The treasurer uses an accounting program. The president has a folder with governing documents on cloud storage. Residents’ emails are distributed across their individual inboxes. Someone has photographs of the violations on their phones. A board member also has the username and password for the website of the community.
Technically speaking, everything is there.
The process of finding it is a different one.
Administrative complexity can grow when a homeowner association is self-managed. The spreadsheet is a solution to one problem. Another issue can be solved with using a chat room. The board also offers shared storage, accounting, websites payment online, and another method of communicating with residents.
In the end, volunteers spend nearly as much time managing the equipment as they do managing the community.
The issue isn’t in self-management.
Self-management allows a group to take full control of its activities. The problem is that the board members are volunteers, not full-time administrative staff.
They must still collect assessments, keep records regarding owners, document expenses, keep in touch with residents, and report violations. They organize files, prepare documents and preserve the records.
Good HOA management software will simplify the administrative burden without removing control from the association.
Perfect HOA accomplishes this by merging all records (units finance, financials, payments and communications), documents, violations as well as the resident portal and meeting minutes into the cloud-based system.
Think about what happens to homeowners who moves.
Centralized records help to manage the administrative tasks of the association. Instead of manually updating an address on one spreadsheet, then updating a different contact list, looking up a different payment system, and then manually altering the accessibility of the website data, it can be used across all administration activities of the association.
The Treasurer should not need to recreate the Financial Picture
HOA finances can cause a similar issue when information is dispersed.
Bank transactions are processed at a single place. Assessment payments arrive somewhere else. The budget may be another spreadsheet. When someone asks how actual spending compares with the annual plan the treasurer must make up the answer.
HOA accounting software becomes more beneficial when bookkeeping activities are associated with the association’s day-to-day work.
Perfect HOA can sync bank and card activity with Plaid, classify transactions and create reports such as Profit & Loss budget vs. Actual, as well as cash flow. Reserve, operating, and special-assessment funds can be tracked separately.
It’s important to understand that HOA accounting doesn’t simply mean producing an annual total. A board could need to determine if landscaping expenses exceed budget, what amount of money is left in a reserve account, or if assessments collections are in line with the budgeted expenses.
The less dependent the community is of a spreadsheet that is private and the less dependent it is on spreadsheets, the easier it will be to track down the answers.
Residents shouldn’t have to wonder the location of everything.
Centralization can improve the resident experience too.
Imagine the most commonly asked concerns an HOA asks. What are the records for my community? Have I received my money? How do I find the most recent notice? Where can I get access to information about the association?
A useful HOA website builder should create more than a public-facing homepage. Perfect HOA connects the community website with a resident portal so owner information and documents remain connected to the management system that is in place.
It is no longer necessary to keep two sets of data for the website and the other for a board.
This allows residents to find the right person before calling a volunteer member on the board to discuss something already in place.
Good Records Matter Most When There’s a problem
The true test of an HOA’s administrative system often takes place a few months later.
The resident is able to challenge a violation. Someone is interested in knowing whether an official notice was actually sent. A new board is trying to comprehend an old decision. An auditor needs financial information. Unexpectedly, a treasurer leaves.
At this point, the memory just isn’t sufficient.
Perfect HOA will preserve all communications history, documents, delivery information and timelines for violations. The definition of a violation could include photographs, evidence and notices, as well as escalation history and associated fines, rather than being reconstructed from scattered emails when a dispute occurs.
Board meetings can also create records that must be maintained by the person who is in charge. AI-generated minutes of meetings eliminate the need to manually turn the lengthy meeting into an official record.
Self-managing an HOA will always require people to make choices. Software should not take over this task.
The detective work must be removed.
Board members are able to have less time to think “Who has this?” and more time dealing with the issues that call for their expertise.
It may be the most important aspect of automation to the board of volunteers.
