The lessor reports the lease as a leased asset on the balance sheet and individual lease payments as income on the income and cash flow statements. The lessee reports the lease as both an asset and a liability on the balance sheet due to their stake as a potential owner of the asset and their required payment.

Lease payments are monthly fees paid for the right to use an asset under the terms of a contract between the lessor who owns it and the lessee who will use it. Lease payments usually continue for a designated time period before the lessee either returns the asset or buys it out.

Balance Sheet → Initially, the operating lease is recorded as a liability on the balance sheet, similar to debt. Income Statement → The income statement is where the accounting treatment is different between operating and capital leases, as the lease expense (or rental expense) is recorded throughout the lease term.

For example, if a lease payment were for a total of $1,000 and $120 of that amount were for interest expense, then the entry would be a debit of $880 to the capital lease liability account, a debit of $120 to the interest expense account, and a credit of $1,000 to the accounts payable account.

for operating leases, the lease payments should be recognised as an expense in the income statement over the lease term on a straight-line basis, unless another systematic basis is more representative of the time pattern of the user's benefit [IAS 17.33]

Each lease payment is allocated between the calculated lease liability amortization and interest expense. Under this method, interest expense decreases and the liability amortization amount increases over time.

Operating leases and Finance leases are the two most common types of leases (also called capital leases). In order to distinguish between the two, it is important to understand how the costs and benefits associated with the possession of the asset have been fully transferred from the lessor to the lessee.