Companies are notoriously lax in preparing for new accounting standards, such as the forthcoming lease accounting standard for private companies.

However, as Deloitte notes in a new poll, some businesses may be even further behind than usual given changes from the pandemic. For instance, real estate needs are changing for companies with employees working remotely. With that adoption of remote work, they may need to exit their lease, modify their lease or execute a sale-and-leaseback transaction. As those scenarios play out, different accounting treatments are needed, according to Deloitte.

Deloitte also notes that recent migrations to the cloud could also have an impact as companies adopt the Financial Accounting Standards Board's cloud computing accounting guidance. Under the lease accounting standard, Deloitte says companies could configure cloud agreements for specific accounting treatment.