A novel and convenient strategy toward caprolactam and butyrolactam derived phthalimide and amide scaffolds has been fulfilled through the palladium-catalyzed carbonylative coupling in a one-pot one step manner. The nucleophilicity of DBU and DBN was applied to the carbonylation reaction for the first time and followed by hydrolysis leading to the ring opening reaction of DBU and DBN. It should be noted that the chlorobenzene worked successfully under this approach. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.