Lease Accounting RFP Checklist

A vendor demo shows you clean data on a well-behaved lease. This checklist is built to surface what happens on the edge cases — the modification, the multi-standard portfolio, the audit request — before you're locked into a contract.

Copy this into your own RFP, or bring it directly into a vendor call.

Compliance Standards Coverage

• Which standards are supported natively — ASC 842, IFRS 16, GASB 87/96 — versus "on the roadmap"?
• If we need more than one standard, are they calculated in true parallel on the same lease record, or does one get derived/converted from the other?
• Does the platform distinguish operating lease accounting from finance/capital lease accounting correctly under the current five-criteria classification test — or does it rely on manual classification?
• For GASB 87 specifically: does it also support GASB 96 for subscription-based IT arrangements, if that applies to us?

Calculation & Remeasurement

• When a lease is modified — a renewal exercised, a term extended, a payment changed — does the system automatically remeasure the liability and right-of-use asset?
• How does the platform handle index-linked or variable payments that require periodic remeasurement (more common under IFRS 16 than ASC 842)?
• Can we run financial reports for any custom date range, or only standard month/quarter-end?
• What happens to historical journal entries if a prior-period correction is needed?

Audit Trail & Disclosure Reporting

• What does the audit trail actually capture — timestamp, user, before/after values — for every change to a lease record?
• Are disclosure reports pre-built to match the specific footnote formats our auditors expect, or do we need to reformat the output ourselves?
• If we ever need outside lease audit services or a technical accounting review, can an external auditor get read-only access without a separate license?
• Is the implementation and support team staffed by accountants who've actually prepared these disclosures, or primarily by engineers?

ERP & GL Integration

• Does journal entry data post automatically to our GL, or require manual export/import?
• Which ERPs are natively supported (not "custom integration available")?
• If we run multiple entities on different ERPs, can the platform handle that without separate implementations?

Implementation & Support

• What's the realistic implementation timeline for our specific portfolio complexity — not the fastest case study on the website?
• Is there a dedicated implementation manager, and do they have accounting (not just software) expertise?
• What's the process for onboarding historical lease data — bulk import, manual entry, or an abstraction service?

Contract & Pricing

• Is pricing per-lease, flat/tiered subscription, or custom quote — and does that scale sensibly with our actual portfolio size?
• What's the contract length and early termination policy?
• If we need to add a new compliance standard later (e.g., expanding internationally and needing IFRS 16), is that an upgrade, or a separate contract?

You can compare 23 lease accounting platforms by compliance standards, ERP integrations, and G2 rating on our Lease Accounting category page — or read our full buying guide for a deeper breakdown by portfolio size.

Want a shortlist tailored to your exact portfolio instead of working through this alone? Visit our Get a Shortlist page — answer a few quick questions and we'll personally match you to 3-4 platforms.

This checklist reflects common evaluation criteria for lease accounting software. Not every question will apply to every organization — use what's relevant to your actual compliance requirements. This is not a substitute for advice from your auditor or accounting firm.