6 Factors Slowing Down Productivity in Lease and Finance Software Workflows
Lease and finance software workflows face significant productivity challenges. This article examines key factors that impede efficiency, drawing on expert insights from the field. Understanding these obstacles is crucial for businesses seeking to streamline their operations and boost overall performance.
Report Jail Limits Customization
“The biggest productivity killer in finance software is what I call “report jail.” Your system generates beautiful standard reports, but the moment you need something slightly different, you're back to Excel.
Before we built our platform, my team would waste entire afternoons on this. Need to see how loans performed for borrowers in a specific geographic area? Export and rebuild. Want to show an investor custom metrics they actually care about? Start from scratch in spreadsheets.
Here's what really bothered me: the questions that matter most to your business are always the ones your software wasn't designed to answer. Standard compliance reports run in seconds, but when you need insights that could actually change your strategy, you're doing manual data archaeology.
Most finance software is built backwards. It assumes you'll ask the same ten questions forever.
The reality is that good finance teams ask different questions as their business evolves. Your software should get smarter with you, not force you to become less proficient with it.
True workflow speed comes from systems that answer the questions you need to ask, not just the questions they were programmed to expect.”
Bob Schulte, Founder, BrytSoftware LLC
Manual Exception Handling Disrupts Reconciliations
“The time-consuming aspect is the manual exception handling: when anomalies are flagged by our automated processes, we need to pause and investigate where the mismatch occurs between our property management system and our accounting platform. This disrupts the process of reconciliations.
Surprisingly, even with API-driven syncs, one-off fees, split payments, or vendor credits that don't neatly apply to our chart of accounts still require human intervention. A person needs to read the names, assess the situation, and correct the numbers before closing out.”
Chad Phillis, Founder & CEO, Checkmate Rentals
Data Normalization Bottlenecks Monthly Processes
“The single largest bottleneck to date has been normalizing inconsistent data structures between our property management system and our accounting package. This requires manual normalization of lease and fee records each month.
For example, when one platform classifies a security deposit as a "hold," another as "prepaid liability," and a third as a line item for an early check-in fee under "other revenue," our team spends hours exporting CSVs, mapping columns, and re-uploading. This process is repetitive and time-consuming, preventing our team from spending time analyzing the cash flow.”
Humberto Marquez, Founder, Gowithsurge
Manual Data Entry Slows Property Management
“I've found that manual data entry for lease applications and tenant screening really bogs down our team, especially when we're juggling multiple properties during peak seasons. We waste hours copying information between different systems and double-checking for errors, when we could be focusing on building relationships with clients and closing deals.”
Approval Process Hinders Invoice Generation
“Getting approvals for client invoices is a huge bottleneck since our current software doesn't integrate well with our project management tools. I've found myself chasing team members across different platforms just to confirm billable hours and get the right documentation attached to each invoice.”
Aaron McGurk, Managing Director, Wally
Poor Integration Causes Data Entry Inefficiencies
“A major challenge I've faced in finance software workflows is manual data entry and reconciliation. When systems don't integrate well, I end up spending too much time inputting data across platforms or fixing discrepancies in reports. This slows me down and increases the risk of errors. Automating data syncing and using software that works seamlessly together have been key to improving efficiency. It's something I'd recommend exploring if you're facing similar issues in your workflows.”
Michael Yerardi, Property Specialist, Turning Point Home Buyers
How Spacebase Helps Teams Move Faster
At Spacebase, we’ve seen firsthand how these bottlenecks slow down lease and finance teams. That’s why our platform was designed to solve the pain points many businesses still face:
- Seamless integrations connect your lease administration and lease accounting data, so workflows function as they should—without duplicate entry or mismatched reports.
- Shared data foundation means lease admin and accounting teams work from the same source of truth, reducing reconciliation time and errors.
- Software built for your team: our features are designed around the real-world needs of accounting managers, controllers, and lease administrators.
One example: we built a custom retail rent functionality for a large client who pays rent based on monthly sales performance. Their old process required constant spreadsheet adjustments and back-and-forth between departments. With Spacebase, we automated the workflow, tying revenue reporting directly into their lease payment calculations. What used to take days now runs smoothly every month.
By removing manual processes and unifying your data, Spacebase helps your team focus on strategy—not spreadsheets.
Brooke Colglazier
Marketing Manager