Visual Lease is the leading lease optimization solution provider empowering organizations across the globe to leverage their lease portfolios for strategic financial and operational outcomes. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Visual Lease CEO Robert Michlewicz to learn more about the company.
Robert Michlewicz’s Background
What is Robert Michlewicz’s background? Michlewicz said:
“Very early on in my career, I began collaborating with companies on their corporate filings, which included compliance and registration standards, documents and required processes. This led me on a journey that placed me in the heart of the Office of Finance where I saw firsthand the challenges involved with meeting financial reporting requirements and deadlines.”
“I quickly learned that top-level accounting and finance professionals were working through antiquated systems, multiple data sources and risk-prone processes, which often were and have since remained reliant on dispersed Excel files. The unwanted result was frequently a recipe for disaster for both the companies and the people involved. This revelation was a catalyst for my mission to help businesses solve these critical gaps.”
“As I progressed through various leadership positions, I have had the privilege to lead teams that have found and continue to find invaluable ways for the Office of Finance to adopt technology, improve operational effectiveness, meet deadlines and provide accurate financials all while managing an ever-changing regulatory environment – a passion of mine that I now continue to pursue as CEO of Visual Lease.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for VL so far? Michlewicz shared:
“There are many things I love about working with the team at Visual Lease, but the most rewarding aspect is the opportunity to work so closely with our customers – to learn about their current and emerging business needs and discuss how our solutions can bring more value to their organizations.”
“VL has a Customer Advisory Board (CAB) comprised of a select group of customers with senior leadership roles in Finance, Portfolio Management and IT across many industries. They all share a common challenge in managing a complex lease portfolio, which contains highly diverse terms, clauses, options and obligations. They represent our customer base who understands the opportunities and risks which underlie such a significant portion of their business.”
“As leaders from Enterprise and Mid-market companies, I appreciate the time we spend together focused on how the risks and opportunities associated with their lease portfolio are ever-changing and impact today’s operations, as well as their strategic decisions of tomorrow.”
“Their input provides tremendous insight into how we evolve our product roadmap and pressure test our latest solutions. I value every interaction with our customers because they provide a sounding board for our mission and vision and serve as inspiration for how we can continue to expand our solutions.”
Core Products
What are VL’s core products and features? Michlewicz explained:
“The success of many businesses hinges on key resources such as the space they work in, the equipment they use to deliver their solutions and, in some cases, their transportation needs. Without the right platform in place to properly manage spend, usage and environmental impact, these assets can very quickly become liabilities.”
“Visual Lease centralizes the records associated with leased and owned assets to manage the related operational, financial and environmental impact data across an organization. What sets VL apart is that it’s rooted in the complexities and nuances of lease lifecycles, and specifically designed to help the systems and stakeholders across an organization work together consistently and reliably with accurate data, repeatable processes, trustworthy guardrails and ongoing monitoring. The platform’s functionality includes:
— A Lease Accounting solution that provides a sub-ledger for all lease financials, with automated calculations and powerful compliance tools to automate FASB, GASB and IFRS lease accounting compliance requirements, while reducing risk and maintaining audit readiness.
— These lease accounting capabilities are built in concert with our robust lease management solution that handles virtually any asset type or payment scenario, making it simple to manage lease data, critical dates, options and modifications, as well as streamline cross-functional work.
— Our Controls serve as the foundation for achieving portfolio optimization, ensuring cross-functional teams share information efficiently and reliably. Intuitive workflows, advanced permissions, and configurability to evolving processes enable businesses to maintain complete, consistent and auditable data.
— Our Integrations provide clients the ability to leverage lease data within the systems they already use (AP/AR, ERP, Reporting, and BI tools, just to name a few), and automate workflows across the business while maintaining a single source of truth for their lease portfolio
— Last year, we launched the latest extension of our platform, VL ESG Steward, a carbon accounting, sustainability management and ESG reporting tool for leased, owned and sub-leased assets designed to help companies measure, manage and report on the environmental impact of their leased and owned assets and identify opportunities to optimize their portfolio, carbon footprint and ESG strategy.”
Industry Changes
What changes has the industry seen over the past few years and how has it impacted your customers? Michlewicz noted:
“Over the past several years, we’ve seen the Office of Finance continue its evolution to serve as a more strategic partner to the business, responsible for driving and sustaining growth. In fact, according to a recent survey, 82% of CFOs have reported that they’ve taken on additional responsibilities, including environmental, social, and governance (ESG); mergers and acquisitions (M&A); and corporate development duties in the past two years.”
“Simultaneously, the Office of Finance continues to feel the effects of the ongoing shortage of finance and accounting talent, which is having a significant impact on organizations’ reporting efforts. The need for stringent controls and airtight financial processes has never been more pronounced.”
“The expanded role of senior finance leaders reflects the increasing complexity of business operations and the need for integrated leadership to navigate evolving challenges and opportunities. These newfound responsibilities demand cross-departmental visibility and as a result, we’ve seen a tremendous shift in how finance leaders interact with their real estate, legal and IT teams, or those who are responsible for managing their organization’s lease portfolio.”
“Consider that despite the growing emphasis on ESG reporting, the vast majority of senior accounting and finance executives are not fully prepared in terms of their ability to track and measure the environmental impact of leased and owned asset portfolios. This shortfall exposes a critical issue – without visibility into these agreements, the Office of Finance will be unaware of how much they cost, what their environmental impact is, what terms to exercise to reduce spending, and how to determine related benchmarks and goals – all of which can have a negative impact on their organization’s financial and corporate goals.”
Details About VL ESG Steward
Can you tell me more about that newest offering, VL ESG Steward? Michlewicz told me:
“VL ESG Steward is the first tool of its kind within the lease management and accounting space. The software converts consumption data of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, PFCs, CH4, SF6, N2O, HFCs) using calculations based on the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Protocol and EPA Energy grid emissions factors. Additionally, it tracks a wide variety of environmental factors, including energy consumption, water usage, waste management and more, and automatically converts it into the standardized measurement of choice.”
“We’ve kept a close eye on the evolving ESG reporting requirements and anticipated companies would need to include related information on financial and sustainability reports – likely necessitating organizations treat this data with the same rigor as they do financial data.”
“Knowing that 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions originate from real estate-related assets, we created VL ESG Steward to help companies easily gather leased and owned asset records to identify consumption data of greenhouse gas emissions.”
“VL ESG Steward provides companies with up-to-date and ongoing greenhouse gas inventory and enables businesses around the globe to consolidate the data needed to track their carbon footprints across assets like commercial real estate, fleet, equipment and more, and make the necessary changes to address their ESG goals.”
“In February 2024, VL ESG Steward was recognized as a Top New Product in 2024 by Accounting Today. In 2023, VL ESG Steward was recognized as a finalist for a Software as a Service (SaaS) award within the category of Best SaaS Product for CSR, Sustainability and ESG, and also named a Sustainability Product of the Year by the Business Intelligence Group.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of VL’s most significant milestones as a company? Michlewicz cited:
“There are a number of significant milestones and accomplishments that have informed VL’s journey and solidified our position as an industry leader for over 25+ years.”
“In 1985, Marc Betesh, our Founder and Executive Chairman, was practicing as an attorney and had become recognized as an expert on commercial lease negotiation, lease interpretation and expense reimbursement clauses. After seeing far too many companies overlook – and as a result, overspend on – their leases, he conceived the idea of lease auditing and introduced it to the commercial real estate industry. This led him on a journey to not only service key clients’ evolving needs, but also, to develop a software platform from which this could grow and protect them into the future. Hence, Visual Lease was born in 1996.”
“During VL’s first 20 years, it served as a leading lease management solution for companies of all sizes, helping them to accurately manage and track their leases. In anticipation of the forthcoming lease accounting standards, leadership recognized that given VL’s unparalleled lease management capabilities, it would only make sense to extend the platform’s capabilities to help businesses easily report on their leases in compliance with the new requirements. In 2017, Visual Lease launched its ASC 842 and IFRS 16 lease accounting modules, and shortly after, was widely recommended by major accounting firms and real estate partners as a leading lease accounting solution. As regulations continued to evolve, in 2019, we expanded our platform to service the public sector working to adopt GASB 87 requirements.”
“In 2020, VL began offering Integrations to enable clients to connect Visual Lease with their ERP to support period-end reporting and link data from a variety of systems to maximize productivity and establish data-driven decision-making. By connecting customers’ finance and lease systems, Integrations provide businesses with a 360-degree view of their portfolios, enabling better-informed decision-making.”
“In 2022 – the same year I joined Visual Lease as CEO – we launched our GASB 96 functionality, making it easy for our customers to master their accounting for Subscription-Based IT Agreements (SBITAs). And of course, I mentioned that in 2023, we expanded our platform’s unique history and capabilities to include VL ESG Steward. There is much more to come in 2024 and beyond.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Michlewicz about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“My mind immediately goes to the winners of the 2023 VL Customer Excellence Awards, which recognizes companies and partners that are using VL’s platform to achieve optimal strategic financial and operational outcomes. We unveil the winners at our annual Customer Advisory Board Summit, a multi-day event that takes place at the end of each year for select customers and partners.”
“The winners were recognized for:
- Enhanced Controls – American Axle Manufacturing – a two-time VL Customer Excellence Award winner – leveraged Visual Lease to extend its controls framework and audit-preparedness, resulting in an 85% reduction in its controls deficiencies.
- Data-Driven Decisions – By merging its lease portfolio and business data into a proprietary visualization tool using the VL platform, Compass can now make more strategic, data-driven decisions.
- Unified Teams & Data – Quanta Services uses VL to automate cross-departmental workflows and as a result, save an impactful amount of time and money, allowing for a more collaborative and efficient workflow.”
“We’re looking forward to announcing the winners of our 2024 VL Customer Excellence Awards at our in-person customer summit later this year. In the meantime, you can read more about our customers and how they utilize VL’s solutions here: https://visuallease.com/ourcustomers/.”
“Since Robert was interviewed, VL has announced its 2024 Customer Excellence Award winners. You can learn more about them here.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of VL’s future company goals? Michlewicz pointed out:
“While VL has always had strong relationships with global partners in the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) and Accounting and Professional Services/Consulting sectors, we are expanding our network to include even broader strategic Technology partnerships that represent how our clients are aligning their businesses.”
“These technology partnerships are intended to not only extend the value of the VL platform but also, further the value of other systems our clients have already invested in and align key financial and operational processes. By locking arms with other leading tech providers, our goal is to help more organizations recognize how important it is to get their leases, owned assets and other records centralized in VL. Doing so will help them easily achieve regulatory compliance and recognize the financial and operational benefits that come with having these records under management.”
Learn More About Visual Lease
Where can readers find VL online? Michlewicz concluded:
“Readers can learn more about Visual Lease at visuallease.com. They can also check out our blog, as well as our most recent VLDI Report for more helpful insights.”
“I invite colleagues to reach out to me with any follow-up and connect through LinkedIn — Robert Michlewicz.”
