Tyson Foods Achieves Greater Visibility Into Lease Portfolio

Tyson Foods, an Arkansas-based food processing and manufacturing company with offices across the United States, Europe, Australia, Malaysia, and Mexico and 142,000 employees worldwide, was looking for an integrated software solution to be compliant with ASC 842 requirements. With decentralized data, reporting was aggregated across 15 different data sources, creating issues with the quality and completeness of the data. They knew this process would make ASC 842 compliance extremely difficult. Additionally, they needed a solution that provided asset-level accounting, SAP integration and the ability to manage a 4-5-4 fiscal calendar. They enlisted the help of a Big Four accounting firm to evaluate their lease portfolio and help interpret the technical requirements needed for adherence to the standard. The team evaluated several vendors by providing data to see how each solution could handle the different components of their leases.

Tyson Foods chose a solution but realized that it could not meet their minimum requirements. They pivoted quickly and switched to LeaseAccelerator because the solution demonstrated the ability to handle the accounting requirements, a 4-5-4 fiscal calendar and the reporting needed for ASC 842 compliance. With approximately five resources from Accounting, Treasury, IT and external support, Tyson Foods completed the implementation within six months, just in time to begin the next fiscal year.

Tyson Foods uses LeaseAccelerator as the subledger for their entire lease portfolio (2,000 leases), which replaced multiple legacy systems. The solution is also used to interface with their general ledger and accounts payable systems. With LeaseAccelerator, the company now has increased visibility into their lease portfolio, providing better lease management. Additionally, the increased visibility allows them to be compliant with ASC 842 reporting requirements without having to add cost or headcount to the organization, saving them money and improving operational processes. “ASC 842 reporting is one of the areas where LeaseAccelerator really shines,” stated Brian Martfeld, Director of Corporate Accounting at Tyson Foods.

Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN) is one of the world’s largest food companies and a recognized leader in protein. Founded in 1935 by John W. Tyson and grown under four generations of family leadership, the Company has a broad portfolio of products and brands like Tyson®, Jimmy Dean®, Hillshire Farm®, Ball Park®, Wright®, Aidells®, ibp® and State Fair®.

LeaseAccelerator provides a global Lease Lifecycle Automation platform that improves free cash flow and ensures longterm compliance across equipment and real estate assets. Thousands of users rely on our Software as a Service (SaaS) platform to manage and automate 900,000 leases valued at $150 billion across 2 million assets in 142 countries. On average, clients save 7% on lease financing in our lease marketplace and 10% on lease costs through better end-of-term management.