separate contract. If it is not, it remeasures the lease liability at the modification date using an updated discount rate, adjusts the right-of-use asset, reassesses classification and generates the incremental journal entries. Black Owl does this automatically and keeps the pre-modification history intact.
Can private companies use the risk-free rate?
Yes. Private companies may elect to use a risk-free rate for the term of the lease instead of an incremental borrowing rate, and under ASU 2021-09 the election can be made by class of underlying asset. Black Owl supports rates set by lease, by asset class or by entity.
Does Black Owl support lessor and sublease accounting under ASC 842?
Yes. Black Owl supports sales-type, direct financing and operating leases for lessors, and links subleases to their head leases so intermediate lessors can manage both sides in one system.
Can we switch ASC 842 software in the middle of the year?
Yes. We load your portfolio with carrying values at the cut-over date, validate against your current results and go live without waiting for year-end.
How long does implementation take?
Most implementations take 2 to 8 weeks depending on portfolio size and data quality. Smaller portfolios are often live in two to three weeks.
Which ERP systems does Black Owl integrate with?
Black Owl posts journal entries to any ERP, including SAP, Oracle, Workday, Microsoft Dynamics, JD Edwards, Sage and QuickBooks, by file upload, SFTP or API, mapped to your chart of accounts.
Does Black Owl support IFRS 16 as well as ASC 842?
Yes. Black Owl supports ASC 842, IFRS 16 and ASPE 3065 and can produce parallel entries for two standards from the same lease record.
Is Black Owl SOC certified?
Yes. Black Owl holds SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 reports, and each customer runs in a single-tenant environment on AWS.
Bring Us Your Hardest Lease.
Every vendor can process a clean new lease. Send us the one that keeps you in Excel: the partial termination, the back-dated rent change, the sublease that doesn’t tie. We will run it live in Black Owl on your data.
