Question 1

How is Ledger Layer different from LeaseAccelerator, Visual Lease, or Nakisa?

Accepted Answer

Legacy lease accounting systems cost $25,000–$150,000/year and require 3–6 month implementation projects. Ledger Layer starts at $49/month with no implementation project — upload your Excel file, get audit-ready output. We cover IFRS 16, ASC 842, IFRS 15, and ASC 606 on a single deterministic engine. The engine is hash-verified, present-value tie-out is validated to $0.01, and every journal is approval-gated by a human reviewer. AI extracts data from contracts; AI never touches the math.

Question 2

Why can't I just use ChatGPT or Claude for lease accounting?

Accepted Answer

LLMs hallucinate numbers. They are probabilistic text predictors, not deterministic calculators. For a $10M lease portfolio, a 0.5% calculation error is $50,000 — enough to materially misstate financials. Ledger Layer uses AI only for extraction (reading contracts, pulling fields) and deterministic code for every calculation: present value, ROU amortization, interest accretion, modifications, remeasurements. The engine produces the same output every time for the same input, and every output is hash-verified so auditors can reproduce it.

Question 3

What standards does Ledger Layer cover?

Accepted Answer

IFRS 16 (leases), ASC 842 (leases, US GAAP), IFRS 15 (revenue), and ASC 606 (revenue, US GAAP). All four run on the same deterministic engine with paragraph-level citations — IFRS 16 para 53–58 disclosures, ASC 842-20-50 disclosures, IFRS 15 5-step model, ASC 606 SSP allocation. Dual-reporting entities can run IFRS 16 and ASC 842 side-by-side on the same lease.

Question 4

How does the MCP agent interface work?

Accepted Answer

MCP (Model Context Protocol) lets AI agents like Claude, ChatGPT, and n8n call Ledger Layer directly. We expose 50+ tools — lease_extract, lease_confirm, engine_run, revenue_contract_extract, journal_search, disclosures_get, and more. Your agent can read a contract from email, extract it via lease_extract, confirm it via lease_confirm, run the engine, and fetch disclosures — all programmatically. Available on Professional and Enterprise plans.

Question 5

How much does Ledger Layer cost compared to legacy systems?

Accepted Answer

Starter is $49/month — 1 entity, up to 50 leases and 50 revenue contracts, all 4 standards (IFRS 16, ASC 842, IFRS 15, ASC 606). Professional is $499/month — up to 50 entities, unlimited leases, unlimited revenue contracts, all 4 standards, MCP agent interface, webhooks, and every new module added to the roadmap included free. Enterprise is custom-priced for audit firms and dual-reporting groups. Compare that to LeaseAccelerator at ~$60k/year entry, Visual Lease at ~$25k/year entry, Nakisa at $80k+/year, and CoStar at $40k+/year — all lease-only and all with 3–6 month implementation projects. Ledger Layer onboarding is 3–5 days, not months.

Question 6

Is Ledger Layer auditor-ready?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every calculation is hash-verified — the engine signs each output with a cryptographic hash that auditors can recompute from the inputs. Present value is validated to $0.01 against the contractual schedule. Every journal entry is approval-gated: no journal posts without a human reviewer. Full audit trail: who extracted, who reviewed, who approved, timestamp, hash. Big 4 firms can drop Ledger Layer output directly into workpapers.

Question 7

Who can access what? (RBAC)

Accepted Answer

Ledger Layer has four roles. OWNER — full admin, billing, entity setup, user management. ADMIN — entity configuration, policy binding, FX/IBR rates, user management within entity. PREPARER — upload contracts, extract data, confirm leases, run engine, prepare journals. REVIEWER — review and approve journals, cannot create or modify. Segregation of duties is enforced at the database level — a preparer cannot approve their own journal.

Question 8

Can I import from Excel?

Accepted Answer

Yes — this is the primary onboarding path. Upload your existing lease or revenue contract spreadsheet and Ledger Layer extracts fields, flags issues, and produces audit-ready output. You can also upload PDF contracts directly — the extractor reads them, pulls terms, and you confirm the extraction before the engine runs.

Question 9

How fast can I get started?

Accepted Answer

3–5 days from signup to first audit-ready output, for most teams. No implementation project, no consultants, no multi-month rollout. Upload an Excel file on day 1; your first journals are approval-ready on day 2–3; by the end of the week you're running month-end close. Enterprise deployments with multi-entity setup and policy overlays take longer.

Question 10

What happens if I need to cancel?

Accepted Answer

Cancel anytime from settings. No minimum term on Starter or Professional. Your data is exportable at any point — full journal history, lease schedules, disclosures, audit trail — in CSV, JSON, or Excel. We don't hold your data hostage.

Capability	Ledger Layer	CoStar Real Estate Manager
Architecture era	✓ AI-native infrastructure — MCP-first, API-first, agent-ready by design	~ SaaS application — agent access is absent or retrofitted onto a closed data model
AI agent interface (MCP)	✓ 75+ schema-validated tools for Claude, GPT, n8n	✕ No MCP. No structured AI agent interface.
AI-powered data extraction	✓ Upload Excel/PDF/CSV — AI extracts lease terms automatically	~ Data migration tools available. Not AI-agent-driven.
Self-hosted deployment	✓ Docker / on-prem — full data sovereignty	✕ Cloud SaaS only. No self-hosted option.
Revenue recognition	✓ IFRS 15 + ASC 606 live today — same engine as lease accounting	✕ Lease and real estate focused. No revenue recognition.
Time to first output	✓ Upload Excel → engine output in minutes	~ Implementation project. Guided onboarding required.
Transparent pricing	✓ Entity-based. From $49/mo. Published on website.	~ Enterprise pricing. Bundled with CoStar ecosystem.
Hash-verified output	✓ Same inputs → same cryptographic hash every time	~ Standard deterministic output. Not hash-verified.
Real estate data and market intelligence	✕ Accounting infrastructure. Not a real estate data platform.	✓ CoStar's core strength — market analytics, comps, property data.
Lease administration	~ Accounting-focused engine with portfolio management	✓ Full lease lifecycle — abstracting, critical dates, obligations.
Multi-standard output	✓ IFRS 16 + ASC 842 from same lease record	✓ Both lease standards supported.
Approval immutability	✓ DB-enforced. Approved JEs cannot be deleted.	~ Workflow-based. Configuration-dependent.
ERP / downstream integration	✓ Structured journal export (CSV, XLSX, JSON) plus MCP and outbound webhooks — drive SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, or any downstream via Alteryx, n8n, Workato, Zapier, or your own middleware	✓ ERP integrations available. Implementation required.

Ledger Layer vs CoStar Real Estate Manager

Different products for different buyers

When to choose Ledger Layer vs CoStar REM

The accounting engine your AI stack needs.