Glossary
Answer-first definitions for NOI, occupancy, CAM, rent roll, and the other words owners and managers use every week.
Accounts payable (AP) is money you owe vendors and other payees for bills that have been received but not yet paid.
Accounts receivable (AR) is money tenants and other customers owe you for rent, fees, and billed charges that are not yet collected.
The capitalization rate is NOI divided by current market value (or purchase price), expressed as a percentage.
Cash-on-cash return is annual pre-tax cash flow divided by the cash you invested, including down payment and closing costs.
Debt service coverage ratio is NOI divided by annual principal and interest. Lenders use it to test whether operations can pay the loan.
Effective gross income is gross potential rent plus other income, minus vacancy and credit loss.
The gross rent multiplier is purchase price divided by annual gross scheduled rent, used as a quick screening ratio.
Net operating income is rental revenue minus operating expenses, before debt service and capital expenditures.
Operating expenses are the recurring costs of running a property, such as repairs, insurance, utilities, and management fees.
Vacancy loss is the rent you did not earn because a unit was empty or taken off the market during a period.
Common area maintenance (CAM) is the shared operating cost of a commercial property, often estimated monthly and reconciled annually.
Delinquency rate is the share of billed rent that is past due beyond your grace period, measured in dollars or resident count.
Economic occupancy is collected or contracted rent as a share of gross potential rent, capturing vacancy, concessions, and loss to lease.
A gross lease is a lease where the landlord pays most operating expenses and the tenant pays a single rent amount.
Lease abstraction extracts structured terms — rent, dates, options, deposits — from a lease PDF into fields you can report on.
Loss to lease is the gap between current market (asking) rent and the actual contracted rent on occupied units.
A triple-net (NNN) lease passes property taxes, insurance, and common-area maintenance through to the tenant, usually in addition to base rent.
Physical occupancy is the share of units that are leased, regardless of whether the contracted rent is at market.
Prorated rent is a partial-period charge when a resident moves in or out on a day other than the first or last of the billing cycle.
A rent roll lists units, occupants, lease dates, charges, and deposits so you can see who lives where and what they owe.
Tenant screening is the consistent review of identity, credit, income, housing history, and criminal records allowed by law.
A certificate of insurance (COI) is proof that a vendor or, in some buildings, a resident carries required coverage.
Make-ready is the turn process that takes a vacated unit from notice to rent-ready: clean, repair, paint, and inspect.
Preventive maintenance is scheduled service — filters, inspections, seasonal HVAC — done before equipment fails.
Turnover rate is the share of units that changed occupants during a period, usually a year.
A work order is the tracked request to inspect or repair a unit or common area, from intake through vendor completion.
An owner statement is the period report of income, expenses, cash, and the net amount due to or from a property owner.
Security deposit accounting records deposits as liabilities, applies lawful deductions at move-out, and returns the remainder on time.
Trust accounting keeps tenant security deposits and other fiduciary funds in segregated accounts, separate from operating cash.
Budget vs actual (BVA) compares planned income and expenses to what actually posted, by account and period.
The chart of accounts is the structured list of ledger accounts used to classify income, expenses, assets, and liabilities.
The general ledger is the complete set of accounts where every debit and credit is recorded.
A journal entry is a manual debit-and-credit posting used to adjust the ledger when a source document did not create the entry automatically.
A T12 is a trailing twelve-month operating statement showing income and expenses for the last 12 complete months.
A trial balance lists every account balance to confirm total debits equal total credits before you issue statements.
Unitz keeps NOI, occupancy, and the rent roll next to the work that creates them.