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REAL vs Visual Lease: choosing a platform for lease data and CRE operations
Visual Lease is built for lease accounting compliance. REAL runs lease data and the wider CRE operation. Here is how the two compare and who fits which.
Visual Lease and REAL overlap on lease data and then diverge sharply on scope. Visual Lease is a lease accounting and management platform, built to keep a lease portfolio compliant with ASC 842, IFRS 16, and GASB 87, and to produce the journal entries, disclosures, and audit trail that compliance demands. It reports more than 1,500 brands relying on it for exactly that (source: Visual Lease, visuallease.com). REAL is a broader operations platform: lease accounting is one of its functions, but it also reads leases and CAM statements, flags overcharges, tracks critical dates, and connects lease data to property tax and facilities across a whole portfolio. The question is not which is better, it is whether the job is lease accounting or whole-portfolio operations.
REAL vs Visual Lease at a glance
| REAL | Visual Lease | |
|---|---|---|
| Core job | AI operations platform across lease, accounting, tax, and facilities | Lease accounting and compliance management |
| Compliance coverage | ASC 842 and IFRS 16, continuously | ASC 842, IFRS 16, GASB 87, with disclosures and audit trail (per Visual Lease) |
| Primary user | Enterprise occupiers running many locations | Accounting and lease administration teams focused on compliance |
| Beyond lease accounting | CAM and pass-through recovery, critical-date enforcement, property tax, facilities and maintenance | Focused on lease accounting and administration |
| Reads source documents and acts | Yes: extracts from leases, CAM statements, invoices; flags and drafts | Manages entered lease data for accounting; abstraction is not the emphasis |
| Runs on top of legacy systems | Yes: TRIRIGA, Yardi, MRI, Lucernex | Standalone lease system of record |
| Best for | One platform to run the portfolio and recover cost | Deep, defensible lease accounting compliance |
Sources: REAL from real.dev; Visual Lease capabilities are Visual Lease's own published claims (visuallease.com), attributed and not independently verified.
Where Visual Lease is a strong fit
If the mandate is lease accounting compliance, Visual Lease is built for it and has the depth to show for it. It automates right-of-use asset and lease liability calculations, produces compliant journal entries and disclosure reports, tracks modifications, and maintains an audit trail with approval workflows, across ASC 842, IFRS 16, and GASB 87 (source: Visual Lease, visuallease.com). For a controller whose priority is a clean close and defensible disclosures, that focus is a feature, not a limitation. The related discipline is covered in closing under ASC 842 without quarter-end surprises.
Where REAL fits
REAL is built for the occupier whose problem does not stop at the general ledger. Lease accounting matters, but so does catching the CAM charge the lease never permitted, exercising the renewal option before it lapses, recovering the tenant improvement allowance before it expires, and appealing the over-assessed property tax bill. REAL reads the underlying documents and acts across all of it, keeping each figure traceable to the clause behind it, and runs on top of the systems a large occupier already owns rather than replacing them. The recovery side is the focus of REAL's lease intelligence and lease accounting agents, within the wider commercial real estate platform.
Who should choose which
Choose Visual Lease if the job to be done is lease accounting compliance, the team is accounting-led, and you want a deep, defensible system for ASC 842, IFRS 16, and GASB 87 with the disclosures and audit trail to match. Choose REAL if you are an occupier running a large portfolio and want one platform that reads every lease and statement and acts across accounting, CAM recovery, critical dates, tax, and facilities, not just the accounting entries. The line is scope: compliance depth, or operational breadth with recovery built in.
Frequently asked questions
Is REAL a Visual Lease alternative?
- For lease accounting, REAL covers the same compliance need (ASC 842 and IFRS 16) as one function of a broader platform. But Visual Lease is specialized in lease accounting and compliance, including GASB 87, while REAL spans lease recovery, tax, and facilities. Whether REAL is the right alternative depends on whether you need compliance depth or operational breadth.
What does Visual Lease do?
- Visual Lease is a lease accounting and management platform for ASC 842, IFRS 16, and GASB 87 compliance. It automates right-of-use asset and liability calculations, generates journal entries and disclosure reports, tracks modifications, and maintains an audit trail, used by more than 1,500 brands (source: Visual Lease, visuallease.com).
What is the main difference between REAL and Visual Lease?
- Scope. Visual Lease is deep on lease accounting compliance. REAL treats accounting as one function and also reads documents and acts across CAM recovery, critical dates, property tax, and facilities, running on top of existing systems of record.
See REAL run end to end.
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