Black Owl Systems and Crunchafi (the company that was LeaseCrunch until June 2025) are both lease accounting subledgers that sell to CPA firms, and they part ways on three things. Crunchafi lists GASB 87, 94 and 96 and lets a firm start a client on a pay-as-you-go plan. Black Owl lists no GASB standard, sells five quote-only tiers, and goes deeper on dual-standard reporting and lessor accounting. Neither vendor publishes a per-lease price.
This comparison is for US accounting firm partners, controllers and lease accountants who have both names on a shortlist and want to know which demo to book first. Every fact below comes from the two vendors' own pricing and product pages, not from a software directory.
Black Owl Systems vs Crunchafi at a glance
| Factor | Black Owl Systems | Crunchafi (formerly LeaseCrunch) |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Lease accounting subledger, lessee and lessor | Lease accounting software built for CPA firms and their clients, lessee and lessor |
| Standards it lists | ASC 842, IFRS 16, ASPE 3065 | ASC 842, IFRS 16, FRS 102, GASB 87, 94 and 96 |
| Published price | None. Five tiers, every one Contact Sales | No per-lease figure. One published add-on: audit trail data at $180 a year per client |
| Pricing basis | Lease volume, unlimited users and entities, no charge for inactive leases | Per lease; Starter pay as you go, Professional, Enterprise from 50 leases, custom firm pricing |
| CPA firm model | CPA Essentials and CPA Advanced, unlimited clients and users | Custom firm pricing, shared firm and client dashboard, no fees for modifications or remeasurements |
| Setup | "Four to eight weeks depending on your readiness" | Self-serve Starter plan; firm onboarding by sales |
| Lease data entry | Upload templates for master data and existing leases | AI reads key details (term, start and end dates, asset information) from an uploaded lease |
| Assurance | SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type 2 | Annual SOC 1 Type II and SOC 2 Type II reports |
The short version: both products produce the journal entries, amortization schedules and disclosures an ASC 842 engagement needs, and both handle lessee and lessor accounting. The choice comes down to which standards your client list needs, how you want to be billed, and whether your clients will work in the software themselves. Our separate pages on Black Owl Systems alternatives and pricing and the LeaseCrunch (Crunchafi) alternative cover each vendor on its own.
Is LeaseCrunch the same as Crunchafi?
Yes. LeaseCrunch rebranded to Crunchafi on June 25, 2025, and the vendor said the product and pricing were unchanged by the new name. That is why search results, review sites and older case studies still split between the two names, and why the product is listed as Crunchafi Lease Accounting (formerly LeaseCrunch). If a colleague asks how Black Owl compares with LeaseCrunch, this is the comparison they mean.
Crunchafi also sells a second product called Data Extraction. Despite the name, it is not lease abstraction: it connects read-only to a client's ERP and returns trial balances, general ledger detail and agings in a formatted workbook for audit and review work.
How much does Black Owl Systems cost?
Black Owl does not publish a dollar figure. Its pricing page lists three tiers for companies (Small Business, Large Companies and Enterprise) and two for accounting firms (CPA Essentials and CPA Advanced), and every one ends in a Contact Sales button. Even the entry tier lists unlimited users and entities, complete lessee and lessor functionality, all reports, all upload templates and free support.
What Black Owl does publish is the shape of the bill: its own comparison material says pricing is based on lease volume, with no charge for inactive leases. The two CPA tiers both include unlimited clients and users and multi-currency; CPA Advanced is pitched at higher-volume portfolios. Expect the quote to turn on how many active leases sit across your client base.
How much does Crunchafi cost?
Crunchafi does not publish a per-lease figure either, but it says more about structure than Black Owl does. Lease accounting is priced on a per lease basis. Companies choose between three plans:
- Starter: pay as you go, with "no other fees for implementation or support", aimed at smaller portfolios.
- Professional: discounted fees in exchange for an upfront commitment, for mid-size portfolios.
- Enterprise: 50 or more leases, custom pricing and flexible billing terms.
CPA firms get separate "exclusive firm pricing", quoted per firm, with no fees for modifications or remeasurements. Journal entries, amortization schedules and footnote reports are unlimited on every plan. The one number on the page is an add-on: unlimited lease audit trail history costs $180 a year per client, and the most recent 90 days are always free.
For a firm, the practical difference is this. With Crunchafi you can put a small client on Starter without negotiating anything. With Black Owl every client portfolio starts with a sales conversation, although the CPA tiers remove per-client counting once you are in.
Does Black Owl Systems support GASB 87?
Black Owl lists ASC 842, IFRS 16 and ASPE as the standards its plans cover, and GASB does not appear in its solutions menu or its plan list. Its pricing FAQ mentions GASB 87 only in a general paragraph about the new lease standards. If you serve governments, ask Black Owl in writing before you invest time in a demo.
Crunchafi names GASB 87, GASB 94 (public-private partnerships) and GASB 96 (subscription-based IT arrangements) as supported standards on its product page. For a firm with even a handful of governmental clients, that single difference often settles the shortlist. Our comparison of GASB 87 lease accounting software covers the other vendors that list it.
Which is better for CPA firms?
It depends on the kind of client you carry. Crunchafi was built firm-first: the firm and its client share one dashboard, so the client can load and update leases while the firm reviews and signs off, and the vendor's site cites more than 750 CPA firms as users. Black Owl's CPA tiers are built around firm staff doing the work across unlimited clients, with deeper accounting options once a client needs them.
| If this is true of you | Book first |
|---|---|
| You audit or compile for a county, city, school district or utility | Crunchafi. Black Owl does not list GASB |
| Your client reports under ASC 842 and IFRS 16 at the same time and needs both ledgers | Black Owl, for its two full sets of journal entries |
| You have Canadian private-company clients on ASPE | Black Owl |
| You want to start one client this week without a sales call | Crunchafi Starter, pay as you go |
| Clients need to log in and maintain their own leases | Crunchafi, built around a shared firm and client dashboard |
| Your clients use SAP, Oracle or Microsoft Dynamics and want an integration | Black Owl, which names all three |
If your client list is mostly US private companies on ASC 842 alone, both will do the job and the decision comes down to the quote and the demo. Our wider guide to lease accounting software for CPA firms adds NetLease, FinQuery and Visual Lease to the comparison.
Where each one is genuinely stronger
Black Owl is stronger on accounting depth. It runs multi-standard reporting on one lease and produces two complete sets of journal entries, one under ASC 842 and one under IFRS 16, which is exactly what a US subsidiary of a foreign parent needs at every close. It treats lessor accounting (sales-type, direct financing and operating) as a core case, supports ASPE for Canadian clients, and names SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Dynamics as integrations.
Crunchafi is stronger on access and breadth of standards. It covers GASB and the UK's FRS 102 as well as ASC 842 and IFRS 16, publishes its plan structure, lets a company start without a contract, and is designed for a client to work in the same system as its accountant. Its AI data entry also reads an uploaded lease for the term, start and end dates and asset information, which removes some keying at setup.
What neither quote includes
Both products calculate from lease data you give them. Black Owl loads existing leases through upload templates; Crunchafi's AI pulls the handful of fields the measurement needs. Neither produces a full abstract of a commercial lease: CAM caps and exclusions, renewal and termination notice windows, co-tenancy, assignment rights, the rent table in force after the third amendment. Those are the terms a controller gets asked about the week after go-live, and they are the terms most often wrong in a hand-keyed spreadsheet.
That is the part of the job you can buy today at a published price. ASC 842 lease data extraction pulls the commencement date, term, payment schedule, escalations, options and incentives from each lease and its amendments, with every value linked to the page and clause it came from, and exports a sheet you load into whichever subledger you pick. It works the same whether you choose Black Owl, Crunchafi or neither. The lease abstraction software pricing page lists what every vendor charges for that step.
One more practical point for firms whose clients keep their books in QuickBooks: the lease schedule is only as good as the rent payments it is reconciled against. When a client's bank activity arrives as a spreadsheet export rather than a feed, you can convert the CSV bank file to QBO and bring the rent payments into the register you tie the lease liability to at month-end.
What to ask on both demos
- What is the price per active lease at our volume, and is there a minimum annual commitment? Get both in writing.
- Which standards are live today? Ask Black Owl directly about GASB; ask Crunchafi about any IFRS 16 or lessor edge cases your clients have.
- How are modifications and remeasurements billed? Crunchafi's firm pricing says there is no fee. Confirm how Black Owl treats them.
- Who loads the existing leases, in what format, and how long did it take the last firm your size?
- What leaves with us if we switch? Ask for the export format of lease data, schedules and audit trail.
Bring one real client lease with amendments to each demo. A clean sample lease shows you the software; a messy one shows you the work. If Visual Lease is also on your list, our Black Owl Systems vs Visual Lease comparison covers that pairing.