The free virtual event took place September 23-24, attracting nearly 1,000 registrations from accountants and finance professionals around the world. Broadcast across two days, the event served up keynote presentations from Goldman Sachs, current and former members of the FASB, GASB and AICPA, and several other sessions from accounting and technology industry thought leaders.
What was dicussed?
Many of the summit’s discussions highlighted the impact of the global pandemic across businesses of all sectors, the major updates to accounting including the compliance deadline delays, and how technology is influencing lease accounting processes and experiences.
The #ATISummit emphasized that while we may not be out of the air of uncertainty just yet, organizations need to take the right steps to prepare for change, not just in lease accounting, but in how they do business overall. The summit focused on managing teams during a financial crisis, recent accounting changes and how to use technology to lessen the impact, and modernizing approaches to several specific lease accounting topics.
Memorable takeaways from the #ATISummit
Below, we’ve highlighted several impactful quotes from the #ATISummit. If you’re looking for more inspiration on how to navigate the changes in lease accounting, check out the Accounting Tech Summit Innovation recap page. Here, you will find recordings of all ten #ATISummit sessions.
Susie Scher, Goldman Sachs Co-head of Global Financing Group
“There’s nothing more important than liquidity. In a crisis, you should overpay for liquidity because you never know when it ends.”
“A lot of CFOs right now are thinking about innovation in the workplace.”
Kristy Illuzi, CPA, Senior Manager and Staff Liason to Technical Issues Committee, AICPA
“I think that probably the companies that are struggling the most are those that are using manual systems for reporting.”
“This has drawn to light a lot of issues to things that are done manually, and we’re relying on people to be in office.”
“Yes you have more time [relating to the lease accounting standard delays], but don’t wait until your auditors come in and think this is something they can fix for you. There is so much involved with this lease standard that you can’t expect that someone else is going to be able to make some adjustments after year-end and be able to take care of it.”
Mike Cheng, CPA, National Professional Practice Partner, Frazier & Deeter; Former Senior Project Manager, FASB – Private Company Council Coordinator
“One thing that I’ve found that has been fairly interesting is I think the larger companies are actually doing better in this type of environment. They have the ability to think about it on a forward-looking basis, like cloud-computing systems.”
“Whether you can do something or you can’t, you’re right. It’s all in your mindset.”
David Sundstrom, CPA, CIA, Senior Consulting Manager, Eide Bailly; Former Board Member, GASB
“We found that the nuances [when transitioning to the new lease accounting standards] were incredible. What’s the process for year-over-year changes? Those haven’t been talked about.”
“Underestimating the difficulty of implementation. That’s the number one, most difficult part of adopting the new standard. I’ve flow-charted the standard. It’s 17 pages of charts.”
Steve Kovac, Softrax, Vice President of Customer Succes
“I would just have to say, use these things as opportunities to transform your organization. Be a hero. Do your homework. Go in, recommend these solutions to your superiors. Transform your organization using the many tools that are out there.”
