POOR AL HOA needs management software! Help!

Started by KennethC • 8 replies • 2224 views

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KennethC (Alabama)
Posts: 27

Posted:

Are HOA is in a small town in Alabama and lots of the Homeowners do not have the extra income to help us buy HOA Management Software. The volunteers are getting tired of keeping up with all the paperwork manually. Some have even stepped down from their position. We really need some sort of software that can help us manage the day to day business of a HOA. I have searched high and low through Google and have not found any freeware versions.

Please can anyone please tell me where I can look to find such a program with little to no cost involved. If I can show that software can reduce the amount of time it take to manage our HOA, maybe I can convince the rest of the Board to purchase an even better software next year.

Thanks in advance for your help!

BrianB (California)
Posts: 2,820

Posted:

Software to manage an HOA? you will need to let us know a bit more about what issues you have, what needs managed, etc.. We manage ours with Word for writing letters, and Excel for the accounting. Nothing else, just two programs.

Obviously, your needs are different, but without knowing more, i have no idea how different or what to recommend.

KennethC (Alabama)
Posts: 27

Posted:

Maybe I just need to take it over then. The people who are responsible for all the records make it sound like it is really hard and envolved. I think someone created a "bad" Access database and they have been using it ever since.

Thanks for your reply!

JulieS (Georgia)
Posts: 412

Posted:

You could use QuickBooks for the accounting portion (sending invoices, keeping track of receivables, late fees, fines, a/r & a/p, vendors, addresses, etc.). Letters can be typed in Word and is especially convenient if you use the mail merge feature for letters, envelpes, etc. Papers, like ACC requests, can be kept in a file box with a file for each property, or scanned for an electronic copy. Word of advice...be sure to stay on top of backing up your data in case of a system failure.

KennethC (Alabama)
Posts: 27

Posted:

I will have to look around for a deal on Quickbooks. And it has been a while since I used the mail merge feature... I guess I will have to brush up on that too.

Thanks!

LisaS (Illinois)
Posts: 341

Posted:

I also use Word and Excel to manage our 300 home HOA...by myself. It's not hard once you have the basic structure in place ( letter templates, roster, newsletter template, etc.)

Good luck!
Lisa

AdrianC (California)
Posts: 36

Posted:

Hi Kenneth,

A couple of management companies we interviwed use Filemaker as their software program. Filemaker is a totally customizable database that can keep track of income, expenses, violations, service requests, minutes,CCR's and Rules and Regs.

They will send you a free disc to try it out, and lots of third party developers have extras that work with it.
It retails for about $ 189, depending on the version.

Remember that you have to set the database up yourself, or pay someone to do it for you. they also have a magazine, website and usergroups that can help.

Adrian

JeniferH1 (Alabama)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Does anyone have a Excel template for the treasury reports that you can share? New to all of this and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

GeorgeS21 (Florida)
Posts: 3,808

Posted:

14 year old thread.

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