Restaurant CAM audit preparation checklist
Independent restaurant tenants can use this checklist to organize documents before reviewing CAM charges. Whether a cost belongs in a pool or what records are available depends on the lease, the reconciliation, and the supporting records.
Prepare the source documents
Gather the lease and reconciliation packets
Keep the complete lease beside the statement and its available support. The wording and records for this tenancy determine what can be compared.
Lease packet
Collect the documents that define the obligations and review process.
- The complete executed lease and all amendments, renewals, side letters, exhibits, and referenced schedules.
- The lease definitions of CAM, operating expenses, and any related expense categories.
- The tenant share and the area basis used to determine it, including any stated measurement or adjustment terms.
- Any exclusions, caps, administrative-fee terms, and the conditions or calculation language attached to them.
- Audit and records-access provisions, plus any review or objection notice requirements and delivery instructions.
- Expense-pool terms and any occupancy calculation or gross-up provisions, if the lease includes them.
Reconciliation packet
Collect the billing, allocation, and available charge support for the period.
- CAM statements and the year-end reconciliation for the period being reviewed.
- Monthly estimates or billings and the tenant payment ledger for the same period.
- Prior-year statements and budgets that may help identify period-to-period changes.
- Line-item schedules showing how the reconciliation groups and describes expenses.
- Allocation or denominator detail and any occupancy calculations used to determine the billed share.
- Available invoices, general-ledger detail, contracts, or workpapers supporting the charges and calculations.
Restaurant-specific cross-checks
Gather records for tenant-paid services
These records can help compare service periods, locations, shared-area work and premises work, and possible overlap with separately billed obligations.
Restaurant records to compare
- Restaurant-paid utility bills and submeter records, when available.
- Maintenance and service records or invoices for HVAC, including after-hours HVAC if applicable.
- Records or invoices for kitchen hood, fire-suppression, and grease-trap service, if those services apply.
- Records or invoices for pest control, waste or grease hauling, janitorial work, and other tenant-paid services, as applicable.
Check the lease and each bill
Compare the records
Questions to consider
- Which items relate to shared areas, and which relate to work inside the leased premises?
- What does this lease say about the tenant share, expense pool, caps or exclusions, and any occupancy adjustments?
- Do service dates, locations, and amounts match the reconciliation period and the work described?
- Does a reconciliation line appear to duplicate a bill the restaurant paid separately?
- Which supporting records and review steps does this particular lease provide for?
- What exact notice period and delivery method does the lease state?