Most companies are aware of lease accounting software benefits and invest knowing they will reduce admin costs, automate labour-intensive tasks, and enable compliance with GAAP accounting standards. All these are compelling reasons, but they’re not the only advantages that the right software brings to your team.
This blog will look beyond the most common lease accounting software benefits and explore the lesser-known benefits the software can bring.
1. Better vendor management and relationships
As a company scales its properties, one of the most significant issues they face is keeping track of all vendors and contracts. Lease management software provides you with a 360-degree view of all contracts at all times and alerts you of all critical dates. By enabling you to spend less time administrating, you will have more time to maintain and build vendor relationships and enough visibility to leverage any opportunities that might arise.
The more time your team has to focus on who you work with, the better the relationships you will build with various vendors, which will likely create more potential to expand your leasing/buying power over time. It also means you can harness the software’s insights and reports, in addition to the insights gained by better managing your vendor relationships.
2. Better collaboration between departments within your company
Without the right tools, collaboration can become a headache for bigger companies with multiple departments. Perhaps your teams use Excel or a decentralized system with limited access? All this can lead to bottlenecks which discourage those who might otherwise be more engaged in the lease management process.
Multiple teams are involved in managing lease contracts, and all these teams must have access to a centralized system so that they can efficiently work together. Each department has concerns and challenges which need to be taken into consideration. Often teams are so busy inputting data manually to spreadsheets that they don’t have time to collaborate and develop interdepartmental processes.
By automating many of these labour-intensive tasks, one of the main secret benefits of lease accounting software is that it gives teams the time they need to collaborate. A centralized system also allows teams to create a chart of accounts that is maintained across all leases and standard processes that ensure it’s easier to audit and find consistent information regardless of which team inputted it.
3. Better budgeting, control of spending and cost management
By giving you access to your data in real-time and full visibility of spending and costs, lease management software gives you the power to create accurate budgets that take full advantage of all your resources. Without a centralized system, it’s easy to end up with inaccurate or misleading financial information, resulting in risky business decisions.
By giving you a clear picture of all moving parts, the right software makes it possible for stakeholders to make better leasing decisions, reduce risks and negotiate leases based on performance. Without this information, companies may find themselves without the relevant information to make a good lease agreement, the results of which can have long-lasting ramifications for financial performance.
4. Make better decisions faster
With the pace of today’s world, we all know the benefits of moving quickly when opportunities arise. Unfortunately, many companies are unable to act fast when it comes to leasing decisions and opportunities because it takes them so long to analyze data, correct that data due to manual entry issues, and then, eventually, make forecasts.
Leadership teams can use lease management software to immediately access the data they need to make better investment decisions. It also provides automated reports that keep stakeholders aware of leases and allows them to check for growth opportunities and monitor costs and spending regularly.
Continued reading: Using lease management software vs outsourcing your lease administration processes