A dental practice client's CAM reconciliation showed a jump. The management fee line went from $900/month to $1,200/month. The statement gave no reason. The bookkeeper caught it during the line-by-line review of the annual true-up. A CAM true-up is the landlord's year-end bill that trues estimates up to actual cost. The question was what to do next. For more context, see what a CAM true-up means for accountants.
Raising a CAM concern with a client is a tricky moment. The concern is real. The finding deserves attention. But how you frame it matters a lot. Too casual, and the client ignores it. Too sure, and your firm has made a claim it cannot back up.
This article gives you the language, the documentation, and the escalation framing. It keeps the talk useful and inside your accounting scope.
Escalation Path: The steps you take after your team finds a possible landlord billing issue. You document the finding. You present it to the client. If it needs more review, you refer the client to the right resource: a lease reviewer, an attorney, or a CAM audit service. You hand off a clear description of what you found.
What Accountants Can and Cannot Represent
Get one line clear before you talk to the client. There is a boundary between an accounting observation and a contract reading.
You can observe and report a fact. "The management fee increased 33% between 2024 and 2025." That comes straight from the numbers.
You cannot say: "Your landlord is overcharging you on the management fee." That claim needs to know what the lease permits. It needs to know if the management fee cap applies. It needs to know how the cap is figured. Those are contract questions.
So always frame a landlord-charge finding as an observation that needs more review. Do not frame it as a conclusion. The client needs to hear enough to take it seriously. The client does not need a verdict on whether the landlord did wrong. That framing protects the client, who needs accurate facts. It also protects your firm, which should not give legal opinions.
The Language That Works
The dental practice fee went from $900 to $1,200 per month. Here is the right way to frame it for the client:
"We noticed the management fee in this year's CAM reconciliation is $1,200/month, compared to $900/month last year. That's a $3,600 annual increase. We wanted to flag it before we close out the reconciliation so you can confirm whether this is expected or whether you want to review the underlying basis with your landlord."
See what that language does. It states the finding with exact numbers. It flags it before payment, so the client keeps their options. It asks the client to confirm, which creates a record. And it offers a next step without calling the charge wrong.
Here is what it does not do. It does not accuse the landlord. It does not give an opinion on what the lease allows. It does not promise the client can recover money.
For a one-time charge, shift the language a bit: "A $7,800 tax pass-through appeared on this statement that we haven't seen in prior years. We're flagging it for your attention before coding it. Can you confirm whether this is expected, and whether you'd like us to hold payment pending documentation?"
Holding payment for documentation is often the right move. That goes for a first-time, large, or unusual charge. The language suggests it without demanding it.
Timing Is Everything
The talk is far more useful before payment than after. Once a charge is paid and coded, the client's leverage drops. They can still dispute or ask for documentation. But the landlord feels less urgency about a bill that is already settled.
The fix is to build the CAM review into the pre-payment step. Every landlord invoice gets a quick check against prior periods before payment. Charges that match expectations go through as normal. Charges that jump past a threshold go to a review queue first. A common threshold is 15% year over year on any line item.
For a law firm office tenant with one location, this takes a few minutes per statement. For a three-location retailer, you run the check across three leases at once. That is the kind of work a tool handles well. It tracks prior-year data and flags anomalies for you.
Documenting the Conversation
Every CAM concern needs a paper trail. This is not about distrust. It is about a clear record. The issue may resurface months later. A different person may pick up the engagement. The client may pursue a formal audit.
At minimum, document four things.
The finding: line item, amount, prior-year comparison, and the date the statement arrived.
The date and method you used to reach the client: email, call, or a written note in the file.
The client's response: approved for payment, wants more review, or told you to hold payment.
Say the client approves payment with no further review. Write it down clearly. "Client reviewed management fee increase and approved payment on [date]." This protects your firm if the client later says you should have done more.
Say the client wants more review. Document the referral. "Client requested lease review. Referred to [resource] on [date]."
What Not to Say
A few phrases to avoid in any CAM advisory talk:
"Your landlord is overcharging you." This is a conclusion. It needs a lease reading. Do not say it.
"You should dispute this." Advising a dispute before reading the lease can spark a fight with the landlord. It can hurt the tenant-landlord relationship for no reason.
"This looks wrong." "Looks wrong" is vague. It hints at a conclusion without stating one. It leaves the client unsure what to do.
"I'm sure it's fine." If you flagged it, it is not obviously fine. Do not brush off a concern you raised.
Aim for precision. Give factual, specific observations. Frame them around the client's choice: do you want to review this further or approve it as is?
Creating a Repeatable Process
A one-time talk is worth less than a standing process. Clients with NNN leases get CAM reconciliations every year. NNN means the tenant pays its share of taxes, insurance, and CAM on top of rent. Build a structured CAM review into the annual close. Add documented review steps and a clear escalation path. That turns an ad-hoc catch into a reliable service.
I built CAMAudit because the manual version leaned too hard on one person's attention. The compare against prior years. The check against management fee caps and pro-rata share. The flag on first-time charges. All of it can be systematized. Then your team's job is to review the exception queue, not build it from scratch each year.
For CAS firms with many NNN lease clients, put CAM advisory in the engagement scope. Set defined deliverables and clear escalation steps. That turns a reactive catch into a proactive service. The pitch to a new client is simple: "As part of your annual close, we review your CAM reconciliation statements for line-item changes and flag anything that warrants your attention before payment."
That sets the right expectation. Your team will look. Your team will flag. The client decides what to do with a flagged item. When the question is about contract reading, that decision goes to the client's lease reviewer or attorney.