Workflows

CAM Reconciliation

the annual true-up that compares commercial tenants' estimated common area maintenance payments with their actual share of costs

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The job in one minute

What it produces

A reconciliation statement per tenant, a posted true-up charge or credit, and next year's estimates reset from actuals.

Who owns it

The commercial lease administrator owns the abstract, the statement and the audit response. The property accountant maps expenses and decides capital versus repair. The property manager explains the year's events.

How often

Monthly mapping and estimate billing, then a season of statements after year end. The Atlas plans 8 to 50 hours a month at 25 to 200 commercial leases. Hours are planning estimates.

Why it hurts

The recovery module runs clean and wrong when its setup disagrees with the lease. An amendment changed the cap and nobody updated the setup. A remeasurement changed the building's area. A roof replacement was coded to repairs and flowed into the pool.

Every one of those errors stays invisible until a tenant's auditor finds it, and many leases shift the audit bill to the landlord when the overstatement passes a stated line.

Pool after exclusions
$412,900
Tenant share
6.3%
Tenant cost
$26,013
Estimates billed
$24,000
True-up
$2,013

Illustrative numbers for one tenant: 6,300 sq ft in a 100,000 sq ft building, 82% occupied.

Systems it touches

  • Yardi Voyager
  • MRI
  • AppFolio
  • Lease abstract tools
  • Tenant portals
  • County tax and insurance portals
  • Outlook
  • Excel
  • SharePoint

12 steps · 6 actions · 4 decisions · 2 human reviews

The workflow, step by step

Action Decision Human review Select a step in the flowchart to jump to it.

Show the flowchart
  1. 01 Action · Agent Export general ledger detail for recoverable accounts by property for…
  2. 02 Decision · Agent Map each line to a pool
  3. 03 Action · Agent Read invoice descriptions above a dollar threshold for capital…
  4. 04 · Human review · Accountant The accountant decides capital or repair on each flagged line
  5. 05 Action · Agent Compute average monthly occupancy from the rent roll
  6. 06 Decision · Agent Apply gross-up only where the lease says so
  7. 07 Action · Agent Compute each lease's denominator
  8. 08 Decision · Agent Apply the cap type from the abstract to controllable expenses only
  9. 09 Action · Agent Net the result against estimates billed
  10. 10 Decision · Agent Large true-ups or big year-over-year swings go to review
  11. 11 · Human review · Lease administrator The lease administrator approves each statement with the abstract
  12. 12 Action · Agent Post the true-up

  1. Action · Agent

    Export general ledger detail for recoverable accounts by property for the year.

  2. Decision · Agent

    Map each line to a pool; unmapped lines go to review.

  3. Action · Agent

    Read invoice descriptions above a dollar threshold for capital signals like replacement or new system.

  4. Human review · Accountant

    The accountant decides capital or repair on each flagged line.

  5. Action · Agent

    Compute average monthly occupancy from the rent roll.

  6. Decision · Agent

    Apply gross-up only where the lease says so, only to variable expenses.

  7. Action · Agent

    Compute each lease's denominator, share, exclusions and base year or expense stop.

  8. Decision · Agent

    Apply the cap type from the abstract to controllable expenses only.

  9. Action · Agent

    Net the result against estimates billed.

  10. Decision · Agent

    Large true-ups or big year-over-year swings go to review.

  11. Human review · Lease administrator

    The lease administrator approves each statement with the abstract, clause and math side by side.

  12. Action · Agent

    Post the true-up, deliver the statement, log the delivery date, and reset next year's estimates.

✓ Done

Rules vs judgment

A proposed abstract value never feeds the math until a person approves it.

  • Pool membership by GL account
  • Share, gross-up, cap and base-year math
  • Estimate netting and rounding
  • Statement deadlines and audit windows

When it stops

  • The abstract and the recovery setup disagree

    That lease stops before the batch.

  • A tax bill arrives after the statement

    Only the tax pool reopens.

  • A clause is ambiguous

    The model flags it and nothing is assumed.

  • A tenant-specific cost sits in a common pool

    It goes back for recoding.

  • The statement deadline already passed

    The late-statement clause is shown and a person decides.

  • The tenant is in default or bankruptcy

    Posting and delivery wait for counsel.

What you end up with

A statement per lease and an audit package that builds as you go: GL detail by pool with invoice images, capital decisions and who made them, abstract values with approval history, the full calculation, and the delivery date. Production does not start when the audit letter arrives.

Questions

Can the agent abstract our leases?

It proposes values with the page each came from, reading amendments in date order. Nothing becomes a rule until a lease administrator approves it.

What should we reconcile first?

Leases with the earliest statement deadline. Load every deadline into the abstract table and the queue sorts itself.

Do we keep the recovery module?

Yes. Run its batch and the agent's independent calculation side by side. Any difference is a setup defect found before a tenant's auditor finds it.

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