The Real Cost of Using Excel for Lease Management

Excel might seem like a cost-effective way to manage your leases, until it starts costing you time, accuracy, and compliance. While spreadsheets may work for a small portfolio, they’re not designed for the complexity of today’s lease accounting standards or operational workflows. Here’s why more teams are leaving Excel behind and what it’s really costing those who don’t.

Why Teams Start with Excel

For many companies, Excel is the default tool for managing lease data. It’s familiar, flexible, and doesn’t require any new software purchase or training. If you’re only managing a handful of leases, it can feel like a simple and inexpensive solution.

But as your portfolio grows — and lease accounting standards become more complex — those same spreadsheets can quickly become a liability.

Where Excel Falls Short for Lease Management

What Excel gives you in flexibility, it lacks in control, structure, and compliance support. Teams that rely on spreadsheets for lease management often run into:

• No built-in support for ASC 842, IFRS 16, or GASB 87
  You're forced to build complex formulas or rely on external calculations.

• No version control or audit trail
  There’s no way to track changes or see who updated what — a major risk during audits.

• High chance of errors
  Manual data entry and formula mistakes can throw off financials or lead to non-compliance.

• Lack of scalability
  What works for five leases doesn’t work for fifty. Excel becomes difficult to manage as your portfolio grows.

• No user access control or SSO
  Anyone with access can make changes, and there’s no way to restrict visibility across departments.

• Poor visibility across teams
  Finance, real estate, and legal teams often duplicate efforts or miss key updates without a shared system.

The Hidden Costs of Spreadsheet-Driven Lease Accounting

Even if your spreadsheets seem “free,” the costs add up quickly:

• Time wasted during month-end close
  Manually generating journal entries, subledgers, and reports eats up hours.

• Increased risk of non-compliance
  Without built-in accounting logic, it’s easy to miss a critical update or misclassify a lease.

• Missed renewals or payments
  Static trackers can’t alert you to upcoming deadlines or automatically adjust for changes.

• Manual reconciliations and rework
  Every change requires another round of edits, checks, and signoffs.

• Audit exposure
  Without clear records, version history, or exportable logs, audits become time-consuming and risky.

How Software Like Spacebase Solves These Problems

Spacebase is built to handle the complexity of lease management without relying on disconnected spreadsheets. Here’s how we help teams move faster and stay compliant:

• Purpose-built for lease accounting and management
  Meet compliance standards with tools designed for ASC 842, IFRS 16, and GASB 87.

• Custom reporting and audit-ready outputs
  Generate journal entries, subledgers, and reports tailored to your accounting structure.

• SSO and user permissions
  Control who sees and edits what, with full visibility into every action taken.

• Real-time portfolio visibility
  Get proactive alerts and a centralized view of your lease data; no spreadsheet digging required.

• Seamless integrations
  Connect with your ERP, AP systems, and reporting tools without manual uploads.

• Scales with your business
  Whether you manage 10 leases or 10,000, Spacebase grows with you, without adding headcount.

Ready to Ditch the Spreadsheets?

Still managing leases in Excel? It might be costing more than you think.
Book a demo and see how Spacebase can streamline your lease accounting and save your team hours each month.

Brooke Colglazier

Marketing Manager