The application of joints or other forms of connections are often seen in large assembled structures. When it comes to model joints in FEA software, engineers have some difficult decisions to make. Modeling joints using solid elements and nonlinear contact between the surfaces is intuitive and gives the most accurate results, but it is very costly in terms of simulation time. On the other hand, using 2-D shell plate elements and 1-D beam element for fastener is much less time consuming, but the trade-off is that the results are less accurate than those of 3-D solid model. In this work, a fastener beam element is developed specifically for the case of neat-fit mechanically fastened lap joints. This element, based on Timoshenko Beam theory, is introduced with new parameter that accounts for contact stiffness between fastener shank and plate hole. The lap joint model with the developed fastener element is supposed to be more accurate than model with the conventional beam element and also more computationally efficient than the 3-D model. The initial part of this work talks about the literature review and explains the development of the fastener beam element. The latter part will involve comparisons of load transfer for the case of multi-fasteners scenario with existing 2-D shell plates/conventional beam and solid model.