Lease Accounting

Project Manager

Job Description

Position Overview

The Project Manager is a new role created to lead the implementation of FASB’s new lease accounting standards across ACME Inc’s<Your Company Name>business. The 12-to-18-month project will need to be completed in advance of December 31st, 2018 <insert your deadline> to ensure ACME <Your Company Name> complies with SEC deadlines.

ACME <Your Company Name> currently has $100M <insert your number> of capital leases and $300M <insert your number> of operating lease obligations, which consist of real estate, manufacturing equipment, shipping containers, office furniture, data center technology and various types of vehicles <insert your list of lease asset types>.

Key Responsibilities

  • Define the implementation plan for the 12-to-18 month project, outlining key milestones and tasks for the planning, assessment, implementation and transition phases.
  • Manage the cross-functional team of stakeholders in the technical accounting, financial reporting, procurement, real estate, IT, corporate tax and treasury organizations. As necessary, on-board new team members during the lifecycle of the project, enabling them to quickly come up to speed on their roles and responsibilities.
  • Maintain a list of project risks and mitigations that might impact the scope, timeline or budget for the Lease Accounting project. Ensure key milestones such as selecting software vendors; choosing practical expedients and preparing for comparative reporting are achieved. Provide monthly project status reports to the senior leadership team.
  • Partner with the IT team during the process to define requirements. Issue an RFP and select a vendor for lease accounting software. Work closely with an outside consulting firm to ensure the success of the installation, configuration, testing and deployment of the software.
  • Supervise team of contract analysts responsible for collecting the necessary data from leases from internal functions (e.g. accounts payable, real estate and IT) and external organizations (e.g. lessors, brokers and outsourcing providers). Manage the process to verify completeness of the data, locate missing data, validate the accuracy of the data, and reconcile inconsistencies between systems.
  • Collaborate with leaders from the technical accounting and financial reporting teams during the accounting transition period. Ensure that the effort to apply the new accounting standards to each lease remains in scope and on schedule to meet implementation and comparative reporting deadlines.
  • Coordinate the rollout and transition to the new standards across the organization. Schedule end-user training sessions for lease accounting software. Define communications delivery strategies for new policies and controls.

Key Skills

  • Project Management skills, with emphasis on on-time deliverables management.
  • Strong meeting facilitation skills to manage conference calls and in-person meetings with numerous stakeholders.
  • Strong verbal and written communication skills. Ability to translate concepts, as necessary, between accountants and non-financial stakeholders.
  • International business experience - Sensitivity to regional communication styles

Qualifications

  • BS or Masters/MBA in Finance or Accounting
  • 5+ Years of Experience in Project Management
  • Experience with Corporate Real Estate or Equipment Leasing is a plus
  • CPA is a plus
  • PmP is a plus

Company Description

Insert your company description here.