How to Streamline the Lease Signing Process Using Property Management Software

Signing leases offline takes time and concerted effort. As a landlord, you have to create the lease, edit it, email it to your tenant, wait for them to review it, print it off, schedule a time for them to sign it, scan it, and then provide them with a physical copy. The lease signing process takes longer still if you’re using the postal service. Fortunately, there’s a better option in 2026: Online lease signing.

Property management software streamlines this entire process. With online lease signing, prospective tenants can view and sign the lease as soon as you make it available to them.

It sounds a lot simpler, doesn’t it?  But what does this process look like exactly?

In this article, we’re going to dive into the online lease signing process when you use property management software.

The Process

It’s simple to switch over to managing the rental lease agreement through property management software. There are five main steps that will help you set things up:

1. Upload Your Lease
2. Allocate Roles
3. Identify Lease Fields
4. Share Your Lease
5. Develop Templates

Step 1: Upload Your Lease

You won’t have to restart the whole leasing process when you move to putting the lease agreement online.  If you used leases in the past, you can upload those to your property management software to keep using what works best for you.

Uploading documents right from your computer or cloud-based storage (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) is quite simple. Additionally, you can store and save as many leases as you need to on the cloud. While a variety of formats and file types do the trick, leases saved as PDF or Word documents are usually your best bet. These formats offer you the best opportunity to preserve the exact space and sizing of the original documents.

Step 2: Allocate Roles

The key question here is: Who is signing the lease? After you upload leases to the software, you need to assign roles. For example, if you’re leasing a house to two tenants, you need three roles. You would assign “Landlord” to yourself and have one extra role for each tenant. It might also be a good idea to set up a specific signing order to avoid confusion.

Step 3: Indicating Lease Fields

When it comes to formatting leases, you have many options. Beyond the initial and signature fields, you’ll need to decide on the text box, checkbox, and date fields in your lease. Then, you simply drag and drop the fields to where you want them to appear in the lease. Once they’re set up, you and your tenants are ready to fill them in electronically.

It’s vital to mention that you should save your work throughout the process. Losing your progress is a headache you don’t need.

Sometimes, it might be prudent to include data validation in your lease fields. This verifies that the correct criteria for each specific text box are met. For instance, if you select an “email” validation, the information in that text box won’t be valid unless it is in an email format. And it’s just the same for “numeric” or “date” validations. Data validation is a useful method to make sure that all information is formatted accurately.

Step 4: Share Your Lease

With property management software like Innago, you can share leases right after you set them up. Make sure the correct fields are in place, be sure to save your document one more time, and then you’re good to go. Your software automatically sends a link to tenants to sign the lease via email. Unless you need to change things in the lease agreement later, you’ll never have to format the document again.

Step 5: Develop Templates

Templates are the form prior to drafts and live leases. They may be the most significant advantage of signing leases through property management software. They make it easy for you to quickly produce a digital lease agreement and turn it over to tenants without much delay.

One of the main reasons templates are so great is because many leases fall under a similar layout. When you save the basic lease format or rental contract as a template, it allows you to specify the details for specific units as drafts without changing the template for other units. Furthermore, customizable lease templates allow users to create auto-fill fields, recurring fields, and much more.

With property management software, most of the time you need to spend on binding lease agreements is only on the front end. After your documents are uploaded and the fields are in place, you can continue to reuse and store leases for as long as you want.

Why Innago Makes Lease Signing Simple

Innago makes lease signing effortless.

Once your account it set up, it’s simple to get started with online leasing:

• Upload your lease (or use one of our state-specific templates)
• Assign signers to the document
• Define fields (e.g., dates, signatures)
• Send your leases to tenants for them to e-sign
• Save your templates for future use

With Innago, tenants receive and sign their lease online within minutes, reducing administrative headaches and giving you more time to focus on scaling your rental business.

From handling rent collection and maintenance management to online lease signing, Innago has you covered.

Conclusion

Property management software simplifies the lease signing process. By following the five easy steps we laid out above, you’ll be up and running in no time. And you’ll love how much it streamlines your rental business.

FAQs

Can a lease agreement be electronically signed?

Yes, lease agreements can be electronically signed with online software. A lease signed online is still a binding lease agreement. However, be sure that you are compliant with both state and federal law. States like California and New York have their own e-signature laws for how they sign lease agreements in addition to federal laws.

What is the lease management process flow?

The lease management process flow is the lease, from its initial planning and agreement preparation to its execution, administration, and termination (or renewal). Each step in the flow plays a critical role in ensuring efficiency, accuracy, and compliance with lease accounting standards.

What are the 5 P’s of property management?

These five principles—property, people, pricing, promotion, and performance—help you reduce vacancy, protect the value of your investments, and grow returns in your rental property business.