More often than not, businesses are looking for ways to optimize processes, reduce time spending, increase productivity and in doing so – bring profits way up. However, for a lot of managers, there’s always a risk to reward ratio to weigh and based on that, they make decisions on how to spend company money and/or time. One of such dilemmas is lease accounting and its optimization, especially important to companies with at least moderately sized lease portfolios. We’re here to advocate for lease accounting optimization through software and to show how one digital tool can solve a handful of issues!

Benefits of lease accounting optimization can be seen right off the bat

For managers and decision-makers, when weighing the pros and the cons of certain scenarios, payoff times need to be evaluated thoroughly. For example, there might be a great technology that could be implemented but it would only pay off in 30 years. That is an investment which not a lot of organizations would take. On the other hand, lease accounting software is a tool that can be used right away and the benefits of it can be felt immediately. Tasks that were mundane and took hours upon hours of manual labor can now be automated with a few simple clicks. People that had to work overtime can now do the same amount of work in less and less time.

Case studies and various testimonies allude to over 10 hours of manual labor saved each week, even for mid-sized teams. Summing up, we can add up that the license of a software won’t cost as much as the money saved through increased productivity. So, the first benefit of having a software tool for lease management accounting is of course, immediate and positive impact on your financial situation.

Complex tasks can become easy

We touched upon this in the previous paragraph. Sometimes the most time is taken up not by the most ambitious projects and visions but by simple, day to day tasks. The same applies to lease accounting. The daily duties of an accountant involve billing and invoicing, two areas that are heavily demanding on manual labor.

Such jobs aren’t complex in by themselves, but from the point of view that they’re very demanding of resources and can cause headaches for people responsible for the allocation of those resources. So, in that sense, software solutions are capable of simplifying the delegation of duties because a lot of what could’ve been considered time-consuming, is now just a matter of a few minutes or clicks, even. 

Furthermore, tasks like reporting, non-lease component handling, re-measurement, parallel accounting, sub-leasing and many more might have dedicated features, aimed at solving that particular problem. Depending on the software of your choice, you could end up with a Swiss army knife-like tool, ready to overcome any challenge that might be thrown at it. 

Better relationships with your clients

Every business knows how important account management is. In many areas, it’s more or less the most important factor. Making your client feel valued and appreciated is a key theme that organizations develop entire business visions, around. When it comes to a service like a finance lease, there is no exception. Leasing companies need to have the client’s needs and demands met, in order to get and retain their business. 

A lot of people misconceive the idea of getting business just by solely lowering the prices which has two major flaws. Firstly – there’s only sow low you can go with reducing prices and secondly – most businesses that are choosing leasing as a service are looking for stability and good value, not just the lowest price. Lease accounting software is great at keeping track of all logs, events and notes, related to clients and your relationship with them. For example, some indicators could show that the client is growing and willing to commit, meaning that your sales staff might use this information in upcoming meets in order to upsell, etc. There’s also the possibility to utilize new leads, generated and shared by your intermediaries or partners. 

As a result of having access to data, your company can make more informed decisions on every level.

Much more data for analysis, forecasting, etc.

Speaking of access to data, lease accounting software can process a heap of information, especially related to numbers. This data is useful for a variety of reasons but is mainly used for reports, analytics, audits, forecasting and similar areas.

You can’t overlook the benefit of this feature simply because it’s so easy to process and crunch a lot of current and historical data. Some, most state-of-the-art tools are even able to deal with real-time data, if that’s relevant.

With powerful analytics tools, any company can find a lot of benefits from them

• Refinement of current products/services, finding better pricing plans and offering services that are more in sync with the current market
• Noticing market shifts and trends right away instead of being on the back foot, following the moves of your competitors
• Predicting market changes and having more accurate forecasts for the future
• Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your services

Since most software tools allow you to import data from external sources and you can also integrate them with the general ledger, lease accounting software just ticks away more and more boxes. When it comes to convenience and more optimized business on both day-to-day and long-term perspectives, investing into a capable tool seems like a total no-brainer. Benefits are seen straight away, a lot of data can be processed for better decision-making, relationships with clients can be improved whilst reducing the time it takes to do things. If you’re not yet using such a tool – you’re missing out.