Buildium CAM Reconciliation Setup Guide
How to configure CAM reconciliation, export data, and avoid common mistakes in Buildium.
CAM Module
Commercial Lease Charges / Common Area Maintenance Tracking
Module Navigation
Go to Leases & Tenants > Commercial Leases. Select the lease, then navigate to the Charges tab. Buildium handles CAM through recurring charge templates rather than a dedicated recovery module. For expense tracking, use Accounting > Chart of Accounts to tag CAM-related expense accounts.
Recovery Pool Configuration
Buildium does not have formal recovery pools or expense pools. CAM tracking is done manually by tagging expense GL accounts as 'CAM-related' in the Chart of Accounts, then creating recurring charges on commercial leases that correspond to estimated CAM. Year-end reconciliation requires a manual GL report comparing actual expenses to billed estimates.
Charge Code Setup
Under Settings > Lease Charges, create charge templates for CAM, Tax, and Insurance. Each template has a fixed monthly amount (the estimate). Link each template to a revenue GL account. At year-end, manually calculate the true-up by comparing actual GL expenses to total estimates billed, then create a one-time charge or credit on each lease.
Export Procedure for CapVeri
Navigate to Accounting > Reports > General Ledger. Filter by CAM-related expense accounts and the fiscal year. Export to CSV via the download button. Buildium does not have a pre-built CAM reconciliation report — the GL detail export is the primary data source for reconciliation.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Relying on Buildium's recurring charges as the reconciliation mechanism — they are estimates only and need manual true-up
Not tagging all CAM-related GL accounts consistently, causing expenses to be missed in year-end analysis
Forgetting to create the year-end true-up charge or credit after reconciliation
Mixing property-level and portfolio-level GL accounts, making per-property CAM allocation difficult
Not maintaining a separate spreadsheet to track pro-rata share calculations since Buildium does not compute them
How Buildium Works with CapVeri
Export the General Ledger report as CSV filtered by CAM expense accounts. Upload to CapVeri, which will calculate pro-rata shares, apply gross-up, and verify cap compliance — filling the gap that Buildium's manual process leaves. CapVeri replaces the Excel reconciliation spreadsheet that most Buildium users maintain separately.
About Buildium
Buildium is primarily a residential property management platform with basic commercial capabilities. It lacks a dedicated CAM reconciliation module, so most commercial landlords using Buildium maintain Excel reconciliation spreadsheets alongside the system. This manual process is error-prone and is a primary reason firms seek tools like CapVeri. Best suited for firms with fewer than 5 commercial properties.
Related Resources
Validate Your Buildium Exports
Export your GL data from Buildium as CSV. Upload to CapVeri for automated CAM reconciliation validation — catch gross-up errors, cap violations, and allocation mistakes before tenants find them.
Start Free Audit