Louis Proud

Moving From Manual HOA Bookkeeping to Current Financial Reports

The treasurer is the one who has the accounting software. The president has an entire file of documents that govern the organization, stored in cloud storage. Residents’ emails are spread out across their individual inboxes. Photos of violations are on a phone. A board member also knows the password for the website.

Technically, everything is present.

Finding out how is a different issue.

Administrative complexity can become a problem for a homeowners association that is managed by itself. A spreadsheet can solve one issue. Group chats solve another. The board then adds online payment, shared software for storage, accounting software and a website to its list of tools for communication.

In the end, volunteers are spending almost equally time managing tools as they do managing the community.

The Problem Isn’t Self-Management

The association has the ability to control its own operations by self-management. It’s hard to manage an association when the board members are volunteers, not administrators.

They still have to collect assessments, record owner information, record expenses, contact residents, register violations, organize files as well as prepare reports. They also have to preserve records for future boards.

Good HOA management software can reduce that administrative load without removing control from the association.

Perfect HOA approaches this by creating unit records, finances and communications, as well as payments documents violation and the resident portal and meeting documents into a cloud-based system.

Imagine what happens to a homeowner who moves.

Centralized records help to manage the administrative duties of the organization. Instead of manually updating an address on one spreadsheet, updating another contact list, or checking a different payment system and manually adjusting access to the website The information is used across all administration activities of the association.

The Treasurer shouldn’t need to re-build the financial picture.

HOA finances can create an issue similar to that when the information is not unified.

Transactions in banking are handled in one location. Assessment payments may arrive from a different source. The budget might be a different spreadsheet. The treasurer has to come up with an answer to a question regarding the actual spending when compared to the annual plan.

HOA Accounting Software can be more beneficial when it’s connected to the regular operations of the association.

Perfect HOA syncs bank and card transactions with Plaid. It can categorize transactions and generate reports such as Profit & loss Budget vs. actual and Cash flow. Reserves, funds for operating and special assessments can be monitored independently.

It’s important to understand that HOA accounting isn’t only about creating an annual sum. Boards might be interested in knowing how much reserves are in the reserve fund or if they’re on budget for landscaping.

The less reliant the community is on a spreadsheet that is private, the easier it will be to find the answers.

Residents shouldn’t be required to inquire Where Everything is

Centralization can help improve the resident experience too.

Consider the common questions an HOA is asked. Where are the documents for my community? Did my payment get received? Where can I find the most recent news? Where can I find association information?

A useful HOA website builder should create more than a public-facing homepage. Perfect HOA connects the community website to a portal for residents to ensure owner information and records remain connected to the underlying management system.

It’s no longer necessary to maintain two sets of information One for the site and the other for a board.

This also means that residents have an obvious resource to check prior to contacting the board members of a volunteer organization for something that is already in place.

Good Records Matter Most When Something Goes Wrong

The test that really tests the HOA’s administration system usually comes months later.

A resident contests a violation. A person wants to know the date an official notice was actually delivered. The new board of directors is trying to understand an earlier decision. An auditor needs financial information. In the midst of it all, the treasurer decides to quit.

The memory is not enough.

Perfect HOA will keep track of all history of communications and delivery information, as well as documents and timelines for violations. The violation can be documented by photograph as well as notices and escalation history and penalties. This is much more efficient than reconstructing the data from emails.

Even board meetings create records that need to be kept. AI-generated meeting minutes could ease the burden of manually turning the minutes of a long-running meeting into document that can be used.

Self-management in an HOA requires that people make decisions. Software should not replace this duty.

The work of detectives should be eliminated.

Board members need to have less time to think “Who is responsible for this?” and more time solving the issues that require their judgement.

It is perhaps the most crucial automation for the board of volunteers.