In every aspect of our life, we have plenty of options. The presence of numerous options for anything makes it difficult for making the final decision. Software vendors are specifically launching products to help the businesses to account for leases under the new standard properly.

Trullion, an AI-powered lease accounting software, is trusted by most industry leaders. It meets the new lease accounting standards like ASC (News - Alert) 842, GASB 87, and IFRS 16. Their lease accounting software aids contemporary leaders to stay assertive in their financial data and let AI-powered automation deal with lease accounting.

This article delves into the vital aspects of decision-making during the process of shortlisting an apt lease accounting software. It sheds light on how to avoid choice overload to become more confident and effective in the selection process.

Identifying Major Business Requirements 

It is better to start by analyzing the current process to map your exact needs. You can do this by answering a few crucial questions related to the same. What areas of your lease are critical for administration and compliance? What are the significant concern areas in the process?

Trullion packs a list of essential features that you are looking for in the new application for your business and can be a good starting point. Some of the most common needs that businesses often cite relating to lease accounting and Trullion helps to meet include:

• Lessor Accounting Needs
• Compliant with New Accounting Standards
• Multi-Book Reporting
• Real Estate & Lease Management Capabilities
• FX Considerations
• Asset Maintenance Tracking
• Facilities Management & Space Utilization Monitoring
• Capital Project Administration
• Contract Management

Prioritizing Needs and Importance 

A lease Accounting Software can fulfill your financial needs for leased assets. It can also act as a first step to check the software for CPA vetting and testing. Charting these requirements is crucial to understand their importance and their impact on your business.

You can start by identifying the needs as primary, secondary, and nice to have. Having a scorecard in place can help you list your preferred features. You can rate them based on your priority.

Your scorecard can have the categories like 

• Accounting and compliance reporting,
• Ease of use and implementation, 
• Lease and contract management,
• Software infrastructure.

Trullion endorses proven enterprise security measures like annual SSAE 18 SOC 2 and SOC 1 that are the must-have features for such software. It also meets Sarbanes-Oxley requirements by having a robust internal control mechanism.

Identify the Available Solutions

You can create a comprehensive list of solutions that can help meet your requirements based on the business needs. You can identify a set of lease accounting software vendors. 

Solution providers like Trullion often have an AI-powered contact extraction process. The AI can automatically detect and extract critical data from PDF agreements and Excel. You can get information regarding new, deleted, and modified assets simply by uploading Excel files.

These solutions have a significant impact on accounting firms, asset-heavy projects, or future M&A. Hence if your lease portfolio has more than 15 to 20 records, it is advisable to use a reputed software solution like Trullion. 

You can also opt for SaaS (News - Alert) or cloud-based solutions. These can have an option to feature unlimited user models. These can prove to be beneficial in the long run with zero upgrade fees and pay-per-data pricing. 

Schedule Demonstrations 

After your scope of work and needs are in place, you can identify the vendors for review and plan for demonstrations. It is advisable to put forth examples of your complicated leases during the process. You should ensure that the solution you seek can tackle these leases.

You can choose to ask series of questions to the vendor to have a better understanding:

• How does the solution automate the accounting for my most complex leases?
• How proven are the company and its leadership team?
• Can the system handle the complexity of my accounting operations?
• What are your plans for ongoing maintenance and system updates?
• How flexible and customizable is the solution?
• What are the steps and timing of the implementation process?
• How robust are the reporting capabilities?
• What is the cost structure?
• How does the system integrate with my existing ERP and IWMS?
• How does it help me manage my lease?
• How reliable is the underlying architecture?

Assessing the Value

You can align the vendor's offerings with your business priorities once you get a better understanding of their functionality. Although, a crucial aspect that can make or break the final decision is the budget.

You should make sure that your assessment of each vendor is basis the value they bring on board. You should avoid any sacrifices of the crucial functionality factors due to cost overruns.

Vendor Support 

It is critical to understand the support structure of the vendor before you sign the deal. It can include support team reliability and the upgrade process. You should allocate time to ensure that your vendor has a team in place with dedicated support capacity.  

You can achieve compliance confidently with Trullion’s 100% auditable journal entries and disclosures. Such systems ensure a reduction of costs and also aids in the prevention of any costly errors.

You can refer to the above aspects while shortlisting a lease accounting software for your business. Although the above is not an exhaustive list, it can be essential for identifying the major variables. You can also add parameters based on the exact need of your business.