15 Critical Success Factors for Your Equipment Leasing Program

Leasing enables better use of cash flow and offers more budget flexibility.

Additionally, leasing can provide a competitive advantage through faster refresh of technology.

Arming your employees with the latest IT, material handling or manufacturing technologies can provide a productivity boost.

But equipment leasing programs are inherently challenging to manage.

Companies lease a wide range of equipment from the photocopiers and furniture at headquarters to the servers and networking gear in your data center.

The assets are used by a wide variety of business units from logistics and operations to facilities and corporate IT.

The highly decentralized nature of equipment leasing programs leads to decisions and negotiations being managed by hundreds if not thousands of people around the world.

Some types of equipment such as corporate cars, rail cars and executive jets are highly mobile, which creates challenges with tracking the assets for insurance, tax or end-of-term notification purposes.

Other types of equipment such as laptops and automobiles are easily lost, damaged or stolen, leading to mid-term partial buyout scenarios.

With the introduction of the new lease accounting standards there is now significant compliance risk associated with managing your equipment leasing program as well.

Lease assets and liabilities will each soon have their own dedicated line on the balance sheet.

The result will be a lot more scrutiny and questions about leasing programs from external auditors, board members and company shareholders.