Choosing the right lease management software can help you maximize the potential of your lease abstracts.
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 have numerous options from which to choose. With so many lease management platforms in the market, picking one lease management software can be overwhelming. Before investing in a lease management platform, here are a few pointers.
How and where the data is stored?
Get a thorough understanding of where and in what format the lease management platform will store your lease data. For example, is the data stored locally or on the cloud? What are the security concerns, and how is the lease management software vendor addressing them? Answering 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 and if you want all stakeholders/users to adopt it, then ease of use is a critical factor in 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. The 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 consistently and alerting you on time, so you don’t miss any critical timelines.
Click here to read more about what you should consider when assessing your lease abstraction vendor’s experience. Take these tips above and invest in the right lease management software that can help you maximize the potential of your lease abstracts.
