Black Owl Systems and LeaseQuery are both lease accounting subledgers that handle lessee and lessor accounting under ASC 842 and IFRS 16, and neither publishes a price for its main product. They split on three things: LeaseQuery lists GASB 87, GASB 96 and SFFAS 54 for public entities, while Black Owl lists ASPE for Canadian companies and no GASB standard; LeaseQuery names more mid-market ERPs, including QuickBooks and NetSuite; and Black Owl prices on lease volume with unlimited users and entities.
This comparison is for US controllers, lease accountants and CFOs who have both vendors on a shortlist and want to know which demo to book first. LeaseQuery now sits under the FinQuery name, so you will see both. Every fact below comes from the two vendors' own product and pricing pages, not from a review directory.
Black Owl Systems vs LeaseQuery at a glance
| Factor | Black Owl Systems | LeaseQuery (FinQuery) |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Lease accounting subledger, lessee and lessor | Lease accounting subledger inside the FinQuery platform, lessee and lessor |
| Standards it lists | ASC 842, IFRS 16, ASPE | ASC 842, IFRS 16, FRS 102, GASB 87, GASB 96, SFFAS 54 |
| Published price | None. Five tiers, every one Contact Sales | None for LeaseQuery. Sister product LeaseGuru lists $1,099 a year for 10 leases |
| Pricing basis | Lease volume, unlimited users and entities, no charge for inactive leases | Request pricing; quote by portfolio |
| Setup | "Four to eight weeks", depending on data readiness | FinQuery team converts, transfers and reconciles your data at onboarding |
| Lease data entry | Upload templates for master data and existing leases | AI-assisted lease data entry and an inbox that turns forwarded emails into records |
| ERP integrations named | SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics | NetSuite, Infor, Acumatica, Sage, Microsoft, SAP, QuickBooks, Workday |
| Assurance | SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type 2 | SOC 1 Type 2 reports issued twice a year |
The short version: for a US private company on ASC 842 alone, both will produce the journal entries, amortization schedules and disclosures you need, and the choice comes down to the quote, the ERP you run and how your team likes to work. The standards list is where the two genuinely part ways. Our separate pages on Black Owl Systems alternatives and pricing and LeaseQuery alternatives and pricing cover each vendor on its own.
Is LeaseQuery the same as FinQuery?
Yes. LeaseQuery is the company's original product and brand; the company now trades as FinQuery, and LeaseQuery is the lease accounting product inside it. Visiting leasequery.com lands you on finquery.com. FinQuery also sells tools for accruals, prepaids and software spend, and a small business lease product called LeaseGuru. When someone asks how Black Owl Systems compares with FinQuery for leases, LeaseQuery is the product they mean.
How much does LeaseQuery cost?
LeaseQuery does not publish a price. Its lease accounting pages send you to a request pricing form, and the quote is built around your portfolio. What FinQuery does publish is the price of LeaseGuru, its lighter product for small businesses: Premium for 10 leases at $1,099 a year and Premium for 15 leases at $1,925 a year, for a single company, with a separate multi-company table. The same page also shows a lower comparison table at $999 and $1,750, so confirm the figure on your order form.
LeaseGuru is lessee-only; lessor accounting sits on LeaseQuery. If you hold a dozen real estate leases and nothing else, price LeaseGuru first. If you have equipment and vehicle leases across several entities, a lessor portfolio, or a public-sector reporting requirement, you are in LeaseQuery territory and the number comes from sales.
How much does Black Owl Systems cost?
Black Owl does not publish a dollar figure either. Its pricing page lists three tiers for companies (Small Business, Large Companies and Enterprise) and two for accounting firms (CPA Essentials and CPA Advanced), each ending in a Contact Sales button. The entry tier already includes unlimited users and entities, full lessee and lessor functionality, all reports, all upload templates and support.
Black Owl's own comparison material says the price is based on lease volume, with no charge for inactive leases. That is a useful structural difference. A company with 40 active leases, 12 entities and a finance team of nine people is not penalized for the entities or the people, only for the leases.
Does Black Owl Systems support GASB 87?
Black Owl lists ASC 842, IFRS 16 and ASPE as the standards its plans cover. GASB does not appear in its plan list, and its pricing FAQ mentions GASB 87 only in a general paragraph about the lease standards. If you report under GASB, ask Black Owl in writing before you spend time on a demo.
LeaseQuery names GASB 87 and GASB 96 (subscription-based IT arrangements) on its lease accounting page, along with SFFAS 54 for federal entities and FRS 102 for UK subsidiaries. For a county finance director or a school district business office, that single line usually settles the shortlist. Our comparison of GASB 87 lease accounting software covers the other vendors that list it, and DebtBook vs LeaseQuery for GASB 87 goes deeper on that pairing.
Which is better for lessor accounting?
Both handle lessor accounting, and both treat it as a real use case rather than an afterthought. LeaseQuery says it manages any lease where your organization is the lessee or the lessor, across real estate, equipment and vehicles. Black Owl treats sales-type, direct financing and operating leases as core scenarios and adds dual-standard reporting that produces two full sets of journal entries, one under ASC 842 and one under IFRS 16, which matters to a US subsidiary of a foreign parent.
LeaseQuery also advertises built-in dual-standard reporting. On a lessor portfolio the deciding questions are practical: how each system handles a lease modification that changes classification, and how it reports a receivable that spans two standards. Put the same example through both demos and compare the output line by line.
Which one should you book first?
| If this is true of you | Book first |
|---|---|
| You report for a city, county, school district or utility under GASB 87 or 96 | LeaseQuery. Black Owl does not list GASB |
| You are a federal entity or contractor reporting under SFFAS 54 | LeaseQuery, the only one of the two that lists it |
| You have Canadian private-company entities on ASPE | Black Owl |
| Your books are in QuickBooks, NetSuite, Sage or Workday | LeaseQuery, which names all four |
| You run Oracle as your ERP | Black Owl, which names it |
| You have many entities and many users and want neither counted | Black Owl, whose tiers include unlimited users and entities |
| You have ten to fifteen leases and only lessee accounting | Price LeaseGuru before either platform |
If none of those rows applies, you are choosing between two capable ASC 842 subledgers, and the tiebreakers are the quote, the demo and references from a company your size. FinQuery points to scale (its site cites more than 8,700 users and a long run at the top of G2's lease accounting category); Black Owl, based in Calgary, points to faster setup and simpler pricing. Neither claim replaces a reference call.
What neither quote includes
Both products calculate from lease data you give them. LeaseQuery's AI-assisted entry and onboarding team help you key the fields that measurement needs; Black Owl loads existing leases through upload templates. 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 month 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 now at a published price, before either contract is signed. ASC 842 lease data extraction pulls the commencement date, term, payment schedule, escalations, options and incentives from each lease and its amendments, links every value to the page and clause it came from, and exports a sheet you can load into whichever subledger you choose. Plans start at $49 a month for 15 leases; the lease abstraction software pricing page shows what every vendor charges for the same job. If you are mid-implementation, the ASC 842 implementation guide has the data checklist.
One more thing to check before either demo: that you have found all your leases. Embedded leases hide inside service, logistics and IT agreements, and GASB 96 subscriptions sit in software contracts nobody in accounting reviews. If those agreements live in inboxes and shared drives, a contract management system that tracks every agreement and renewal date makes the search for embedded leases a report rather than a scavenger hunt.
What to ask on both demos
- What is the annual price at our lease count, and what counts as a lease? Ask Black Owl to confirm inactive leases are free; ask LeaseQuery how equipment and vehicle leases are counted.
- Which standards are live today? Ask Black Owl directly about GASB. Ask LeaseQuery about any ASPE or lessor edge case you have.
- Who loads our existing leases, in what format, and how long did it take for the last company our size?
- How does the ERP integration post entries? A named integration and a CSV upload are different things; see it post a real entry.
- What leaves with us if we switch? Ask for the export format of lease data, schedules and audit history.
Bring one real lease with amendments to each demo. A clean sample shows you the software; a messy one shows you the work. If Crunchafi or Visual Lease is also on your shortlist, our Black Owl Systems vs Crunchafi and Black Owl Systems vs Visual Lease comparisons cover those pairings.