The countdown is on to 1 January 2019 when the new lease accounting standard, IFRS 16 Leases, will come into effect, requiring all leases to be recorded on the balance sheet in a bid to increase the transparency of business exposures to costs.

The initial cost analysis by the International Accouting Standards Board (IASB) released nearly three years ago estimated that over a trillion pounds will appear on balance sheets, affecting everything from net income to cash flows and operating profit.