Issue link: https://resources.tangoanalytics.com/i/1465882
Copyright © 2024 Tango. All rights reserved. 5 2024 Lease Buyer's Guide to Lease Administration & Accounting You can't select the right partner if you don't know what you're looking for. Now that you understand your organization's priorities, you'll need to turn your attention to the solution definition—what software capabilities match your needs and how should these requirements be prioritized. At the highest level you need to determine if you need a solution for lease administration, lease accounting, or both. With few exceptions it is best to have a single system managing both administration and accounting. These functions are needed by most companies, with the latter being a regulatory must, so it is best to stick with a comprehensive solution. Not all software on the market can provide both, so use this as an early screening factor to reduce the number of software packages you'll need to assess. Defining Requirements As you break down lease administration and lease accounting into specific business processes and include the related data needed to facilitate these activities, it is easy to get overwhelmed. Start with the basics—capturing lease data, critical dates, clause information, rent payments, tax, lease accounting, etc. —then get more specific from there. Capture all requirements in a spreadsheet and assign a priority to each line item—high, medium and low. This can be used to feed a Request for Proposal (RFP) if your organization decides to run a formal selection process (and remember not to share your priorities with the vendors!). Step 2: Solution Definition On the low end, the number of requirements for a lease administration and lease accounting solution can run into the hundreds, with enterprise-size company's lists easily exceeding a thousand. Be sure not to create a "kitchen sink" list of requirements. When this happens companies throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into the requirements wish list, even if they really don't need the capability. Focus on "must haves" and cut out the "nice to have" features which will just slow you down and create noise in the process. On the following page, you will find a list of many of the major categories you should consider when evaluating various software vendors. Use this as a framework to gather specific requirements with other stakeholders. Technical Requirements Technology is moving fast, so make sure you're not picking a legacy solution that is already obsolete—or will be soon. New technology and software hits the market almost daily. We live in a world where business software must continue to evolve and get up and running for a reasonable price-to-value tradeoff. Technical Architecture Make sure the software you are assessing is web-based and "in the cloud" – a fancy term for managed and supported by the software provider on their servers, not yours. Look for software-as-a-service ("SaaS") providers that are built on a multi-tenant platform. These providers are utilizing contemporary technology to deliver software at a lower total cost of ownership and are rapidly evolving their software by releasing new capabilities every few weeks.