An HOA Accounting Guide For HOA Board Members HOAM

When you fail to budget your expenses properly, the HOA might run out of money. This will inevitably force your board to either take out a loan or charge special assessments to homeowners. And, if you have any experience with HOAs at all, you’d know that homeowners hate having to pay special assessments on top of their monthly dues. One of the community manager’s primary goals should be to protect the association’s assets with financial procedures of checks and balances, to minimize risk of errors and losses.

If the HOA runs out of money, this forces the board to either take out a loan, or charge special assessments to homeowners. Neither option is ideal, and the latter option never sits well with owners. Plus, having to resort to one of these options deters new owners from moving in, and may encourage current owners to move out.

Professional Resources

When setting up your HOA accounting standards, there are some key practices and reports you must include. Under the accrual basis of accounting, all HOA financial activities are reported on the financial statements. This type of accounting is usually considered superior because it offers the most complete overview of the HOA’s financial status compared to the modified accrual or cash methods.

In this case, accounts like assessments receivable and prepaid assessments will appear on the balance sheet, but liability accounts such as accounts payable will not appear. Like the Cash Basis, this method can only be used for interim or unofficial reporting. HOA accounting is an important aspect of running a homeowners association, but it can be a tedious task. Board members have a responsibility to understand financial interim statements to guide the association’s financial course. This job can be complicated by inaccurate or incomplete financial reports. Poor reporting can make an already immense obligation harder to manage.

Timely and Accurate Financial Reports Provide Control

Expenses of the HOA are reported when paid, not when incurred – the timing is the same as for the Cash Basis. Homeowner’s associations are not exempt from taxes in the state of California. adjusting entries In some neighborhoods, this means enjoying certain amenities such as a pool or tennis courts. The truth is that homeowner’s associations (HOAs) are responsible for this.

You can also prepare charts and reports of your accounts for community access. It’s the duty of the homeowners association board to collect enough fees to cover the maintenance expenses for an entire community. Keep your HOA focused on its mission and goals while encouraging financial transparency and accountability. A financial audit is an in-depth study of an association’s financial reports. The goal of an audit is to give an HOA an independent and objective evaluation of the financial reporting process used, and give the association assurance that its financial statements are accurate and complete. If there are irregularities, an audit can help the HOA identify and fix small problems early on before they turn into bigger issues.

Cash Basis

Some duties seem simple from the outside, but there’s a lot of administrative heavy-lifting that maintains a healthy community. Most HOA boards bring in a  property manager to assist with day-to-day operations. The property manager works closely with the HOA, but ultimately the board retains decision-making power.

Well, as you may have already discovered, there are many things that can go wrong – which makes for a logistical nightmare if not managed properly. Making things worse, the world is now in the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, complicating HOA accounting and collections processes even further. Using this method, accounts like “Assessments Receivable” and “Prepaid Assessments” will appear on the Balance Sheet.

Understanding HOA Accounting

Now you can access your HOAs accounting information online from anywhere with the FreshBooks Cloud Accounting app. Send them an interactive invoice that allows them to pay directly on your secure site or mobile app. This way, the bill hits their inbox and the money hits your account in a matter of minutes. The new Accounting Software from FreshBooks empowers HOA managers like you to spend less time on bookkeeping and more time doing what you love. Residents or other stakeholders may want to view board minutes and other documents or data. This information can also be centrally stored and easily accessed using the right software.

However, investing in HOA software for your business’s accounts will streamline the process, saving your staff time they could be using more productively. This can help reduce the costs of accounting for your business, making homeowners’ association accounting software an intriguing investment. We offer services in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona. A homeowners association cannot properly operate if it doesn’t have the money to pay for services, repairs, etc. From clearing snow to keeping the lights on in the clubhouse, HOAs need to have money available for day-to-day expenses as well as significant projects. Poor HOA financial management can lead to numerous unwanted consequences for the HOA and its board.

Money-in includes fees and assessments; money-out includes common area maintenance. According to Civil Code Section 5500(c), the Board of Directors must review the current year’s actual expenses and revenues compared to the year’s budget at least quarterly. The HOA board must review HOA finances for reserve and operating expenses. Because the budget must follow the accrual basis, financial statements should also follow the accrual basis. With the cash basis method, amounts for Accounts Payable, Assessments Receivable, and Prepaid Assessments don’t show up on the association’s Balance Sheet. The board may choose to prepare Accounts Payable, Prepaid Assessments, and Assessments Receivable reports.

The accrual basis method means the association records transactions daily, weekly, and monthly it incurs them. For every report, the total balance must agree with the amounts reported as a liability or asset on the association’s Balance Sheet. The Balance Sheet should have Aged Assessments Receivable as an asset with Accounts Payable and Prepaid Assessments as liabilities until the payment of the amounts.