HOA Accounting Software – 5 Tips for Successful HOA Budgeting

Handling your budget is one of your most important responsibilities as a HOA manager.  However, in our experience, it’s also one of the responsibilities that managers least want to deal with.  Preparing a budget might seem like a hassle, but it’s necessary to keep your HOA on track.  The better it’s handled, the more smoothly everything will run in the year ahead.

Here are a few tips if you’re looking for help with your HOA budgeting.

Five Ways to Prepare Better HOA Budgets

1 – Remember to keep your focus on residents

A HOA lives or dies based on the quality of the residents living within it.   Whatever other challenges or priorities face your HOA, your #1 priority should be keeping the residents happy while enhancing their own quality of life.  It’ll increase the value of your Association, not to mention reducing the number of complaints you’ll hear.

2 – Plan for years ahead.

A smart HOA budget is looking around 3-5 years down the road, taking issues such as depreciation and maintenance into account.  Upgrades might seem expensive, but if implementing them today will prevent even bigger costs in a couple years, it’s a worthwhile investment.

3 – Don’t simply annualize your expenses.

If you’re looking to save money, you need to be taking a deep look at your expenses.  Take the time to really dig into the cash outflow and find opportunities for savings.  For example: when’s the last time you’ve renegotiated with your maintenance contractors, or looked for cheaper alternatives?

4 – Keep your HOA rules handy

No one wants to be accused of impropriety – particularly if it’s not true.  Always have your HOA rulebook within reach while doing your budget and refer to it frequently.  Make sure every t is crossed and i is dotted.

5 – Invest in quality HOA accounting software

If you’re still handling your budgets by hand, or in a generic spreadsheet, you could make your life so much easier.  The right HOA accounting software can automate many areas of budgeting, such as forecasting while including great features specific to the property management industry like per-lot financial tracking.

Asyst6 Is Here to Improve Your Budgeting Process

Large or small, any HOA could benefit from an all-in-one mobile-accessible HOA accounting software package that streamlines budgeting and other management processes.  Contact us today to learn about how easily Asyst6 could improve your management processes!