Close week runs on a schedule. Day 1 is the AP cutoff. Day 2 or 3 is the accrual pass. Then comes a review cycle and a reporting deadline. A CAM invoice or yearly reconciliation breaks that routine. It does not fit any normal AP slot. CAM is common area maintenance, the shared costs a landlord bills back. For more context, see the accounting firm hub.
Monthly estimates are simple. Code them as occupancy expense and move on. Yearly true-ups are different. A true-up settles estimated payments against real costs. You must decide what to do. Code and pay now, hold for review, or escalate. A clear, fast call keeps CAM from jamming up close week.
This article shows where CAM fits in the close. It covers the trigger rules. It shows how to add the review step without burning time you do not have.
The close-week timeline
A normal month-end close at a CAS or bookkeeping firm has four phases. CAS means client accounting and advisory work.
Day 1 is the AP cutoff. You enter every invoice from the month. You flag exceptions. You route anything that needs sign-off.
Days 2 to 3 are accruals. You estimate costs that are owed but not yet billed. You accrue recurring CAM estimates here if the invoice is late.
Days 3 to 4 are the review pass. You work through AP exceptions and coding questions. CAM issues usually show up here.
Days 4 to 5 are reporting. You prepare and send the financials. Open items get resolved or disclosed.
CAM invoices arrive at two points. Monthly estimates land on a set schedule. They come late in the prior month or on day 1. Yearly reconciliations arrive in late Q1 or early Q2. They cover the prior year.
Monthly estimates almost always beat the AP cutoff. Reconciliations arrive when they arrive. One landing on day 3 is a different problem than one landing on the 15th.
Monthly estimates: code and pay
Monthly CAM estimates need no review before coding. The lease allows them as pass-through estimates. The amount is usually fixed or follows a known step-up schedule. The payment is routine.
Code them to rent expense or occupancy expense. It depends on the client's chart of accounts. Does the lease split base rent, CAM, taxes, and insurance? Code each to its own account. Does the lease bundle them into one NNN payment? One occupancy line works. NNN means the tenant pays its share of taxes, insurance, and CAM on top of rent.
Do one check on monthly estimates. Compare this invoice to last month's. Did it change with no scheduled increase in the lease? Flag it for the client. This is a five-second check, not a research job.
Yearly true-ups: a different workflow
The yearly CAM reconciliation is not a routine invoice. It is a settled count of real costs for the prior year. It adjusts that count against what the tenant paid in estimates. The balance due or credit shows how real costs compared to estimates.
A $3,600 balance on a $14,400 estimate year is a 25% variance. A variance is the gap between expected and actual. That is worth a look. A $400 balance on the same year is fine to code and pay.
Here are the triggers for a closer look.
Dollar threshold. Any balance over $2,000 needs notes before coding. This is not a hard rule. It is a fair default. Adjust it for the lease size and your firm's practice.
New line items. Does the reconciliation list cost categories that were not there before? That is a flag. New ones can be real, like a new common area. Or they can be costs the lease does not allow.
Big year-over-year jump. Did the total CAM charge rise more than 5 to 7% over last year with no clear cause? Higher property taxes or a logged insurance hike would be a clear cause. With none, ask why before coding.
When any of these hit, the invoice goes into a pending-review bucket. It does not go into AP.
The pending-review treatment
The pending-review bucket has one job. It keeps the invoice on the books without locking in a coding choice. The steps depend on the client's system. The idea stays the same.
Code the invoice to a suspense or short-term prepaid account. This puts it on the balance sheet, not the P&L. It tells anyone reading the package that the item is under review. Add a short note. Say why it is held and what backup you asked for.
The client should hear promptly after the invoice lands. The message is simple. "We got the yearly CAM reconciliation from [landlord]. It shows a $3,600 balance due. We asked for backup before we pay. We will update you within [X] days." Most clients want to know. They hate finding out later that you held a payment without telling them.
Build the review step without adding close time
The review step adds no close time if you build it into AP intake. The decision tree is short.
Is this a monthly CAM estimate? Code and pay. No review.
Is this a yearly CAM reconciliation? Check the balance and variance. Under the threshold, code and pay. Over it, hold, request backup, and tell the client.
The key is to split the coding call from the payment call. Coding to suspense is not the same as approving payment. It keeps the books clean and the close on time while you review.
Where CAM goes on the close checklist
Add one line to the AP review section of the close checklist.
"CAM invoices: (1) Monthly estimates coded and paid per lease terms. (2) Annual reconciliations over [$2,000 threshold] held pending backup documentation review. (3) Held items coded to [suspense account]. (4) Client notified promptly of any held items."
That line covers it all. It takes 30 seconds on the review pass. If nothing is held, it is a checkbox. If something is held, the process is already moving.
The close-week check is the moment the door is open. The invoice just arrived. The backup request takes five minutes. Holding the item costs nothing. Skipping it costs you later, when it is harder to fix.
"I built CAMAudit because every close-week CAM question was getting resolved with a payment instead of a review. The threshold trigger and the pending-item treatment change that without adding meaningful time to the close." - Angel Campa, Founder of CAMAudit
A note on multi-location clients
Clients with many locations get reconciliations on different schedules. A 3-location retailer might get three in Q1. Each comes from a different property manager. Each has its own fiscal year cutoff.
Build the location into your tracking. The pending-review log should show the property name and invoice date. It should show the balance, the backup you asked for, and the backup you got. When several reconciliations are in review at once, this log keeps close from becoming a research project.
The threshold applies per location, not in total. A $1,800 balance at location A and a $1,900 balance at location B are two invoices. Each is below the $2,000 threshold. Treat them on their own.
For a 3-location retailer, set January calendar reminders for when reconciliations should arrive. It takes five minutes. When one lands in close week, you already know it is coming. Your backup request template is ready to go.