Retailer
What was the problem?
This large retailer reports the financial figures according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). As from 2019, the business must comply with the IFRS 16 Leases new standard. This means that all lease and rental obligations must be stated on the balance sheet. To do so, the retailer must first collect specific information from hundreds of lease and rental contracts and make it transparent.
What was the solution?
Instead of having people go through all the contracts manually, the retailer opted for PwC’s Artificial Intelligence ezExtract technology. This machine learning technology automatically collected the desired data from more than six hundred contracts. The validation of the data by our staff ensures that the algorithm is becoming increasingly better at finding the correct information. The advantages of this technology solution are time saved and the higher quality of the information collected, because the software analyses far quicker than a person and does not overlook text.
What was the result?
Thanks to this artificial intelligence application, the unstructured collection of contracts became a structured database with relevant information such as start and end date, rental payments and the possibility to extend. By having this information, the retailer can comply with the new IFRS 16 requirements efficiently and on time. Another important result is obtaining insight into the retailer’s own organisation and the possibilities that the database offers for valuable data analyses. For instance, lessors and suppliers can be compared and better planning and forecasts can be made now that it is clear which contracts are about to expire and when.
Contact us
