3 Phases of Commercial Leasing: Managing and Optimizing

By Danielle Moore
Director, Channel Marketing
iOFFICE + SpaceIQ

When it comes to commercial leasing, there are three key phases to consider: onboarding, operation, and termination. Organizations with extensive portfolios face the daunting task of tracking numerous leases in varying phases of their lifecycles and variable terms of tenancy. No two buildings are the same, which requires flexibility in a company’s approach to lease management.

An integrated workplace management system (IWMS), such as Archibus, by iOFFICE + SpaceIQ, provides a centralized repository, flexible dashboards, automated alerts, and other critical tools for efficient and effective portfolio management. The application helps portfolio managers streamline data entry, automate lease information-gathering and management, and improve analytic capabilities—all at a high service level.

Lease oversight at every phase

Lease administration is a different animal depending on where in the cycle a particular lease is. Portfolio managers need to be keenly aware of each phase and the duties that come with it:

• Onboarding: The acceptance, setup, and activation of an asset
• Operation: The payment, accrual, management, servicing, and maintenance of an asset
• Termination: The formal close-out of an asset contract

Proper management throughout the lease lifecycle helps companies stay on top of their biggest overhead expenses. From negotiating terms and signing the best possible lease contract, to proper cost accrual and depreciation tracking, to archival of real estate asset data after lease termination, it’s critical to have a centralized system of management.

How Archibus Leases assists portfolio managers

Archibus Leases allows organizations to manage their entire portfolio—whether they lease or own properties. Portfolio managers gain access to a variety of tools and data resources necessary to handle every phase of the corporate lease lifecycle and approach each phase with tact.

Whether it’s automating lease administration tasks from the get-go or contextualizing lease costs into easy-to-identify trends and forward-looking budgets, Archibus enables a better standard of commercial lease management. Here’s how:

Onboarding

Onboarding is a crucial first step in the lease lifecycle. It establishes the asset and unlocks growth opportunities for the business—but only if portfolio managers are able to control overhead and optimize lease admin. Archibus brings broad visibility to onboarding, to ensure every lease contract gets off on the right terms.

• Eliminate time wasted locating and reviewing leases and specific responsibility clauses
• Confirm landlord vs. tenant responsibilities to avoid delivery and payment confusion

Operation

Whether for a one-, three-, five-year term or longer, real estate managers need to optimize the asset for the life of the lease. This means relying on data-driven insights pertaining to cost, performance, and budget, while also ensuring proper asset maintenance and compliance standards. Archibus brings critical data to the forefront, to enable a higher standard of lease oversight during the operational phase.

• Provide immediate online access to lease details, to easily validate invoices
• Monitor leases, options coming due, alerts and more from a single screen
• Assign three levels of urgency to alerts, personalized for all portfolio types
• Summarize monthly recurring costs across the lease portfolio for an entire year
• Sort costs according to user preferences, such as geography, cost category, or year

Termination

Just because a lease is coming to an end doesn’t mean there aren’t important decisions surrounding how to handle termination. Real estate managers need insights and records to ensure they’re able to offload the asset smoothly and with full transparency for accounting and tax purposes. Archibus brings enhanced visibility to lease termination proceedings and ensures accurate, accessible, thorough records beyond the lease end date.

• Ensure all necessary documentation is accessible to properly terminate a lease
• Track all terminated assets for the purpose of transparent record keeping

Optimize commercial lease management

Overhead costs are the most burdensome for a business—but also among the most necessary when it comes to enabling growth. It’s important to find a tool to assist in lease management across your entire portfolio, no matter what phase of the lifecycle they’re in.

Archibus Leases helps real estate managers see every phase of the lease lifecycle as an opportunity to leverage an asset for maximum ROI. It’s a tool that keeps lease data in one place, to make it easier to track and manage your entire portfolio.

At a time when the cost of commercial real estate is high and demand for centralized workplaces is shifting, it’s never been more important to clamp down on commercial lease management with software that enables a better standard of oversight across all three phases: from onboarding, to operation, to termination.

Keep reading: What Can You Do with Real Estate Analytics?