Lease Accounting, new in 2016, is now fundamental accounting infrastructure related to FASB and IFRS compliance that impacts the balance sheet and compliance reporting, for public and private companies. It impacts accounting processes, policy, accounting workload, month-end close, audit, related integrated systems, and accounting teams in real estate and equipment leasing. Therefore, both solutions and suppliers should match up to this importance. Companies should choose mature, proven, products and proven, transparent suppliers for any accounting infrastructure. Accounting is not the domain for new tools, unproven suppliers, or suppliers with uncertain outcomes.
The buyer’s journey is hard. Too often companies rely on great demos, a presentation including lots of corporate logos, claims of easy implementation, and a low price. Nearly all suppliers have a strong story to tell and some track record. In the rush to compliance, however, it is easy to miss important considerations, and sometimes companies make bad decisions.
These are important considerations in making a fully informed lease accounting decision and the top 7 reasons companies choose CoStar.
1. The best company behind the products and services
CoStar is publicly traded, with deep financial reserves, little debt, high growth, and high profitability. We have a 20-year track record of supplying lease management and lease accounting solutions for real estate and equipment; original customers have been with us for 20 years. Through its history, CoStar has a track record of 99% customer retention. Compared to lease accounting alternatives, a CoStar choice for a supplier relationship is assured, long-term, and without risk.
2. The most proven and functional product
CoStar delivered the first ASC 842 and IFRS 16 compliance product in 2016, and with its deep resources has been improving it ever since. Today, CoStar has the most functional product, with the highest automation, and the investment power to continue advancing automation for its customers. The latest re-measurement automation is market leading. A product choice for CoStar is a guarantee of lease accounting automation leadership, saving accounting teams hundreds of hours, while ensuring compliance.
3. Proven implementation partner – Never failed a project
With hundreds of customers public and private, portfolios from 50 leases to 50,000 leases; from simple companies to worldwide conglomerates, CoStar is the only supplier to have never failed a lease accounting project. We get even better as we replace other lease accounting solutions. No matter how small or how large and complex CoStar delivers, every time.
4. World class support ensures success
Great support is critical for customer success, after the sale, and long-term. For suppliers, it’s an expensive commitment to invest in support operations. Smaller companies and start-ups struggle here. CoStar invests heavily in World-class Support to ensure customer success and productivity. A CoStar choice is an assurance of support and continued investment in that part of customer success.
5. The SaaS platform – Proven, Secure, Scalable
The platform behind the product is important and IT organizations confirm CoStar’s leadership in platform security, performance, and compliance. When you select a solution, IT and InfoSec usually need to approve it. Particularly in large companies and highly regulated industries, IT due diligence is important. In the rush to compliance, some companies overlooked this, only to find gaps after implementation. CoStar is smooth sailing for IT organizations, and a CoStar choice ensures fast IT due diligence and a high-performing, reliable application at month-end close.
6. Integrations – Proven, Supported, and Guaranteed
Integrations are a key to success, automation, accounting controls, and high productivity saving accounting hours and endless headaches. Every supplier offers them. CoStar has delivered and supports over 900 integrations with a dedicated team. Further, CoStar put integrations support obligations in its contracts. A choice for CoStar’s integration experience is the assurance of proven success and a contractual guarantee.
7. Beyond Accounting – Better together with real estate applications
Lease accounting compliance mandates have pressed accounting and real estate teams together as never before, related to accounting’s needs for accurate lease data. This creates the need for a single source for shared data and dependent processes between real estate and accounting teams. CoStar is a leader in real estate management solutions for lease administration, portfolio planning, and renewal/transactions management. CoStar also provides the only comprehensive source of commercial real estate market data. Your real estate team can be on the same platform as accounting without compromise.
Companies should look beyond the demo, proposal, and even initial compliance when choosing your best long-term partner for success in lease accounting and continuous accounting.
