For owners of a few commercial suites, not lease administration teams

Commercial Lease Tracking Software
for Small Landlords

A commercial lease is a five or ten year contract with dates that cost money when they slip: a renewal notice deadline, a rent step, a tenant's insurance certificate that lapsed. Here is what to track for every suite, what lease software does with it, and how much software a small owner actually needs.

See what to track See SealedFolio's two plans

Short answer: track the dates and the money for each suite in one place

Commercial lease tracking comes down to two lists: the critical dates in each lease and the amounts the tenant owes. Large owners buy lease administration platforms that abstract every clause and run CAM reconciliations. An owner of a strip center, a small office building or a few mixed-use storefronts usually needs less: every lease's term, rent and deposit, a warning before leases end, and the signed lease next to the books.

SealedFolio records lease dates, rent and deposits per tenant and unit, flags leases ending in the next 30 days and keeps the signed lease in an encrypted database on your computer. It does not run CAM reconciliations or stepped rent schedules.

What to record for every commercial lease

Item	Why it matters	Where it is in the lease
Commencement and expiration dates	Sets the term, the rent start and the vacancy risk	Basic terms or term section
Rent commencement and free rent	Rent often starts months after possession on a new build-out	Rent section or work letter
Base rent, payment day, late fee	What you deposit each month and when it is late	Rent section
Escalations	Fixed steps, a percentage or a CPI adjustment change the rent mid-term	Rent schedule exhibit
Expense structure	Gross, modified gross or triple net decides who pays taxes, insurance and common area costs	Operating expenses section
Renewal options and notice deadlines	A tenant may have to give notice 6 to 12 months before expiration; you need the same lead time to market the space	Options or renewal rider
Security deposit or letter of credit	A liability you hold, and a letter of credit can expire before the lease does	Security deposit section
Tenant insurance certificate	Coverage and additional insured status must stay current	Insurance section
Guarantor	Who you can pursue if a small business tenant fails	Guaranty exhibit

Three ways to track commercial leases

Lease administration platforms. Built for portfolios with hundreds of leases and a team that abstracts every clause. They handle CAM reconciliation, critical-date workflows and lease accounting standards, and are priced and sold for that scale.
Commercial property management platforms. Online systems that combine tenant billing, CAM charges and owner reporting, usually priced per unit or per square foot with an onboarding fee and a minimum.
A spreadsheet plus your books. Free and flexible, and the most common setup for small owners. The weak point is that nothing warns you: an expiration or a notice deadline sits in a cell until someone remembers to look.

A desktop app such as SealedFolio sits between the last two. It keeps the lease records and the property's books together without moving them to a vendor's server, and it is priced for owners rather than management companies. If your suites are spread across several buildings and cities, SealedFolio compares lease software for owners with buildings in several cities, with the tenant-side platforms set apart.

Example: a six-suite retail strip

Diagram of the commercial lease tracking example: a 21,400 dollar monthly rent roll, a 5,200 dollar suite with a September 30 renewal notice deadline and 31,200 dollars of rent at risk — Commercial lease tracking: a six-suite retail strip. Diagram by SealedFolio.

Rent roll. Six suites lease for a combined $21,400 a month. Suite 4, a dental office at $5,200 a month, expires next June 30 and its lease requires renewal notice 9 months ahead, by September 30.
What is at stake. Suite 4 is 24% of the rent. If the tenant leaves and the space takes 6 months to re-lease, that is $31,200 of lost rent before leasing commissions and build-out.
The fix. Put the notice deadline on your calendar, start the renewal conversation before it, and keep the lease end in the tenant record so the dashboard flags it 30 days out as a final check.

The 30-day warning is the last line of defense, not the plan. For commercial space, the notice deadline is the date that matters.

What SealedFolio does for commercial leases

Lease records per tenant and unit. Lease start and end, monthly rent, payment day and security deposit, for each suite on a commercial property.
Expiration warnings. The dashboard lists leases ending in the next 30 days, and insurance policies ending in the next 30 days.
Rent roll. Each unit with its tenant, rent and lease term, ready for a lender or a buyer.
Signed leases with the books. Lease PDFs are stored per property in the encrypted database, next to the rent and expenses.
Commercial depreciation. Commercial buildings default to the 39-year recovery period for Schedule E.

What it does not do: CAM or triple net reconciliations, escalation schedules, percentage rent, tenant billing or online rent collection. For the rest of the commercial setup, see commercial real estate software without the 50-unit minimum and the local property management software page.

Commercial leases and books on your own computer

SealedFolio Pro is $19 a month or $179 a year for up to 3 properties. Portfolio is $39 a month or $297 a year for unlimited properties. Both come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

See SealedFolio pricing

Commercial lease tracking: frequently asked questions

What should commercial lease tracking software record?

At minimum: tenant, suite, lease start and end dates, base rent and payment day, security deposit, renewal option deadlines and notice periods, rent escalations, and who pays taxes, insurance and common area costs. Those are the dates and amounts that cost money when they are missed.

Do I need lease administration software for a few commercial tenants?

Usually not. Enterprise lease administration platforms are built for portfolios with hundreds of leases, abstracting teams and CAM reconciliations. With a handful of suites, a tool that tracks each lease's dates and rent alongside the property's books is enough.

Does SealedFolio handle CAM reconciliation or rent escalation schedules?

No. SealedFolio records each tenant's lease start and end, monthly rent, payment day and deposit, flags leases ending in the next 30 days on the dashboard and stores the signed lease. CAM reconciliations and stepped rent schedules are kept in your own worksheet or in dedicated commercial lease software.

How far ahead should I track commercial lease expirations?

Track the renewal notice deadline, not just the expiration. Commercial leases often require the tenant to give notice 6 to 12 months before the end date, so put that date on your calendar as well as the lease end.

Commercial Lease Tracking Softwarefor Small Landlords