Archibus SaaS / Leases / Cost Reports
Real Property / Costs / Cost Administrator

Managing Common Area Maintenance Costs (CAM): Overview

Archibus simplifies Common Area Maintenance (CAM) reconciliation reporting by automatically calculating CAM estimates, and enabling you to add CAM adjustments that reconcile the actual and estimated costs. The CAM Reconciliation report enables you to analyze CAM cost performance and enter adjustments, while the CAM Cash Flow report provides a detailed accounting of CAM costs.

Archibus provides the following features to simplify CAM accounting for both the landlord and tenant.

General Procedure for Working with CAM

  1. Set up a CAM profile for a lease. See Defining a CAM Profile for a Lease.
  2. From the Lease Cost Profile Details form, choose Generate Recurring Costs for Profile.
  3. Archibus calculates these estimates and enters the costs as recurring costs using the recurring cost category, RENT-CAM ESTIMATE
  4. You can review the recurring cost records by filtering to the RENT-CAM ESTIMATE cost category.

If you have the Costs application:

  1. Schedule and approve these CAM estimates using the Cost Wizard.
  2. Review the Lease CAM  Reconciliation report and enter CAM adjustments.
  3. Review the CAM Cash Flow report.
Task Description How to Access Learn more...

Set up a CAM profile for a lease.

This is a one-time task that automates the calculation of estimated CAM costs using the allocation method and frequency you specify in the profile.

Lease Cost Profile / CAM Profile tab

Lease Portfolio Console / Recurring Costs tab / Cost Profile button

Define a CAM Profile for a Lease and Generate Recurring Costs

Generate Recurring Cost records.

The application calculates these estimates and enters the costs as recurring costs using the recurring cost category, RENT-CAM ESTIMATE.

Review all the estimated CAM cost records for a selected lease and year.

Lease Cost Profile / CAM Profile tab

Lease Portfolio Console / Recurring Costs tab / Cost Profile button

Define a CAM Profile for a Lease and Generate Recurring Costs

Schedule and approve CAM estimates.

The landlord's cost administrator can schedule and approve these CAM estimates using the Cost Wizard. Either scheduled or approved costs are included in the CAM Cost Estimate total shown for the lease in the Lease CAM  Reconciliation Report.

You can review both scheduled and approved CAM estimates, and can export the data to Excel.

You can filter the costs displayed by the Cost Wizard according to CAM by setting the CAM Charges Display Options in the filter.

 Cost Wizard Schedule Recurring Costs
Enter CAM adjustments.

The landlord's financial accounting system provides the CAM adjustment for the year. This is the difference between the lease's share of the approved CAM costs incurred throughout the year, and the estimated costs the tenant paid. This CAM adjustment amount is what the cost administrator enters into Archibus.

  • The cost administrator for the landlord enters the CAM adjustment received from their financial system into Archibus.
  • The cost administrator for the tenant receives the CAM adjustment from the landlord in the form of an invoice or a credit, and enters this CAM adjustment amount into Archibus.

When you enter and save a CAM adjustment amount, the application saves this as a scheduled cost record using the RENT - CAM RECONCILIATION cost category you select.

Lease CAM  Reconciliation report

Add CAM Adjustments

Review the Reconciliation report.

For a specific lease and year, the Lease CAM Reconciliation report provides the total estimated CAM costs, the total actual CAM costs, and the difference between the two.

This report enables you to evaluate CAM cost performance by providing the difference, and the percentage difference by year for each lease.

Both scheduled or approved CAM adjustments are included in the report.

 Lease CAM  Reconciliation report Lease CAM  Reconciliation Report
Review the Cash Flow report. The cost administrator can generate the Cash Flow Report for costs marked as CAM. This report provides a detailed accounting of CAM costs when a tenant requires it. CAM Cash Flow report

CAM Cash Flow Report

Optional: 

Define cost sub-categories.

If needed, the Archibus Cost Administrator can define cost categories to track CAM costs by subcategories. For example, RENT- CAM ESTIMATE - ELECTRICAL, RENT - CAM ESTIMATE - WATER, or RENT - CAM ESTIMATE - SECURITY.

You can also define application parameters for CAM Adjustments that correspond to these cost categories for estimates, so that you can reconcile costs by their subcategory.

   Define Cost Categories and Classes

Optional:

Rename cost categories.

If your cost administrator has renamed the RENT - CAM ESTIMATE and RENT - CAM RECONCILIATION cost categories (or has defined new cost categories for CAM estimates and CAM adjustments), you can enter the alternate names as application parameters. This ensures that Archibus includes all these costs in the Lease CAM Reconciliation and CAM Cash Flow reports.

  • The CAM_Reconciliation parameter stores alternate names for the RENT - CAM RECONCILIATION cost category
  • The CAM _Estimate cost category stores alternate names for the RENT - CAM ESTIMATE cost category
 System / Archibus Administrator - Application Configuration / Configure Application Parameters task Entering Alternative Names for CAM Cost categories