Revenue, leases, and combinations
The Lease Ledger
Classify with the five criteria, measure the liability as the present value of payments, then build the ROU asset and roll it forward.
How the exam words it
- -The stem gives lease payments and a rate with a present-value factor and asks for the initial lease liability.
- -It lists a single fact, such as a transfer of ownership, and asks whether the lease is finance or operating.
- -It gives a lessor's cost and fair value and asks for the selling profit on a sales-type lease.
- -It gives a starting liability and asks for the year-one interest, principal, or ending balance, or how initial direct costs are treated.
The playbook
- 1Classify first: any one of the five criteria (ownership transfer, a purchase option reasonably certain, a major part of the life, substantially all of fair value, or a specialized asset) makes it a finance or sales-type lease.
- 2Measure the lease liability as the present value of the remaining payments at the implicit rate, or the incremental borrowing rate when the implicit rate is unknown.
- 3Build the ROU asset from the liability plus prepaid payments and initial direct costs, minus incentives, and add nothing to the liability for those costs.
- 4Roll the liability forward: interest equals the balance times the rate, and the payment less that interest reduces principal.
The trap
Adding initial direct costs to the lease liability instead of only to the ROU asset, or recognizing selling profit on a direct financing lease that should defer it.
How the exam varies it
The same pattern, re-skinned along these axes:
Lessee classification versus present-value measurementFinance versus operating versus lessor sales-type or direct financingInitial measurement versus the year-one amortization roll-forward
Drill this pattern
8 questions of The Lease Ledger from across the AUD topics. Clear it by getting 5 right with a streak of 3.