For commercial landlords and property managers · US and Canada
CAM reconciliation software that checks itself to the cent.
For NNN, modified gross and base-year leases. The expense ledger goes in, each lease’s recovery clauses are applied in a fixed order, and each tenant gets a statement that shows its work. A year that does not balance to the cent cannot be finalized (frozen).
No sign-up for the demo · CAM reconciliation in every plan, from $169/month billed yearly · Connects to QuickBooks Online
Reconciliation · the check
- Σ every tenant’s share (before the fee)
- $1,099,566.00
- Plus: absorbed by the landlord
- $100,434.00
- Lease exclusions
- $10,000.00
- Base year
- $86,000.00
- Cap
- $4,434.00
- Equals: the recoverable pool
- $1,200,000.00
Balances to the cent
A worked case: 100,000 sq ft office tower, 2026.
The job
What CAM reconciliation software does, and what it should refuse to do
CAM reconciliation software takes a building’s year of operating expenses and each lease’s recovery clauses, works out what every tenant owes against what they were billed, and produces the year-end statements. Good software also proves the split: every dollar is either on a tenant’s statement or named as absorbed by the landlord. It is also called an operating expense (OpEx) reconciliation, an NNN reconciliation, CAM recs or the CAM true-up.
Swap two steps and the bill changes while every total still adds up, so the order is fixed. A workbook can do every step. What it cannot do is refuse. (If a workbook is right for you this year, use the free CAM reconciliation template.) The method in full is in the complete guide to CAM reconciliation.
- 1Import the ledger, classified by category.
- 2Set non-recoverable costs aside.
- 3Assign categories to pools.
- 4Gross up variable costs only.
- 5Per lease: share, exclusions, base year, cap, administrative fee, proration.
- 6Compare with the estimates billed.
- 7Work out the balance due or credit.
- 8Run the check.
The check
The check: why a statement is right before it is sent
Every reconciliation here ends on one equation, shown on screen while you work:
Σ tenants’ shares (before admin fee) + absorbed by the landlord = recoverable pool
Enforced by the database, not only the screen
A run that does not balance to the cent cannot be finalized (frozen), and a frozen year cannot change. Freezing again makes a new version; the first stays.
The administrative fee sits outside the pool
It is landlord revenue on top of each share, totaled on its own and never part of the check. Fold it into the pool and the check closes on a false total. See management fee vs. administrative fee.
What the landlord absorbs is named by cause
Vacancy, proration, lease exclusions, base years, caps, rounding: never a plug. IREM Oregon’s presentation calls it slippage, and says the job is knowing where it comes from.
Rounding goes to the landlord, never to a tenant
No tenant is billed a cent their lease does not justify. A leftover cent is the landlord’s line.
What the check cannot do
The check proves the money is all accounted for. It cannot prove a clause was read correctly. That is why the order is fixed, why exceptions are reviewed before anything is calculated, and why the next section matters.
Worked cases
Five CAM reconciliation errors that still balance, with the numbers
From the worked cases, which were written before the code they test, each figure checked to the cent. None of them stops a spreadsheet from balancing.
Gross-up applied to taxes and insurance
The cost
A building at 70% average occupancy, restated to 95%. Gross up the fixed costs too and the pool goes from $281,000.00 to $320,285.71: about 14% too much on every tenant, invisible on the statement.
The engine
Each category is restated only by the part you declare variable, so taxes and insurance, entered as fixed, stay as incurred. The multiplier never goes below 1. See gross-up, explained.
A compounding cap read as simple, or not applied
The cost
A 5% cumulative compounding cap from a 2023 reference of $48,000 (this tenant’s 10% share) allows $48,000 × 1.05³ = $55,566 in 2026. Read as simple, the ceiling is $55,200 and the tenant is under-billed $366. Not applied, the tenant is over-billed $4,434.
The engine
Three kinds of cap, three calculations. The lease form shows the computed ceiling beside your choice, because the trade’s names are not consistent: you recognize your lease by the number.
The administrative fee charged before the cap
The cost
Charge the 4% fee first and the cap swallows it: the landlord loses the $302.64 the lease entitled them to. The statement still balances.
The engine
The cap first, then the fee, on the base the lease names.
A base year that was not grossed up
The cost
A 2024 expense stop entered as incurred, at that year’s 80% occupancy, set against a 2026 pool restated to 95%. The tenant’s share is $13,658.40 instead of $7,583.40: $6,075 too much, on a statement that balances to the cent.
The engine
A base year or cap stated on a different footing from its pool stops the run as an exception for a person. The engine never guesses the restatement.
A cap restarted from what was spent, not what was billed
The cost
A 2% non-cumulative cap. Last year’s controllable pool reached $244,000 and was capped at $237,000. Grow this year’s ceiling from $244,000 instead and this tenant is over-billed $3,570 in one year, widening every year after.
The engine
Freezing a year records each lease’s capped amount, and next year’s ceiling grows from it; a missing year is refused, not guessed. On Pro, the caps register shows every cap and the room left.
Each produces a statement that adds up. The order and the record of capped amounts stop them. One building, end to end: a worked CAM reconciliation example.
See the check close on the demo yearThe engine
Every recovery clause your leases carry: shares, gross-up, base years, caps
The clauses the engine applies, in its fixed order. For what goes into the pools, see what CAM charges cover.
Pools and shares
CAM, taxes, insurance and utilities as separate pools; a share on the building’s area or a negotiated percentage. A share over a pool’s own area, as in some mixed-use allocation, is not supported yet: the run stops rather than guess.
Exclusions by lease
The others still share a cost one lease excludes. That tenant’s portion is the landlord’s, and the line shows at zero rather than vanishing.
Gross-up
Variable costs restated to the leases’ occupancy standard, often 95%, never downward. One building’s leases must share one gross-up clause, or none; a mix stops the run up front.
Base years and expense stops
Deducted pool by pool, at building level, before the share. A pool that falls gives zero, never a credit against one that rose.
Caps
Non-cumulative, cumulative or compounding, on controllable expenses or on everything. A cap applied after the base-year deduction is not supported yet: the run stops and says so, rather than guessing.
Administrative fee
A rate on its own base, without what the lease leaves out (most often taxes and insurance), on the share or the billable amount.
Proration by the day
A tenant who moved in on July 1 owes 184 days of 365. A vacant suite’s share is the landlord’s, named as vacancy.
Leases across several suites
One lease over several units, its area computed, never typed.
You enter the rule your lease carries; the engine applies it. It never interprets a lease for you.
The document that circulates
A statement your tenant can check on paper
What circulates is not the app. It is the statement on a tenant’s desk, read on paper, often photocopied, before anyone decides to contest it. So it carries your letterhead, and its total walks in steps a tenant can redo with a calculator, the fee’s rate and base both printed, down to the balance due or credit.
- One per tenant from the frozen year, as a PDF or by email link, with a record of who received what and when.
- Tenants read every version of their frozen statements in their own portal, and raise a question there.
- Disputes logged against the statement version sent, with your answer and the outcome; a correction is a new version, the old one still readable. See answering a CAM dispute.
- Pro Supporting detail, every recoverable line by pool, for what a tenant’s CAM audit asks for.
Your letterhead
Reconciliation of operating expenses · worked case 1
Tenant A
8,000 of 20,000 sq ft
- Your share of the pool40.0000% of $120,000.00
- $48,000.00
- Lease exclusionsnone
- $0.00
- Administrative fee15% of $34,800.00, taxes and insurance excluded
- $5,220.00
- Total due
- $53,220.00
- Less: estimates billed
- ($50,000.00)
- Balance due
- $3,220.00
A worked case, not a customer’s statement: a 20,000 sq ft shopping center, four tenants, $120,000.00 of recoverable expenses.
The process
The CAM reconciliation process, from ledger to tenant statement
- 1
Set up once
The building, its pools, its leases and their clauses. Next year, the building remembers.
- 2
Bring in the ledger
Any accounting export saved as a CSV, its separators and date format declared, never guessed; or read it through the QuickBooks Online integration. Each label is placed by your saved mapping, by exact match.
- 3
Review the exceptions, all at once
Unclassified expenses, missing lease terms, categories in no pool, a category more than 25% off last year. Blocking items stop the run; warnings go to a person.
- 4
Run, read the check, freeze
Calculated and reviewed on screen, then frozen: immutable, versioned and time-stamped.
- 5
Send the statements, read the recovery
One per tenant, then the recovery report: the recovery ratio, and what did not come back, by cause.
Month to month
CAM estimates all year, and the year-end true-up
Each lease’s monthly invoice carries rent and the CAM estimate, prorated by the day in a partial month. On Pro, Budget projects each tenant’s year-end true-up with the same engine, and Simulation shows what a change of share, cap or gross-up would do before you make it.
A vendor’s invoice goes into the right cost pool, onto one tenant, or to the owner. The lease side (rent steps, options, deposits and tenant insurance) is commercial lease administration. It is all one commercial property management software.
Choosing a tool
Choosing CAM reconciliation software: how the options compare
If you use lease administration software for dates and abstracts, ask whether it also computes the reconciliation. Products vary within each kind below.
What to look for in CAM reconciliation software
- 1The clauses your leases carry: pro-rata share, exclusions, gross-up of variable costs only, base years by pool, three kinds of cap, the administrative fee on its own base.
- 2It proves the split to the cent.
- 3It refuses what it cannot compute instead of guessing.
- 4A statement a tenant can trace line by line.
- 5It keeps last year’s capped amounts.
- 6It reads your accounting export or QuickBooks Online.
- 7Published prices, and a demo without a sales call.
| What to check | Excel or a free template | Residential-first property software | Enterprise suites | Outsourced CAM service | ChargeRecoveries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three kinds of cap, base years by pool, gross-up of variable costs | You build and maintain the formulas | Often partial; check caps and gross-up | Yes, after configuration | Done for you, by people | Yes, applied in a fixed order |
| Proves the split balances | Only if you build the check | Rarely shown | Varies | Their review process | Required to freeze a year, to the cent |
| A statement a tenant can trace | Whatever you lay out | Often a summary | Configurable | Their format | Every line traced to its pool and clause |
| Prices published | Free | Often | Rarely | Quoted per engagement | Yes, on the plans page |
| Try it now, without a sales call | Not applicable | Sometimes a trial | Demo by appointment | Consultation | The demo, no sign-up |
| Fits a portfolio under 20 units | Yes, until it doesn’t | Yes | Rarely priced for it | Per engagement | Yes: the base covers 5 units |
Software or an outsourced CAM reconciliation service?
An outsourced CAM reconciliation service does the work for you, usually priced per engagement. Software keeps the rules, mapping and history in your hands, so next year is an import and a run; some managers also have a CPA or lease-audit firm review the output. This is software: it does not reconcile for you, and gives no accounting or legal advice.
Not ready to switch?
The workbook checks itself. No email, no sign-up.
Pricing
Pricing: CAM reconciliation in every plan
From $169 a month, billed yearly. Priced by the lettable unit, vacant ones included, with the first 5 in the base. Monthly, or yearly upfront for less. Unlimited users, buildings and leases; no onboarding fee. Canceling takes effect at the end of the paid period.
Essential
$169 / month, billed yearly
$199 billed monthly. 5 units included, then $3 per unit a month.
- CAM reconciliation to the cent
- One statement per tenant
- Disputes logged against each statement
- QuickBooks Online
Pro
$249 / month, billed yearly
$299 billed monthly. 5 units included, then $4 per unit a month.
- Everything in Essential, plus:
- Access by building
- Owner, read-only
- More than one currency
- Budget
- Simulation
- Caps register
- Supporting detail
- Rent roll, NOI, owner and lender reports
Pro + AI
$349 / month, billed yearly
$419 billed monthly. 5 units included, then $5 per unit a month.
- Everything in Pro, plus:
- AI assistant: 100 documents read a month
For example: a 6-unit center on Essential, billed yearly, is $172 a month ($2,064 a year). At 12 units, billed yearly, Essential is $190 and Pro $277 a month. 40 units on Pro + AI, billed monthly, is $594 a month.
Prices in US dollars, excluding tax where it applies. There is no free trial: the demo and the monthly plan take its place.
Method
Where the rules come from
The engine follows the trade’s own teaching: CAM Reconciliations: An Art or Science?, a presentation by Tara Platt, CPM, to IREM Oregon; published lease clause texts; and lease administrators’ worked examples.
Seven worked cases, each checked to the cent, were written before the code they test. The engine is then broken on purpose, one rule at a time, and every break must turn a test red.
One convention we had assumed was wrong, and we changed the model before the schema fixed it: base years apply pool by pool, and a falling pool gives zero. In that presentation’s example, one building bills $0.50 per sq ft as one pool and $1.75 as four.
The rules are United States and Canada. Australia is out: there, a landlord who does not give the audited annual statement the law requires can see the tenant withhold payment.
Questions
CAM reconciliation software: questions
What is CAM reconciliation software?
Software that turns a building’s year of operating expenses and each lease’s recovery clauses into what every tenant owes, against the estimates billed, with a statement for each. The good kind proves every dollar is billed or named as the landlord’s.
Can I just do CAM reconciliation in Excel?
For a simple building, yes: the free template does the core calculation and checks itself. A workbook cannot refuse a wrong reading, remember the building, or handle caps and base years unless you build them.
Does it work with QuickBooks Online?
Yes, for US QuickBooks Online companies today: invoices, credit notes and payments go to QuickBooks Online as they happen, each checked to the cent against what QuickBooks computed. The expense ledger can be read from the accounts you choose, and tenant balances compared. Your general ledger stays in QuickBooks Online. Canadian sales tax sync is not yet verified on a live Canadian company.
Does it handle NNN, modified gross and base-year leases?
Yes. NNN leases take a pro-rata share of each pool; base-year and expense-stop leases pay only the excess over their base, pool by pool. Caps, exclusions, gross-up and the administrative fee apply on top, in a fixed order. You enter the rule; the engine never interprets a lease.
What happens when a tenant disputes or audits a statement?
Each dispute is logged against the statement version the tenant received, with your answer and how it was resolved. A corrected statement is a new version, and the first stays readable. On Pro, the supporting detail lists every recoverable line behind it, by pool, for the tenant’s auditor.
What about a tenant who moved in mid-year, or a vacant suite?
A lease is prorated by the day from its dates. A vacant suite’s share is billed to nobody: the landlord absorbs it, named as vacancy on the recovery report.
How much does CAM reconciliation software cost?
Here, CAM reconciliation is in every plan, Essential included: a base covering the first 5 lettable units, then a price per unit, monthly or yearly. No onboarding fee. The figures are on the plans page.
Is it for residential, HOA or multifamily?
No. It is built for commercial leases only.
Can I try it before I buy?
Yes. Open the demo with no sign-up: a complete building with its leases and a reconciled year, read-only. There is no free trial; the monthly plan carries no long commitment.
Does the AI calculate my CAM?
No. On Pro + AI, the assistant reads a lease PDF (a first-pass lease abstract), an insurance certificate or a vendor invoice and proposes what it found, with the page it came from; a figure is only proposed if it is copied from the document. You confirm; the engine calculates. No amount comes from a model.
The demo
See a year reconcile, on the demo building’s numbers.
A complete building and its leases, read-only, no account. Or start with the spreadsheet: download the free Excel template.
Questions about your leases? hello@chargerecoveries.com.
Published by ChargeRecoveries · Last reviewed October 29, 2026 · Figures on this page are worked cases, not customer results.