STRATAFOLIO uses consistent terminology across its platform to help you navigate, manage, and report on your commercial real estate portfolio. This glossary covers the key terms you will encounter throughout STRATAFOLIO. Use it as a reference to understand what each term means and what it may also be called.
Many of these terms reflect the way STRATAFOLIO is structured. The platform is built around a hierarchy that starts at the Organization level and flows down through Entities, Assets, Buildings, and Units. Every lease, tenant, loan, and investor record connects to this hierarchy, which is why understanding the terminology at each level makes it easier to navigate the platform, enter data correctly, and read reports with confidence.
| Term | Also Known or Called As | What It Means or Pertains To |
|---|---|---|
| ACH (Automated Clearing House) | Electronic payment, bank transfer, autopay | A secure electronic network that enables direct bank-to-bank transfers. In STRATAFOLIO, ACH allows tenants to pay rent electronically as either a one-time payment or through Autopay, without paper checks or manual transfers. |
| Additional Charges | Add-on charges, extra charges | Recurring or variable charges billed to a tenant in addition to base rent. Used for items such as parking, storage, or elevator maintenance that do not require year-end reconciliation. Additional Charges are created at the Organization level and applied to individual leases. |
| Amortization Period | Amortization schedule | The number of years over which a loan’s principal is repaid through scheduled payments. |
| Asset | Property, real estate property, building complex | A real estate property held under an Entity, such as an office building, shopping center, warehouse, or industrial facility. Assets sit beneath Entities in the STRATAFOLIO hierarchy and contain one or more Buildings and Units. |
| Autopay | Auto-Pay, automatic payment, recurring payment | A payment option through which a tenant authorizes STRATAFOLIO to automatically collect the full invoice balance each billing cycle via ACH. |
| Base Rent | Rent, monthly rent, lease amount | The fixed rent amount specified in the lease, separate from Operating Expenses or Additional Charges. Base Rent is entered as part of the Lease Rate when setting up or amending a lease. |
| CAM (Common Area Maintenance) | Common area expenses | The shared expenses required to maintain the common areas of a commercial property, such as landscaping, snow removal, janitorial services, and repairs. CAM is a component of Operating Expenses (OpEx) but does not include insurance or real estate taxes on its own. |
| CAM Reconciliation | OpEx reconciliation, NNN reconciliation, CAM true-up, operating expense reconciliation | The annual process of comparing a tenant’s estimated operating expense payments to the actual costs incurred during the year. If the tenant overpaid, a credit is issued. If they underpaid, an invoice is generated for the difference. |
| Chart of Accounts | COA, account list | The list of financial accounts in QuickBooks that categorize all transactions. In STRATAFOLIO, accounts from the Chart of Accounts are mapped to the appropriate OpEx subcategories to ensure expenses flow into the correct reconciliation buckets. |
| Cloning (OpEx) | OpEx cloning, clone OpEx period, carry forward | The process of copying an existing Operating Expense (OpEx) period into a new period for the following year, including all subcategories, amounts, and billing structures. Cloning is a required annual step to ensure accurate OpEx billing and reconciliation. |
| COI (Certificate of Insurance) | Insurance certificate, tenant insurance, tax file, tax document | A document provided by a tenant that proves they carry the required insurance coverage as specified in the lease. COIs can be uploaded to the lease record and tracked for expiration within STRATAFOLIO. |
| Contact | Tenant contact, lease contact | An individual associated with a tenant or lease who may receive invoices, access the Tenant Portal, submit or be assigned to work orders, or receive communications. Every tenant must have at least one contact in STRATAFOLIO. |
| DCR / DSCR (Debt Coverage Ratio / Debt Service Coverage Ratio) | Debt service coverage, DCR rate | A metric that measures a property’s ability to cover its debt obligations using its net operating income. Tracked on the Loan Dashboard and used for lender reporting and portfolio health monitoring. |
| Detail View | Record view | The full view of a specific record, such as a lease, tenant, asset, or entity, showing all related information organized into tabs. Accessed by clicking the i (information) icon next to any record in an Index View. |
| Entity | Legal entity, LLC, ownership group, company | An ownership group, LLC, or company that holds one or more Assets in STRATAFOLIO. Each entity is linked to a QuickBooks file, which allows financial data to flow between the two systems. Entities sit beneath the Organization in the hierarchy. |
| Exclusive Use | Exclusive use clause, restriction | A lease provision that restricts certain business types from operating elsewhere within the same property. |
| Index View | List view, master list | A table that displays all records of a specific type within the platform, such as all Leases, Tenants, Units, or Assets. From an Index View, users can search, sort, filter, and click into individual records to open their Detail View. |
| Integration (QuickBooks) | QuickBooks connection, QuickBooks sync, QBO integration, QBD integration | The connection between STRATAFOLIO and a QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop account. The integration allows financial data, including invoices, payments, expenses, and account balances, to sync bi-directionally between the two platforms. |
| Lease Abstract | Lease detail view, lease summary | The default Detail View for a lease record in STRATAFOLIO. It consolidates all key financial, operational, and administrative information about the lease, including tenant details, lease rates, OpEx, invoicing, security deposits, and renewal information, into one view organized by tabs. |
| Lease Amendment | Amendment, lease extension, lease modification | A formal, documented change to an existing lease that modifies specific terms, such as the lease end date, rent amounts, or operating expense periods, without creating a new lease record. |
| Lease Rate | Rent rate, rent schedule, escalation | The rent amount and corresponding date range entered for a specific period of a lease. Lease rates define the billing schedule across the lease term, including any escalations (increases) at defined intervals. |
| LTV (Loan-to-Value) | Loan-to-value ratio | A metric that compares the outstanding loan balance to the current value of the asset. |
| Mapping | Account mapping, class mapping, QuickBooks mapping | The process of connecting QuickBooks accounts or classes to the appropriate STRATAFOLIO records, such as linking a loan account to a loan record or assigning a QuickBooks expense account to an OpEx subcategory. Accurate mapping is critical for reconciliations and reporting. |
| Maturity Date | Loan due date, balloon date | The date on which a loan is scheduled to be fully repaid or refinanced. |
| Month-to-Month | MTM, rolling lease | A lease status indicating that a tenant is continuing occupancy without a formal end date after the original lease term. |
| NOI (Net Operating Income) | Net income, property income | A financial metric representing a property’s operating income minus operating expenses, excluding debt service. |
| NNN (Triple Net) | Net net net, triple net lease | A lease structure in which the tenant is responsible for base rent plus the three “nets”: real estate taxes, property insurance, and Common Area Maintenance (CAM). NNN charges together make up the full operating expense billing beyond base rent. |
| NSF Fee | Non-sufficient funds fee, returned payment fee, late charge | A fee charged to a tenant when a payment is returned due to insufficient funds. |
| Operating Expenses (OpEx) | OpEx, operating costs, NNN charges, CAM charges, expense reimbursements, annual TMI (Taxes, Maintenance, Insurance) or TI, true-up | The full set of expenses required to operate and maintain a commercial property, including CAM, real estate taxes, insurance, utilities, and other reimbursable costs. OpEx amounts are entered per lease, tracked annually, and reconciled at year-end. CAM is a subset of OpEx. |
| Pro-Rata Share | Prorated share, tenant’s share, proportionate share | A tenant’s proportional share of property-wide expenses, calculated based on the ratio of the tenant’s rentable square footage (RSF) to the total building RSF. Used in CAM reconciliation calculations to determine each tenant’s share of actual costs. |
| Reconciliation Period | CAM period, OpEx period, expense period | The defined date range, typically one calendar year, for which operating expenses are tracked, billed, and reconciled. OpEx periods are set up within each lease and can be cloned forward each year. |
| Rent Escalation | Escalation, rent increase, rent step-up | A scheduled increase in rent that takes effect at a defined date during the lease term. Escalations are entered as separate Lease Rates in STRATAFOLIO and are automatically applied to invoices when the effective date arrives. |
| Rent Roll | Rent roll report | A report that shows all active leases, their tenants, rent amounts, lease terms, and related details. |
| RSF (Rentable Square Footage) | Rentable square feet, square footage, lease RSF | The total leasable square footage of a unit as stated in the lease. RSF is used in pro-rata share calculations for CAM/OpEx billing. A lease-level RSF override can be applied when the lease states a different value than the building record. |
| Security Deposit | Deposit, tenant deposit | An amount collected from a tenant at the start of a lease as financial security. Recorded on the lease in STRATAFOLIO, along with deposit withheld or refunded amounts and move-out notes. |
| Subcategory (OpEx) | OpEx subcategory, expense category, CAM subcategory | A specific expense line item within the Operating Expenses structure of a lease, such as landscaping, snow removal, utilities, or management fees. Subcategories are mapped to QuickBooks accounts to ensure actual expenses flow into the correct reconciliation buckets. |
| Valuation | Asset value, property valuation | A record of the estimated or appraised value of an Asset at a given point in time. |
| Web Connector | QuickBooks Desktop connector, QBD sync | A tool used to sync QuickBooks Desktop data with STRATAFOLIO. Must be opened and run on the computer where QuickBooks Desktop is installed to initiate the data sync. |
| Work Order | Maintenance request, service request | A request for maintenance or repair submitted through STRATAFOLIO. |
| Year-to-Year | Annual tenancy, rolling annual lease | A lease status indicating that a tenant is continuing occupancy on an annual rolling basis without a fixed end date. |
Some terms in this glossary are standard in commercial real estate. Others are specific to how STRATAFOLIO is organized and how its features work. For example, terms like CAM Reconciliation and Pro-Rata Share come from industry practice. Terms like Index View, Lease Abstract, and Cloning are unique to STRATAFOLIO. Some terms also go by more than one name in the industry. The “Also Known or Called As” column lists the most common alternatives. This helps you connect what you already know to how STRATAFOLIO refers to it.
If you are new to STRATAFOLIO, we recommend starting with Understanding the STRATAFOLIO Platform: Navigation, Structure, and Key Tools. It walks you through the layout, symbols, dashboards, and key interface elements you will encounter throughout the platform.
This glossary will be updated as new features are added to STRATAFOLIO. If a term is not listed here or you have questions about a feature, use the AI Assistant. It is available within the platform and provides answers in real time.
