The Company
Bidcorp is a broadline foodservice business operating across five continents and more than 35 countries, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The group manages 1,500+ leases: more than 320 leasehold properties with an average term of 6 years, over 1,200 motor vehicle leases, and other leases. The total lease liability exceeds £400 million.
Bidcorp reports under IFRS 16, which requires consistent lease accounting across dozens of entities and regions, many of which use different languages, currencies, and levels of IFRS expertise. Head office needs clear visibility and reviewable reporting packs for group consolidation.
The Challenge
Operational pain without Rubli
When the IFRS 16 standard came into effect in 2019, Bidcorp's Group Financial Manager built a custom Excel model to manage its IFRS 16 compliance. It took roughly a month to design the spreadsheet and another three months to roll it out across the group's entities worldwide.
The model worked for the initial take-on, but cracks appeared quickly. Modifications and remeasurements could result in a single lease having three or four components. Formula integrity degraded over time. People added rows in the wrong places, breaking calculations, and, on top of this, version control across OneDrive was unreliable, with no way to trace who changed what or why.
"I was nervous that I was going to get it wrong and potentially we'd have to restate financials. The auditors don't always know what they're doing with it, and I've got 1,500 leases where they're only looking at 80."
Charlie Bishop, Group Financial Manager
Rolling out updates compounded the problem. When the spreadsheet required subsequent versions to handle new scenarios, rolling this out to all business units caused confusion. Teams across the UK, Europe, South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, Brazil, and Chile struggled with the complexity.
Risk and exposure
With a lease portfolio exceeding £400 million, the stakes were high. Spreadsheets offered no audit trail, no change control, and no way for the head office to independently verify which entities were reporting each month.
"From a risk standpoint, it was too much. If someone changes something in Excel, there's no audit trail. I can't go back and ask why."
Charlie Bishop, Group Financial Manager
Why Rubli
After two year-end cycles on spreadsheets, Bidcorp began looking for a dedicated solution to manage its complex IFRS 16 requirements. A Big Four accounting firm presented their lease accounting product, but the price point was high, and the offering felt rigid. Bidcorp did not believe they would receive hands-on support with the migration or that the firm could tailor its system to Bidcorp's specific needs.
Rubli, on the other hand, stood out positively for three reasons:
- Adaptability. Rubli was willing to tailor the system to Bidcorp's specific requirements rather than offering a rigid, one-size-fits-all product.
- Accounting expertise. Support came from people who understood the standard, not just the software (and vice versa). Queries could be resolved quickly and correctly.
- Hands-on implementation. Rubli handled the data migration directly and worked from Bidcorp's existing cash flow data to set up the system.
Over the past few years, Rubli has consistently delivered against these standards, combining a tailored solution with hands-on implementation and responsive support.
"What I like about the Rubli team is that they're very adaptable. With a bigger company, they don't see you like that."
Charlie Bishop, Group Financial Manager
The Implementation
Bidcorp signed up to Rubli's software in October 2021, ahead of its June 2022 year-end. The Rubli team managed the data migration using the existing Excel model, reconciling opening balances and loading the lease portfolio into their system. The group was live and reporting in less than two months.
The transition was very straightforward, to the point that Bidcorp's Group Financial Manager doesn't recall any implementation issues whatsoever.
"You know it's a bad implementation when you hear about it. This whole thing has been no noise."
Charlie Bishop, Group Financial Manager
The Results
Efficiency and control
At Bidcorp's group level, Rubli has established consistency in lease accounting practices and reporting across all entities, regardless of location or language. Head office reviews each of its subsidiaries' reporting packs quarterly, a process that now takes roughly 10 minutes per entity. If something appears unusual in the information, it is easy for the financial manager to identify and resolve it.
Rubli handles the complex mechanics of IFRS 16, including foreign currency translation across multiple reporting currencies, making it easy for finance teams that are strong in day-to-day operations but less familiar with its intricacies. Users simply input the lease data into Rubli, and Rubli applies the standards correctly.
"It takes away the stress associated with difficult accounting from the operators of our business. All they have to do is fill out the information and pull the numbers off the relevant report."
Charlie Bishop, Group Financial Manager
Modifications and remeasurements, the area that caused the most pain historically when using spreadsheets, are now straightforward with Rubli. Teams enter the modified lease details, and the Rubli system applies the correct treatment.
"It takes a lot of the complexity away from modifications. People aren't spending hours arguing about whether the calculation is correct."
Nikita Duff, Group Financial Controller
Audit and compliance
For more than five years, Bidcorp has achieved 100% audit compliance on its IFRS 16 lease accounting. Rubli supports audit requests by providing downloadable schedules that cover assets, depreciation, liabilities and movements. These are provided to auditors in a format that reduces the need for manual reconciliation.
Bidcorp's head office is now pushing to centralise the lease audit at a group level, with auditors relying directly on Rubli's outputs and SOC report rather than testing at each component level.
"We can download the balances, the movement schedule, the asset cost, the depreciation and the liabilities, and give that to the auditors. It's in one place."
Nikita Duff, Group Financial Controller
Support
Bidcorp's experience with Rubli's support team has been a consistent highlight: responsive, knowledgeable, and able to explain the accounting treatment behind the numbers when needed.
"(It's) the best. There's consistent, always-available, informed support. There's never been an issue that cannot be solved, and quickly."
Nikita Duff, Group Financial Controller
The Outcome
Before Rubli, Bidcorp managed a £400 million lease portfolio using spreadsheets built by a single person, distributed to entities across 35 countries, with no audit trail and no version control. Today, the process is standardised and controlled, with consistent reporting, simplified modification and remeasurement processes, and five years of clean audits.
"It makes lease accounting and the administration around leases in a big group, more streamlined. It's a lot easier to manage and coordinate for reporting periods."
Nikita Duff, Group Financial Controller