Budgeting and reforecasting software for commercial real estate
Rent roll, then expenses, then recoveries, built in the order they depend on each other and rolled forward all year.
How do you build a commercial real estate budget?
A CRE budget has three parts, and they have to be built in order: rental revenue first, then operating expenses and capital, and only then recoveries. The order is not a preference. A recovery is a share of an expense charged to a tenant who occupies space, so it cannot be calculated until both the expense schedules and the rent roll are settled. Build recoveries early and you build them on numbers that are about to move.
A budget is also a snapshot, and it starts aging the day it is approved. Reforecasting is the same model absorbing actuals as the year runs, monthly, quarterly, or annually, so variance shows up while there is still time to do something about it. In Kardin the roll from budget to reforecast is one click, and every cap, exclusion, and tenant-level adjustment you already set up stays where you put it.
A CRE budget in dependency order
Each part depends on the one before it. Build them out of order and something downstream ends up wrong with nothing to flag it.
Start with the rent roll
The rent roll is the one-stop shop: base rent, escalations, renewals, expansions, downsizes, and speculative assumptions, suite by suite and month by month.
Watch the renewals. Rent, tenant improvements, and leasing commissions carry over from a renewal assumption. Expense reimbursements do not, and a renewed tenant with no reimbursements is the most common hole in a finished budget.
Then expenses and capital
Build expense schedules by account and category, and retire the ones you stopped using, because a stale schedule is behind a good share of everyone’s reporting complaints.
Capital recovered over several years belongs in an amortization schedule that nets to zero in the budget, not a flat add-back that follows you into next year’s roll-forward. On accruals, count periods rather than payment dates: twelve months, or four quarterlies, then look for the anomalies.
Recoveries last
With revenue and expenses in place, recoveries finally have something to calculate against: expense pools, caps, base years, base stops, and occupancy-based gross-ups, with a pro-rata share you can adjust tenant by tenant.
All of it rolls forward, so next budget season starts from what you built this one. Recoveries have a page of their own.
What reforecasting actually asks of you
A budget is a plan. A reforecast is that plan meeting the year. These are the six places the work concentrates.
One click into reforecast
The roll pulls actuals into the first column and keeps everything already set up: caps, exclusions, adjustments, tenant-level overrides. You are not rebuilding, you are updating.
Monthly, quarterly, or annual
Replace estimates with actuals at whatever cadence your portfolio runs on. Recovery amounts recalculate as actuals land, so you know where a reconciliation stands long before year end.
Actuals import replaces, it does not merge
An import writes the whole set, so one corrected line comes back with the rest of the file. Knowing that up front is the difference between a clean reforecast and an afternoon of forensics.
Mid-year reality
Downsizes modeled without breaking the rent roll, acquisitions handled with zeroed months and an occupancy override, and recovery-method changes carried on two rent roll rows, because the lease dates drive the recovery language.
Variance, with drill-down
Budget against actuals, from a portfolio total down to base rent for one tenant in one month. The number and the reason for the number sit on the same screen.
Reforecast season is audit season
The reports that explain your numbers to an owner will find your own mistakes first: an expense in the wrong category, a recovery lower than it should be, a cap adjustment with a stray zero.
Every number, and who changed it
Reports drill from a portfolio total down to a single line in a single month, across every property you manage, so a question about a number ends in an answer rather than a spreadsheet hunt.
Nothing is ever really deleted. Kardin keeps the history: deleted records can be reviewed and restored, edits carry the name of whoever made them, and a version can be reverted. When an owner, an auditor, or a lender asks how a number moved, the answer is on the record.
Works alongside any accounting system
Kardin sits alongside your accounting system, never in place of it. Accounts, budgets, suites, tenants, and leases import in. Ready-made interface reports handle Yardi and MRI; RealPage and other systems exchange data through spreadsheet import and export.
When the budget is done, the numbers go back out the same way. Kardin does not issue invoices. It produces the figures your accounting system bills from, which is why there is no rip-and-replace and nothing to wait on from an ERP vendor. That is what flexible by design means.
See it with your dataBuilt for the portfolio you actually have
Office, industrial, retail, and multifamily, as single buildings or rolled into a portfolio.
Office and industrial
Base years and base stops, recovery pools attached tenant by tenant, and the full set of occupancy-based gross-up methods, including the utilities method that accounts for the load a building draws whether or not anyone is in it.
Retail
Denominator groups that set how average occupancy is calculated, unlimited charge codes, anchor contributions and deductions taken before allocation, and admin fees applied at the pool or the tenant.
Multifamily
Its own license tier and its own report gallery, so a multifamily operator is not working around a tool built for office.
Portfolios
Roll properties into one consolidated view for reports that only exist at portfolio level, such as cash flow analysis. Up to three properties consolidate at no additional cost.
Everyone can see the budget without buying a seat
Kardin licenses are concurrent, and they are consumed by opening a budget file, not by having an account. Quick Reports, Executive View, portfolio reports, and read-only access do not consume one at all.
So asset managers, controllers, and ownership can have full visibility into the budget without changing what you pay. The people who need to read the numbers rarely need to edit them, and Kardin is priced for that difference.
See how licensing worksOur executive leadership said this is the best the budgets have ever looked.
CRE budgeting questions, answered
What property managers and asset managers ask most about budgeting and reforecasting a commercial portfolio.
What is CRE budgeting and reforecasting software?
CRE budgeting and reforecasting software builds a commercial property’s annual operating budget from its rent roll, expense schedules, and capital plan, then updates that budget with actuals as the year runs. It differs from general-purpose budgeting tools in that it understands leases: escalations, recovery methods, base years, caps, and pro-rata shares are first-class parts of the model rather than formulas somebody maintains by hand.
What is the difference between a budget and a reforecast?
A budget is the plan approved before the year starts, built entirely on estimates. A reforecast is that same model with actuals substituted for estimates as they become known, monthly, quarterly, or annually, so the remaining months are projected from what has really happened. The budget stays fixed as the benchmark you measure against; the reforecast is what you steer by.
Why do recoveries have to come last in a CRE budget?
Because a recovery is a share of an expense charged to a tenant who occupies space, so it depends on two things upstream: the expense schedules and the rent roll. Set recoveries up before either one is settled and the pools, pro-rata shares, and gross-up calculations are all built on numbers that are about to move. The order is rental revenue, then operating expenses and capital, then recoveries.
Do tenant expense reimbursements carry over when a lease is renewed?
Not automatically, and this is one of the most common holes in a finished CRE budget. When a tenant renews, base rent, tenant improvements, and leasing commissions typically carry over from the renewal assumption. Expense reimbursements do not. The renewed tenant goes on paying rent in the model and stops contributing to recoveries, which understates recovery income for every month of the renewal term. Check reimbursements on every renewal before the budget is approved.
What goes wrong when you import actuals into a reforecast?
Four things account for most of it. An actuals import replaces the set rather than merging into it, so one corrected line has to be re-imported along with the whole file. An expense account added without a category will not calculate and will not warn you. A mid-year change in recovery method needs two rows on the rent roll, because the lease start and end dates drive the recovery language. And renaming a tenant in place, instead of expiring the lease and creating a new one, leaves a stale suite identifier that breaks the tie between periods.
Does Kardin work with Yardi, MRI, or RealPage?
Yes, and with any other accounting system. Kardin has ready-made interface reports for Yardi and MRI, and exchanges data with RealPage and other systems through spreadsheet import and export. Accounts, budgets, suites, tenants, and leases import in; budget, reforecast, and recovery figures export back out. Kardin does not issue invoices. It produces the numbers your accounting system bills from.
Can Kardin budget multifamily, retail, and industrial properties, or only office?
All of them. Office and industrial portfolios use base years, base stops, and the full set of occupancy-based gross-up methods. Retail uses denominator groups, unlimited charge codes, anchor contributions and deductions, and admin fees applied at the pool or the tenant. Multifamily has its own license tier and its own report gallery. Properties can be budgeted individually or rolled into a portfolio for consolidated reporting.
See it with a property you are budgeting now
Bring one building and its rent roll. We will show you what the same work looks like when the setup carries forward.