Intro to Course

Welcome to Lease Record Clauses Training with VLU. This course will explore the Clauses tab of a lease record, providing instructions and best practice recommendations for capturing key lease information.
By the end of this course, learners should feel comfortable:

•  Entering Lease Clauses and Options
•  How to link those clauses to your stored documents for easy reference
•  How to update an exercised option
•  How to leverage clause and option importer tools to update many clauses at the same time

Please take a moment to review the course agenda. If you are looking for a specific topic, feel free to jump to the corresponding timestamp.

In this video, we will introduce you to clauses and give a brief overview of how they can be managed from the VL Platform.

Tracking your various data points and details of your lease documents is easy in the VL platform. These details, or Clauses, are the backbone of any lease agreement. As we know, clauses specify the rules of the lease and identify responsible parties for every facet of the lease. Using Lease abstraction, you can generate summaries of the lease documents and their clauses, so they can be referenced for the lifespan of the lease.

The Clauses tab of your lease record is where you will enter and edit clause abstracts and data elements related to your lease. You can even link each clause directly to the document it came from for easy reference.
The clauses tab offers a flexible avenue to enter an unlimited number of user-defined clauses and clause groups to meet the unique needs of your organization.

By default, each platform is configured with industry best practice clauses and groups; however, Platform Administrators have full control over how each clause is grouped, what they are called and their format. These decisions are typically made during the implementation process, but new clauses and groups can be added over time to support the changing needs of your business.
Keep this customization in mind as we navigate the platform and remember that your view may differ from what you see in this course.

While clauses themselves can be extraordinarily complex, the clauses tab of the within the VL platform has been designed and constantly upgraded for simplicity and ease of use.
The clauses tab contains a few different features. In this section

You can:

• Add clauses for your leases based on what you want to capture.
• And view the audit trail of each clause to see any historical changes that were made

To expand or collapse a clause group, you can either

• Expand or collapse one clause group at a time by simply clicking the header containing the group name and clicking again to collapse.
• Or you may expand or collapse groups by clicking this kebob and or choose to expand or collapse all from the action menu.

In this video, we will discuss how to add clauses within the VL platform.
There may be several types of clauses and clause groups that your platform administrator may have set up according to your business needs. This preparation makes it easy to include different types of abstracted information for your reporting requirements. Clauses may capture text, important numbers, dates, lease party responsibilities that specify tenant or landlord responsibilities, options, multi or single-select checklists, and more.

No matter the selected clause type, all clauses will have the same general structure.
The Add clause button allows you to add a clause on your lease.

To add a clause, click Manage Clause(s). A small pop-up will appear where you will see a list of available clause categories. You can expand each category using the caret next to each category, and use check marks to select specific clauses that you are adding or select this box to include all clauses available within that category. In this example, I will expand the term, use and occupancy clause group.

Notice, clauses that are checked have already been added to the Lease record.

If you uncheck a clause or clause group that has already been added to the lease and click Save, you will be prompted to confirm the deletion of those clauses.

Once the desired clauses have been added to the record, you can update them with the appropriate details from your lease documents by clicking the kebob at the end of the section and selecting edit from the action menu.

You will see a pop-up screen allowing you to input your abstracted information. The pop-up is divided into two sections.

The first is Clause Details, which includes most fields associated with the clause like:

• The Clause Description: which is the description of the clause itself as determined by your platform administrator. This is typically used to provide a definition of the clause or provide instructions on what should be included in the Text Detail.
• Alert and Action Dates: These dates are considered clause Critical dates, which give you an opportunity to store important dates related to each lease clause. These dates can generate alerts and show up on various reports and dashboards, which can trigger necessary actions that you may need to complete to be in accordance with your lease provisions.
• Text Detail, will vary depending on the type of clause you are viewing. You can use this to summarize the clause terms. As a best practice, we also recommend including the location in the lease document where this clause was abstracted from. This makes it easy to view and share the information in a report.

The Document References section is where you can link:

• your clause to relevant documents
• and identify which documents, sections, and pages were abstracted to generate this clause summary.

This functionality will allow you and your team to quickly click on the source documentation and open to the exact page you need to read relevant text. This feature saves countless hours of scrolling through lengthy and complex documentation when needing to make major decisions.

First, make sure the desired document has been added to the documents tab of the lease record.

I will see the pre-loaded documents in my platform and then select the document I’m referencing from the drop-down menu.

Now we will enter the actual page number referenced on the document in the page field, the article of the corresponding lease clause in which the specific paragraph appears, the PDF page number, and add any relevant notes in the comments field. Once completed, save the reference which will take you back to the Edit Clause Pop-up.

The date calculator is located here. This allows you to quickly determine future or past dates in order set alerts and actions.

To calculate a date, you must first enter the start date from which you are projecting a future or past date. Then enter the number of years, months, and days to be calculated. In the calculated date field you will see the future/past date based on the information you have provided. Copy this date, and apply it to the Alert Date or Action Date fields within the clause details section.
Once you have completed entering all the abstracted details into this clause, you can continue abstracting and entering other data by switching clauses here. You can switch to other clauses to edit allowing you to easily manage the multiple clauses found on your lease.

If you wanted to view the history of a specific clause, simply choose the view history action button found from the kebob at the end of each clause.

Viewing the history of a clause is like an audit trail, showing you the various changes that took place over time. This can help you identify who made changes and when, recover accidentally altered clause details, and more.
To delete a clause, locate the specific clause and click this kebob. Choose delete from the action menu. A dialogue box will appear confirming the deletion removing the clause from your lease record.
In this video, we will review how to update an incredibly important clause type: Lease Options. This clause captures critical data such as Renewals, extensions, and termination options, which are monitored over time to avoid overpayments or missed deadlines. Lease Options are also critical for complying with current lease accounting standards.

In my instance of the VL platform, lease option details are found in the Term, Use & Occupancy group under the header options list. Clicking edit from the kebob action menu, you will see three sections, clause details, option details , and document references. Please note: The option details section does not display for every clause.

Each header has the details of each section within it. Simply expand the header to view the details. You can add a document reference or edit or delete the option by clicking the kebob from the action menu.

Let’s add a lease option. Click Add Option and you will see the Option Details section to enter information abstracted from the lease.
Let’s look more closely at the Option Details and their relevancy. The Option Name allows you to name each option you have. We recommend nomenclature such as Renewal Option 1 of 2 which helps identify how many of one specific option you may have.

Option Type will identify the type of option, for example, Autorenewal, Cancellation, Downsize, Expansion etc.

Option Status will dictate the status of the option. This required field helps to manage your data and will automatically update based on the your selections in the side tab.

Let’s take a closer look at status designations:
Available means this option is available to be exercised at the present time. This status is allowed when there is no exercise window stipulated below, or if you are currently within the exercise window.

Exercised will indicate that the option was exercised and

Not Exercised shows that the tenant has decided not to exercise the option.

If the option has expired, then this implies that the Exercise window has passed. This status will automatically update to Expired when the exercise window end date passes and there is no user action that marks the option as exercised or not exercised.

If Option status is set to future, this means that the exercise window is, as you guessed it, set for a future date.

Finally, Lease is Silent indicates that the lease does not provide for an option of the specified type. This is usually used to reduce confusion when someone looking at the lease wonders if an option exists but has not been abstracted.
Let’s set this to Future for now.

The Exercise Window Start and End dates reflect the beginning and end dates of the period in which an option can be exercised. These are Clause Critical dates and can generate alerts and be available on various reports and areas throughout the platform. These dates are key, because if they are inadvertently missed, it can significantly impact your organization.

Date Exercised reflects the date the option is exercised. This auto populates to the current date when the Option status is changed to Exercised.

Likely to be exercised is used to indicate that an option is likely to be exercised. Check this box as it is critical for enabling lease accounting calculations to potentially extend or reduce the likely term of the lease based on the likelihood of exercising options that impact lease term.

Utilize the Comment box to include any other details you wish to help describe the option based on your abstract.

The if exercised section below, includes the new commencement and expiration, or rentable area and rentable area effective date if the option was exercised. Once you are finished with adding your options, click Save. You can now enter the corresponding document references in the Edit Clause dialogue box and Save to close.

The option is now saved into the Options List. Edit and delete functions are always available by selecting the kebob to open the action menu at the end of the option selecting Edit or Delete.
In this video, we will discuss the process to exercise a lease option. Exercising an Option can be done in three ways.
The first is to manually edit the option by marking the Option status as Exercised from the edit option window and specifying a Date exercised..
If done this way, the fields in the “If Exercised, Update Key Lease fields to” section will automatically update those fields elsewhere in the lease record.

The second way to exercise an option is if you leverage the exercise option action from the lease sidebar. In the sidebar, you will see a lease options section indicating if an exercisable option is available now or in the future. If the Option Status is reflected as Available, as in this example, click on the status and a dialogue box will open that allows you to confirm the exercising of available options. Once you do this, the fields you stored in the bottom of your option clause will automatically update in the platform.

The third way is to click the kebob found here and choosing exercise option. A dialogue box will open with a dropdown containing the available options to exercise. Choose the appropriate option and select exercise option.

When exercising an option from the information sidebar, data points will update as stipulated in the pop-up window. The new Commencement Date and Expiration Date will update, and the financials scheduled to end on the previous Expiration Date will now end on the new Expiration Date. The Option Status and Exercise date will also update in the Option Clause. These automatic updates save time when exercising any options.
If you want to update clauses for many leases all at once, you can do so through the import tools for clauses or for options, if you have the rights to do so. Please contact your VL administrator if you require access to the Import Lease Information tool.

To get to the importer, navigate to Tools in the Main Menu, and select Import Lease Information.

Here you will see a variety of Import tools that allow you to mass-upload data into a variety of fields and functions throughout the platform using pre-formatted Excel templates.
Under Import Secondary Templates, you will see the links for the Lease Options and Lease Clauses importer tools.

Let’s select Lease Clauses First.

At the top of the screen, there are detailed instructions and important notes to help you achieve a smooth and successful import. Beneath it you can download the import template and upload it when you are ready.
Let’s download the template so I can walk you through it.

Click the Excel icon “Click here to download the template.”

Ensure to Enable Editing at the top of the document.

This Template has separate tabs for importing specific Clause Types. Lease clauses, lease responsibility clauses.The other two tabs, clause list and responsible parties, are used as reference tables indicating the correct entry format for each item on the respective tables. Let’s look at the first tab lease clauses.
Lease Clauses is where you will add all clauses related to your leases other than options clauses and responsibility clauses, due to their more detailed layouts.

At the top are clear instructions on required fields, optional fields, and other instructions on the proper rules necessary to make a smooth data upload.

As you can see, the columns mirror the fields found within each Clause. Fields that are required have a blue column header in the template – in this case fields like Lease ID, Clause Group and Clause Name. Columns with a gray header are optional to populate.

It is very important that you do NOT manipulate tabs, move, or delete columns as this will cause the import to fail.

Start populating the template by entering the lease id in which you want to import clauses and then utilize the Clause List tab to copy the appropriate Clause Group and Clause Name. Copying-pasting these into your template helps you avoid any spelling errors or typos or hanging spaces at the front or back of the word that could cause the import to fail. Fill in your abstracted clause information in the appropriate columns. You can do the same for the lease Responsibility Clauses tab as well.
Once you have finished updating your template, save the Excel file to your network.
Return to the importer page in Visual Lease and select Browse. Select the file you just saved and hit “Open.”
Then click Upload and Process.
When it finishes processing, the confirmed results will display at the bottom of the screen.

If there are any errors, you will see them in the results area of the import. You can easily export this error grid if you like, to help identify those leases on your import template that need corrected before attempting to import again.
Please note that importing clauses will either add these clauses to your specified leases for the first time, or if there is already clause data populated in these clauses on the specified leases, the import will overwrite them. Remember you can always use the Clause History feature in clauses to see any prior versions of clauses, just in case.
Now, let me quickly show you how to access your Options importer template. Go back to Import Lease Information and click Import Lease Options. This will open another browser tab to allow you to download the template and start inputting your data.

Now we’re going to download the template and then open the Excel file
At the top are clear instructions on required fields, optional fields, and other instructions on the proper rules necessary to make a smooth data upload. Like the other template, blue Headers mean that data in these columns is required; optional fields will have a gray background header.

The columns will mimic the data points available in the clause option grid of your Clauses window, which we just reviewed together.

Again, start by entering the lease id in which you want to import lease options, utilize the Options Clauses List and Option Types and Statuses tabs to copy and paste the exact values you want to enter, to minimize risk of errors. Once completed save the template on your local drive, and upload and process like you did on the last importer template.

That concludes our Lease Clauses training course. Remember:

• Alert and Action Dates are considered clause critical dates, which give you an opportunity to always store important dates related to each lease clause.
• Uploading document references will allow you and your team to quickly view source documentation to quickly click on the source documentation and open to the page you need to read the actual text.
• When importing bulk options or clauses, it is important that you do NOT manipulate tabs, move, or delete columns as this will cause the import to fail.

Thank you for your time. Questions, suggestions, and feedback can be sent to support@visuallease.com