You can leverage your lease abstract to its maximum potential by integrating with a lease management software platform. When it comes to investing in lease management software, you’re spoilt for choice. With so many lease management platforms in the market, picking one lease management software can be overwhelming. Here are a few pointers to consider before investing in a lease management platform.
How and where the data is stored?
Get a thorough understanding of where your lease data will be stored by the lease management platform and in what format. For example, is the data stored locally, or on the cloud? What are the security concerns and how are they being addressed by the lease management software vendor? Getting answers to these questions is really the first step in evaluating a lease platform.
Reporting
Lease management software platforms can help you leverage the data in your lease abstracts through powerful reporting functionality, thus bringing more objectivity to the critical business decision-making process.
Import and export functionality
One of the most important elements to consider before investing in a lease management platform is the import-export functionality. It dictates how your data will be shared and in what format. The information from your lease abstracts will be used across various teams in your organization such as Finance, Operations, IT, Accounting, Legal, etc. Before you purchase a lease management software, you need to make sure it is compatible with their data format requirements.
Ease-of-use
This is true for any new software purchase and not just lease management platforms. If you really want your investment in the platform to pay off, you want all stakeholders/users to adopt it and ease-of-use is a critical factor determining the adoption rate of any new software. From the lease management software perspective, you need to ensure that it is easy to learn and use in terms of data entry, update, management, and reporting. Availability of onboarding and robust/effective training modules is a critical consideration for your investment.
Compliance- FASB capabilities
Your lease administration software must contribute significantly to your compliance efforts. The updated FASB, GASB, and IASB requirements involve a lot of calculations and major changes in how leases are treated. Your lease administration software must be able to take the complexities out of these computations and classifications, helping you meet your compliance requirements effectively. Some examples include supporting multiple lease types (beyond real estate, as now even equipment leases are to be accounted for), automatic identification and classification of leases as per the FASB guidelines (Financial/operating/ capital), the ability to integrate with your accounting system to ensure any relevant change in the lease data (such as a renewal) is reflected in your books of accounts accurately.
Service and support
Investing in a lease management platform is a big decision. You will be using the platform to store critical business information and will need uninterrupted access to it at all times. Hence after-sales service and support become critical components when evaluating lease management platforms. What kind of support does your lease software vendor provide? What is their availability? Are the service and support free, or will you be charged? Getting these questions answered to your satisfaction before you sign the dotted line, is very important.
While your lease abstract will mention the key events/dates/numbers to watch out for, the lease management application offers timely access to those critical data points and also ensures you never lose sight of them by tracking these for your consistently and alerting you on time, so you don’t miss any critical timelines.
Rebolease.com, powered by RE BackOffice, Inc., is a premier provider of lease abstraction, administration, audit, and accounting services. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, we are a global boutique firm, providing high-quality services to top-tier clients across industry verticals, covering every type of lease and on any lease platform. We are proud to be a trusted partner, for 15+ years, to leading retailers, REITs, property owners/managers, and corporate accounts seeking strategic advantage. All client projects are performed in-house.