Leasepoint System Optimization

May 15, 2019

Leasepoint is a powerful and flexible tool for enhancing an aircraft lessor’s operations. With in-depth knowledge of the daily workings of a leasing platform, Zeevo Group can deliver a tailored, customer-focused and nimble approach to the Leasepoint system’s optimization.

Weekly Insights: 

“To make the most of the Leasepoint system, your data must be complete and accurate.”

Update active internal lessor companies, existing and potential customers (e.g., airlines), asset manufacturers, parts suppliers, insurance companies and brokers, and asset owner companies, including banks and other leasing companies. Company details are used by multiple system features, including lease agreement setup; payment schedule payer and beneficiary details; letters of credit; insurance; and recording various asset and contract history events.

Bank branch and bank account details

Bank account details are required for the invoicing and creating and allocating cash settlements. Each payment schedule requires a corresponding payment bank account to be defined. The selected account is used to output any required wire details on the invoice and to record the bank account detail when the customer makes a payment.

A non-business day, or holiday info, data subscription may be important to you if you need to track a large number of non-business days

Using the data available from the subscription, rent and late payment interest calculations are more accurate because holiday and other “non-business day” information is accurate and correct. Subscription services like Copp-Clark may issue periodic updates to non-business day data. The non-business day information calculates a payment schedule receivable due date based on the contract business convention parameter values.

Technical master data

At a minimum, it is recommended the airframe, engine, landing gear, and auxiliary power unit (APU) variant types are correct. The level of technical master data required depends on the level of asset detail you plan to track in the system. For example, tracking full engine disk sheets in the system will require the master parts list, parts catalog, and life limited parts (LLP) disk sheet component specifications to be up to date, including current LLP limits and replacement costs. Tracking only the most limiting part or limiting module can reduce the level of master parts data to maintain on an ongoing basis. Of course, just tracking the limiter may reduce your ability to prepare more robust maintenance forecasts and result in longer claim processing times. Whichever route your organization goes, there are some useful import interfaces you may be able to use to help with the initial setup of some of the required technical master data sets.

Airframe, engines, and APUs need to be set up as both assets and components

Defining the required component specifications needed to setup your fleet assets is crucial. Using component specifications is the most efficient way to setup aircraft assets, and its corresponding airframe, engine, landing gear, and APU components. The create via component specification process will also automatically create the required engine and APU asset records.

Zeevo can assist

Our team of industry experts are on standby to assist your leasing platform to spearhead data remediation to get the most value out of your Leasepoint. So, when do you want to get started? Contact us.

“The ability to query the status of current fleet assets and components, as well as legacy fleet activity, is a key reporting requirement for any leasing company.”

When was a specific aircraft sold, to whom, and for what price? How many aircraft were included in a legacy portfolio transaction?

Asset history

Creating asset history records is the primary way Leasepoint maintains an asset’s general information including date of manufacture (DOM), serial number, variant, purchase details, sale details, and/or owner, as an example. The asset history feature can accumulate useful asset event and status information over time, provided it is recorded in a consistent format. Understanding the list of available event types and asset statuses, and their intended uses is a key requirement for effective long-term use of the Leasepoint asset history feature.

Define the business processes needed to successfully manage asset history data to enhance fleet reporting capabilities

Well-defined business processes mitigate asset history data quality issues that may develop over time through inconsistent usage. Some asset history records are automatically created in specific scenarios. For example, engine asset history records are created when there is an “engine swap” event. Also, certain contract events will automatically be added to the asset history when they occur (e.g., pending status Contract Summary). There is also a historic contract event type that allows recording of legacy lease information for an asset without creating a Contract Summary record.

Consistently recorded asset history records will enhance your business intelligence (BI) capabilities

BI dashboards and reports using asset history data can have a wide array of applications. For example, dashboards can present a visual fleet summary with breakdowns of the fleet by aircraft variant, lessee, portfolio, purchase details or however else users wish the event data to be sliced and diced.

Zeevo can assist

Our team of industry experts are on standby to assist your leasing platform to implement best practices on setting up asset history records in order to get the most value out of your Leasepoint. So, when do you want to get started? Contact us.

“Ensure the provisions most important to your platform are tracked and understand how you are going to enter the information into Leasepoint.”

In Leasepoint, the lease agreement data structure incorporates a Contract Summary and a collection of related payment schedule contracts for each applicable lease agreement payment type.

Supporting different lease provision types

A Contract Summary can record details on the lease’s parties, term, extension and early termination options, as well as scheduled events, among other applicable information. It is important to understand the different Contract Summary and contract-related features available before deciding which features to implement.

As an example, the following elements can be configured for each Contract Summary:

• Specific return conditions;
• Event reminders for different milestones throughout the lifetime of the lease;
• Less common lease provisions within the General Information feature; and
• User defined templates for tracking checklists and redelivery conditions.

Initial system configuration

Defining the business processes to support the maintenance of lease provision data is an important part of the configuration process, which ensures lease provisions and relevant milestones critical to your lease contract are tracked and monitored. Depending on the desired lease provisions, certain system re-configuration is required.

Lease agreement setup

Understanding the different parameters available for each payment schedule type is critical to maximizing the available feature set. A Contract Summary, and a related payment schedule contract, are typically established for each applicable lease agreement payment type. For example, a payment contract is created for the operating lease, security deposit, and maintenance reserves payment schedules for the corresponding reserve funds. The Contract Summary can be set up to deliver event notifications for any pending lease extension and early termination options held by a lessee.

Zeevo can assist

Our team of industry experts are on standby to assist your leasing platform to optimize your Contract Summary and Contract payment schedule features to get the most value out of your Leasepoint. So, when do you want to get started? Contact us.

“Many different calculation types are supported by Leasepoint’s payment schedule calculation engine.”

Each payment schedule allows the user to define a currency to use for the amounts due. Linked fee or payment schedules can also be configured to invoice any additional amounts, such as management fees.

Invoicing in a foreign currency

Levels of complexity increase when trying to invoice amounts in a foreign currency. A good example is Value Added Tax (VAT) in China, which is typically invoiced separately in Yuan, but the main lease payment due may be invoiced in USD. Instead of using the USD to Yuan exchange rate, the Yuan to USD exchange rate may need to be utilized to perform the calculation. This may also require additional manual updating of applicable invoices or system configuration to display the correct base currency and exchange rate amounts used.

Configurable invoice templates

Different invoice templates can be configured for each payment type and customer. Similarly, a global invoice template can be defined. Typically, invoicing requirements will differ between legal jurisdictions and a variety of invoice templates may be required to support an effective invoicing solution. Invoicing teams will have fewer manual invoice updates to apply every month if invoice templates are properly defined and implemented. When configured properly, Leasepoint can generate invoices in batches. For example, the system can generate all operating lease invoices for a lessee on a specific day of the month.

Zeevo can assist

Our team of industry experts are on standby to assist your invoicing team to get the most value out of your available Leasepoint invoicing features. We can help you understand how to map your invoicing requirements to Leasepoint, customize your invoice templates, and optimize your overall invoicing processes. So, when do you want to get started? Contact us.

“Leasepoint provides utilization-based charge setup features to support flight hour rent, additional rent for excess cycles, and maintenance reserves charge types.”

Creating the maintenance reserve contract payment schedules in Leasepoint requires different levels of effort depending on the volume of each lease’s legacy maintenance reserve transaction details.

Establishing the initial fund balances

Leasepoint allows re-creation of an entire maintenance reserve transaction history to arrive at the correct current fund balances for each asset, including historic charges; installments; drawdowns; claims; top-up/lessor contribution obligations; and cash receipt details. A simpler alternative approach may be to set the fund balance values and configure charge and escalation parameters to calculate the correct amounts due for each period going forward from an agreed selected point in time. Pending claims and top-up obligation details can also be established as of the same selected point in time.

Legacy utilization data

A related decision needs to be made about utilization data. For lease agreements where maintenance reserves are calculated based on reported utilization values, the needed utilization reports are typically consistently submitted by maintenance reserve paying lessees. This enables lessors to track component utilization period to period including the total time details. Collecting component utilization and total time details  can be more difficult for aircraft where maintenance reserves or any utilization-based charges do not exist. Complete legacy utilization values may be required if the decision to recreate the legacy maintenance reserve transactions to arrive at current fund balance is made. Absent the complete legacy utilization data the legacy amount due is manually set using the override feature.

Charge setup complexity

A large majority of maintenance reserve charge parameter setup will be a simple calendar based, or dollar rate multiplied by the period reported flight hours, cycles, or auxiliary power unit (APU) hours. Leasepoint also supports a wide range of the more complicated reserve charge setup types, for example, engine de-rate and average sector length charge calculations and escalation types. Understanding the features available to you, including the charge and escalation parameters, adjustment and true-up functions, will be a key success factor in maintaining your fund transaction and balance details consistently. In addition, spending the time defining the business processes required to support the tracking of maintenance reserves data is a worthwhile exercise. This will help ensure your organization can rely on the fund balance and reserve claim information stored in Leasepoint. It is also key data to create and run maintenance event exposure forecasts and advanced business intelligence dashboards and reports.

Zeevo can assist

Our team of industry experts are on standby to assist your team to get the most value out of your available Leasepoint maintenance reserves calculation, payment schedule, and fund and claim management features. We can help you understand how to setup your charge and escalation parameters, and how to properly manage your other fund transaction types including maintenance claims and other fund balance management features. So, when do you want to get started? Contact us.

“To optimize accuracy in forecasting maintenance needs and costs, Leasepoint can be utilized to track asset maintenance intervals and accurate total time values.”

To optimize accuracy in forecasting aircraft maintenance needs, a considerably sophisticated model of maintenance event scheduling and expenditures is necessary, one that integrates multiple variables and parameters. When using Leasepoint to track asset maintenance intervals, accurate total time values are key for any next event date and cost forecasting.

Maintenance programs

First step is to configure the required original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) and operator maintenance event type intervals and estimated costs. Maintenance event types are then assigned to each applicable component. Once the relevant maintenance event types are assigned, the system will create a maintenance program and begin calculating the estimated next event date and costs for each assigned component. The task processor must be configured to process the maintenance program details regularly. This process is required to run to re-calculate the next event details for each component.

Utilization data dependencies 

Another variable to consider is utilization data that is submitted inconsistently for aircraft where reserves or utilization-based charge calculations are not invoiced. An aircraft inspection report will typically provide insight into these aircraft utilization details. A typical approach for assets’ and components’ total time values involves resetting these values manually each time information is received from lessees.

What are the benefits for lessors?

With accurate total time values, creating maintenance programs (e.g., engine performance restorations or airframe heavy checks) using the requisite interval and cost estimates per OEM or operator data, and internal knowledge enables several benefits, including but not limited to:

• Robust shop visit and maintenance event and cost actuals tracking;
• Comprehensive evaluation analysis of assets;
• Enhanced maintenance forecasting; and
• Better insight when processing reserve claims.

Zeevo can assist

Our team of industry experts are on standby to assist your team to get the most value out of your available Leasepoint technical features, including how to set up and maintain component maintenance program data. We can help you understand how you may be able to leverage your Leasepoint data to deliver enhanced data analytics and reporting capabilities to your leasing platform. So, when do you want to get started? Contact us.

“A significant amount of data is involved in maintaining aircraft technical records, which requires a comprehensive implementation plan and well-defined business processes.”

Leasepoint allows multiple technical specification (i.e. tech spec) versions for each aircraft asset. The equipment list, modification list, and Air Transport Association (ATA) chapter information needs be configured based on the specific business requirements. There is a significant amount of data involved which requires a comprehensive implementation plan and well-defined business processes to support the ongoing maintenance of the technical specification data in Leasepoint.

Technical Specification Details

Multiple, customizable technical specifications can be created for an aircraft asset for marketing / sale or other activities. Technical specifications in Leasepoint cover several areas, including but not limited to:

• General information (such as extended-range twin-engine operational performance standards ‘ETOPS,’ type certification);
• Weights (such as operating, purchased, and design weights);
• Fuel;
• Cabin configuration (such as passenger (PAX) seating, galleys, and lavatories ‘lavs’);
• Equipment (such as avionics); and
• Modifications (such as mods, cargo, and in-flight entertainment ‘IFE’).

Aircraft Data Sheet

The aircraft data sheet feature can be used to generate an editable aircraft data sheet. This generated aircraft data sheet can be provided to an aircraft inspector, for example, to update the applicable values. When the updated aircraft data sheet is received it can be imported back into Leasepoint. The imported aircraft data sheet is created as a new technical specification version for the aircraft.

Zeevo can assist

Our team of industry experts are ready to assist your team to get the most value out of your available Leasepoint technical features, including enhancing your understanding of how to set up and maintain aircraft technical specifications. So, when do you want to get started? Contact us.

“Leasepoint can be complemented with advanced third-party reporting and business intelligence technologies.”

Leasepoint has a long list of standard reports available to you. The newer reports developed are using the Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) technology which delivers some very useful reports to Leasepoint users. It is important to complete the exercise of reviewing the available reports in Leasepoint to decide which reports are fit for purpose. Where there are reporting gaps, the options available to fill those reporting gaps depend on the level of your organizations access to the Leasepoint database.

Advanced Reporting and BI

Leasepoint can be complemented with advanced third-party reporting and Business Intelligence (“BI”) technologies, provided the technologies can access the Leasepoint data. Access to data maintained in Leasepoint enables advanced data analytics and systems integration. Data access can be provisioned directly (if the database is hosted internally) or indirectly (if the database is hosted in the cloud). The use of third-party tools allows for the creation of advanced and comprehensive reporting and analytics solutions that meet custom reporting needs.

Dashboards and Analytics

BI dashboards and reports using Leasepoint data have a wide array of applications. For example, dashboards can present a visual fleet summary with breakdowns of the fleet by aircraft variant, lessee, portfolio, specification details or however else users wish their data to be sliced and diced. They can also be used to quickly see upcoming deliveries and returns.  More advanced analytical dashboards can be used for workload planning, integrity checks (e.g., notifications where Leasepoint data needs to be reconciled such as abnormal utilization), technical specification customization and maintenance cashflow forecasts.

The Possibilities are Endless

Zeevo Group has extensive experience with business intelligence and in developing dashboards and custom reports leveraging Leasepoint data. With the appropriate access, any number of custom reports can be developed.  Incorporating data from other sources and combining it with your Leasepoint data enables advanced data analytics. Leasepoint is a powerful and flexible tool for enhancing an aviation lessor’s operations. With a robust feature set at your disposal, a comprehensive implementation, configuration, and data remediation project based on your organization’s needs can unlock untapped potential for a competitive edge.

Zeevo can assist

Our team of industry experts are ready to assist your team to develop custom web, mobile, reporting, and BI solutions. So, when do you want to get started? Contact us.

“Leasepoint is a core application that’s part of a broader landscape of applications used in your organization.”

The ability for disparate systems to communicate with each other is a typically well know requirement for every organization. Replicating data across multiple systems is a risky undertaking. One mitigating approach is to create an interface to fetch any required data from the system where it lives. Leasepoint is no different and clients frequently have a need to leverage their valuable data maintained in Leasepoint.

Integration

The Interfaces module has an export feature that enables you to setup simple data exports. The data can be exported in .csv or .xls flat file format and saved to a pre-defined output folder. Additional software can be developed to retrieve the exported data flat files, transform, and load into the destination system or database. A good example is interfacing fleet data from Leasepoint for use in another 3^rd party GL, business intelligence, or CRM software. Another option, provided you host your own database, is to develop custom data extracts directly from your database. The destination for the data could be a central data warehouse where multiple different applications and processes are able to leverage the Leasepoint data.

Building Your Own Add-ons

Once you are successfully able to leverage your existing Leasepoint data, the option to start developing some custom add-on software is greatly enhanced. For example, leveraging your Leasepoint data to develop a web portal for your Marketing and Technical teams for use when they are on the road. Or maybe a key messaging mobile app for your marketing and sales team. An interface with your Leasepoint data may also enhance your ability to get the data you need to perform the advanced analytics and forecasting you’ve been asking for. When properly integrated, there are many possibilities to enhance your overall technology capabilities.

Zeevo can assist

With wide-ranging experience in the aviation industry coupled with Leasepoint expertise, Zeevo Group is ready to help your company design and develop the interfaces needed to empower your organization through systems integration. An effective integration strategy will enable development of custom desktop, web, mobile, reporting and BI solutions and allow you more easily perform advanced data analytics. So, when do you want to get started? Contact us.

Related read:

• Read more about harnessing the power of Leasepoint in an article which appeared on Jan 23, 2019 in Airfinance Journal’s Daily Newspaper during the Global Airfinance conference held in Dublin, Ireland. Read

Disclaimer: These insights are independent articles and have not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by AMT-SYBEX. Leasepoint is a trademark of Capita plc, registered in the U.S. and other countries.