Is lease management software worth the investment

Date: 2021.03.29

Every purchase for your business is an investment. One of the trickier areas to find good value investments is software solutions. With so many options out there, it can be a significant challenge trying to nail down the best choice. In this guide, we’ll look at a very specific niche – leasing management software. An area that’s delicate and demanding, leasing management requires top of the range solutions in order to be effective. So, can you find appropriate software to buy and is it worth investing into?

Not all leasing management software is the same

From the outside looking in, it can be easy to assume that all software solutions for lease management could be the same. However, they’re not. Far from it. In reality, two different apps could be like day and night – completely different. It’s usually hard to determine which app or software is better than the other just from the pictures and descriptions, but the information could give you a lot of details.

For example, a particular leasing management software can be more suited for calculations and analytics, while other tools could have more flexible contract management tools and origination features. But most importantly of all, you might be able to find a versatile programme that can satisfy the needs of your organisation. Not all software solutions are one-sided. Some really have that do-it-all availability.

If you can manage and oversee everything from A to Z – it’s worth it

Just as we mentioned, the more a computerized leasing system can bring to the table, the more it is worth the investment. While the exact list of features depends on the system itself, interested parties should look for the following features

  • Flexible calculation of interest rates – any leasing software must be capable to determine daily, monthly, weekly or yearly interest rates and calculate derivative numbers (like deductions, penalties, overdue amounts, etc.)
  • Document management – every lease contract leaves a long physical or digital (or both even) paper trail. It’s good to have software that you can depend on to gather and store data in one place. Besides, top of the range software can auto-fill or auto-generate certain documents even.
  • Digital data management – when it comes to data management in-app, you have to have the ability to sign documents digitally or to export data, make it editable in real-time, etc. High-end leasing software will have these options available.
  • External portals and self-service sites – such features are, once again, available mostly in high-end software solutions. Dealers, brokers and other 3rd parties can log in to register deals or ask for quotes, submit contracts, etc. It’s a useful feature to have, especially for a global leasing company or an international leasing business.
  • Dedicated contract origination module – if you can create quotes quickly and provide the client with an estimation over the phone or within the same day, you can improve productivity and convert more queries into customers right away.

Client management module – Yet another additional module of the system. This one could be utilized for gathering important data on clients and used in your company’s CRM or passed down to accounts for further analysis.

Can you make the integration of the leasing software beneficial?

It’s one more question that you need to answer. Smaller financing companies that make few deals and have a fixed amount of clients might very well be better off without such an investment. However, if you have goals for expansion and a vast list of clients, it’s much better to opt to invest in leasing management software. This software solution has shown to save at least a few hours of manual and administrative work per week.

This is great news for any business because it means that you can finally allocate resources to where they’re truly necessary. Fund R&D or invest into staff training in order to maximize benefits. So, to sum up, if your business has enough scale to make use of systemic and centralized leasing data management, definitely look for dedicated software!

How is your staff prepared for integration of new software?

Even though the decision to implement and try out new software can come from above, the accounting staff should be fully on board with the decision. Otherwise, you’re risking of disruptions and temporary chaos in the process chain.

Why does this matter so much? Well, mostly because the accounting personnel will be the ones that have to work with the new leasing software. For example, transitioning to the new accounting standards is difficult enough, let alone being forced to use outdated, poorly optimized or generally unfit programmes. All staff members need to be as familiar with the interface, as possible. If it makes their job easier, it makes the entire company’s life a lot easier because all financial records will be in good shape and in order.

Furthermore, if you’re choosing to implement new software solutions, a lot of software developers will train your staff on how to properly use the software. Bookkeeping is one area of the business where you want to avoid forcing people to learn on the fly. Everything is best, when done with pinpoint accuracy and diligence.

There can also be meetings of the accounting staff where the employees could elect a delegate who can lead the integration process and help everyone to get up to speed with the new software ASAP.

To sum up

So, we hope that the question ‘Is leasing management software worth the investment?’ was answered. From our point of view, every company that signs a lot of new leasing contracts periodically, should be looking to implement lease management software if they haven’t already done it. The software streamlines various processes, centralizes leasing contract-related data management and helps save significant amounts of time every week, in turn, boosting productivity. Make sure you test the application and evaluate the features before purchasing and the investment will definitely be worth it!