I built CAMAudit because the audit work itself was getting commoditized faster than the consulting industry was adapting. Partners who priced audits like a 1985 consulting engagement were losing deals to partners who priced them like 2026 software. The five pricing models below are how partners actually win in the current market. Each one fits a specific deal shape, and partners who know which is which close more.
What is a lease audit pricing model
A lease audit pricing model is the commercial structure a partner uses to charge for tenant-side CAM audit work. The model determines who carries the risk, who carries the audit cost, and who captures the upside when a finding turns into recovery.
The five models in active use are flat-fee, hourly, contingency, white label, and revenue share. They are not interchangeable. A flat-fee engagement on a complex multi-year review will lose money. A contingency engagement on a tiny reconciliation will not pay for the wrap. The art of running a partner practice is matching the model to the deal.
For partners just starting to scope a niche services menu, the five models below are the entire menu.
How do partners actually do lease audit pricing models
Model one is flat-fee. The tenant pays a fixed price per audit. The partner runs the audit, ships the report, and collects the fee. The advantage is predictability. The constraint is that complex audits subsidize simple ones. Flat-fee works best when the partner has standardized intake and the audit complexity is consistent across deals.
Model two is hourly. The tenant pays consultant rates against logged hours. The advantage is upside on complex engagements. The constraint is friction at intake, because every tenant negotiates the estimate before signing. Hourly is the legacy model for boutique lease audit specialists. It is fading because clients increasingly resist open-ended billing on work that has been automated.
Model three is contingency. The tenant pays nothing upfront, the partner pays the audit cost, and the partner takes a percentage of recovery. Contingency aligns incentive but only works on high-confidence, large-dollar findings. The full breakdown is in the contingency CAM audit fee piece.
Model four is white label. The partner buys the platform audit at wholesale and sells it at partner-set price. The advantage is margin and brand control. The constraint is that the partner has to manage the client relationship and the report delivery. White label is the dominant model for CPA firms and tenant rep practices that want to add lease audit as a service line.
Model five is revenue share. The partner refers tenants into the platform and earns a published split per attributed audit. The advantage is zero operational lift. The constraint is no margin capture beyond the published split. Revenue share is the dominant model for brokers who do not want to build an audit practice but already have a tenant book.
For partners pitching tenants, the elevator pitch script opens the conversation; the model decision comes after the tenant uploads.
What does each lease audit pricing model cost or pay
Flat-fee on the platform tier runs at published pricing. A 50-audit year at flat-fee on white label pricing is a known quarterly cost the partner can budget against, with the partner's invoice carrying whatever margin the partner can defend.
Hourly on a typical complex multi-year review runs 12 to 25 hours at consultant rates, which prices the engagement into the multi-thousand-dollar range. The math depends on the consultant's billable rate and the tenant's tolerance for time-and-materials billing.
Contingency at a 30 percent split on a $20,000 finding pays the partner $6,000. At a 40 percent split on a $50,000 portfolio finding, the partner takes $20,000. The risk is that the recovery never lands or lands smaller than projected.
White label margin varies by partner positioning. A partner with brand presence and an established client list captures a meaningful spread per audit. A partner without that brand captures less.
Revenue share pays a published split per attributed audit. The economics scale linearly with referral volume. There is no margin pressure on the partner because the partner sets no price.
For partners running portfolios, the lease portfolio benchmarking play layers across any of the five models. Benchmarking is the upsell, not the model.
Where does CAMAudit fit into lease audit pricing models
CAMAudit is the audit infrastructure under every model. The 14 detection rules, the deterministic math, the document extraction, and the dispute letter draft are constant across tiers. What varies is the partner's commercial wrap.
In flat-fee and hourly, the platform replaces audit hours so the partner's billing is for the wrap, not the audit. In contingency, the platform reduces audit cost to a known line item against the recovery split. In white label, the platform is the wholesale input the partner resells. In revenue share, the platform handles delivery end-to-end and pays the partner for the referral.
That uniform infrastructure is what makes model selection a partner choice rather than an audit-quality compromise. Same audit quality at every tier. Different commercial wrap. Run the free scan once to see the audit, then pick the model that fits your book.
For partners deciding between revenue share and white label specifically, the white label tier page and the revenue sharing program page cover the live tier-by-tier economics.
How partners pick
The decision tree I use with new partners has three forks.
Fork one: do you have audit staff. If no, run revenue share. If yes, continue.
Fork two: do you want brand control on the report. If yes, run white label. If no, run revenue share.
Fork three: do you do high-confidence, large-dollar recoveries. If yes, layer contingency on top of white label for those deals. If no, stay flat-fee on white label.
That tree covers about 90 percent of partner decisions. The 10 percent that does not fit usually has unusual book composition or unusual client expectations. For those, the CAM audit report template format is a good starting point because it standardizes what the deliverable looks like regardless of model.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main lease audit pricing models?
Five models cover almost every partner engagement: flat-fee per audit, hourly billing, contingency on recovery, white label resale, and revenue share referral. Each has distinct unit economics. Flat-fee fits small, predictable audits. Hourly fits complex multi-year reviews. Contingency fits high-confidence portfolio recoveries. White label fits partners who want margin. Revenue share fits partners who want zero operational lift.
How do partners actually pick a lease audit pricing model?
Match the model to the deal size and partner capacity. Tenants with a single reconciliation and a small expected finding fit flat-fee or revenue share. Tenants with a portfolio and large expected findings fit contingency or white label. Partners with no audit staff fit revenue share. Partners with brand presence and client-facing pricing fit white label. Most partners run two models in parallel and route by deal.
What does each lease audit pricing model cost or pay?
Flat-fee audits run at platform pricing per scan. Hourly engagements run at consultant rates, typically $150 to $400 per hour with 8 to 30 hours per audit. Contingency takes 30 to 50 percent of recovered dollars. White label margin varies by partner-set price. Revenue share pays a published split per attributed audit. Partner effective revenue per closed engagement varies by an order of magnitude across these models.
Where does CAMAudit fit into lease audit pricing models?
CAMAudit is the cost floor under every model. The platform produces the audit at flat-fee pricing. Partners stack their model on top: revenue share takes a split of the platform fee, white label sells the platform output at partner-set price, contingency uses the platform fee as cost of goods sold against the recovery percentage. The audit infrastructure is constant. The model is the partner's choice.
Pick the right model this week
Run the decision tree against your book. Pick the primary model. Pick a secondary model for deals that do not fit. Enroll in white label or revenue sharing accordingly. The model decision matters more than any other partner choice you will make this year because it determines the unit economics of every audit you close.