According to a poll in a recent Quadrent webinar with Deloitte South Africa, 74% of attendees still rely on Excel or other spreadsheet software to manage their lease accounting compliance, despite IFRS 16 being in effect since 2019. While spreadsheets may have been a quick fix during the initial transition, they’re now a source of inefficiency, risk, and missed opportunity.
Why are so many businesses still stuck in Excel, and more importantly, what can they do to move forward?
“Just get it done”
When IFRS 16 came into force in 2019, most finance teams were under pressure to comply quickly. The result? A scramble to gather lease data and build basic models in Excel. For many, that spreadsheet became the default solution and is still in use today.
People got used to the extraneous effort of pouring hours and hours into a spreadsheet each month to realise data changes. This “Stockholm Syndrome” of compliance, where teams become numb to inefficiencies such as manually inputting lease data into a spreadsheet, has led to a culture of acceptance, and finance teams often don't have the resources to consider alternatives.
Excel is flexible, familiar, and free. But it’s also fragile. Webinar panellist Werner Roetz, Partner at Deloitte South Africa, highlighted a common issue:
“Someone goes in to extract a number and breaks a formula. Suddenly everything breaks.”
Here are just a few risks of relying on spreadsheets for IFRS 16:
These risks aren’t just technical - they’re strategic. Poor lease data can lead to inaccurate reporting, missed renewal deadlines, and costly audit findings. Switching to a purpose-built, IFRS 16-centric lease management platform is an important step to streamlining your business and reducing risk.
Many organisations hesitate to move away from Excel because they fear the complexity of implementing a new system. However, as Werner pointed out:
“This isn’t a full-blown ERP implementation. It’s a digitalisation of a specific function.”
The reality is that modern lease accounting solutions are designed to be scalable, user-friendly, and tailored to IFRS 16. With the right partner, implementation can be phased, supported, and far less disruptive than expected.
Manually inputting data into spreadsheets can be a compliance risk, yet 74% of our webinar audience admitted to using this outdated process.
Melissa Du Preez, Senior Manager at Deloitte South Africa and webinar panellist, painted a clear picture of best practice:
This isn’t just about compliance. It’s about empowering teams to make better decisions, faster.
Compliance is often seen as a cost centre. When done well, IFRS 16 can deliver real value. Some Quadrent clients with thousands of leases now complete their month-end IFRS 16 process in under a day using specialised lease management software solution, LOIS.
That equates to risk reduced, resources freed, and insights gained.
If you’re still using Excel, here’s what you can do today:
Ready to move beyond Excel? Let’s talk about streamlining your IFRS 16 compliance.