Lease tracking software exists to stop a date passing unnoticed, and the products that work hold two things together: the obligations with their dates, and the documents those obligations came from. Systems that hold one without the other fail in predictable ways. This page is why, and what to test.
Dates without documents produce disputes
A system holding a break notice deadline with no link to the clause it came from gives you a reminder you cannot verify. When the date approaches, somebody has to find the lease anyway, and if the abstract was entered wrongly the reminder is confidently misleading. Every extracted date should be one click from the clause it was extracted from.
Documents without dates produce surprises
A document store holding every lease and no extracted obligations is an archive. It will answer any question you think to ask and prompt none, which means the option deadline passes in silence. The extraction is the work that turns storage into tracking, and it is the work most often skipped because it is tedious and not urgent.
What to extract at minimum
Term start and end. Rent and any scheduled change with its date and method. Any option, break or review, with its notice deadline and how notice must be given. Deposit held. And any obligation with a recurring date, such as a certificate or an inspection. Five categories, per lease, entered once at signature or at abstraction.
Test it by asking for next quarter
The one test that matters: ask the system for every obligation falling due in the next ninety days across the portfolio, with the document behind each. If that takes a query and produces a list you would act on, it is tracking. If it takes a person and a spreadsheet, it is storage with a calendar attached.
Questions people ask about lease tracking software
Is a spreadsheet enough for lease tracking?
For a handful of leases with a disciplined owner, yes. It fails when the owner is unavailable and when the spreadsheet stops being linked to the documents.
Who should do the lease abstraction?
Somebody who will read the clause rather than the summary, and ideally not the person who negotiated it. Errors in abstraction are invisible until the date arrives.
What is the most commonly missed obligation?
An option or break notice deadline, because nothing prompts it and missing it loses the right entirely rather than merely delaying something.