Budgets

Started by VinnieC • 10 replies • 2300 views

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VinnieC (New York)
Posts: 3

Posted:

A few questions.

Does anyone have a sample budget for a small HOA. Are there any websites that might have examples?

Should capital expense accounts have a seperate bank account than the normal operating expense account? Should capital expenses be completely seperate from the normal operating expenses?

Are capital expenses typically for planned projects or can emergency repairs come out of the capital funds. Some people have said that emergencies (if a large amount) should result in an assessment.

Thanks for any input.

DianeW (Maryland)
Posts: 147

Posted:

I'm in the same boat and keep checking your question to see if anyone has answered. Our HOA has never had a budget and as the new treasurer, I feel one would be a good thing but I don't feel qualified to set this up by myself. What do other hoa's have in their budgets?

LisaS (Illinois)
Posts: 341

Posted:

We have an HOA with 300 single family houses turned over by the developer 1 year ago with $30,000 reserve in place.

We put together our budget immediately after takeover and post updates to it along with a financial summary on our website. The budget didn't keep format when I tried to add it to the post. But if you are interested you can go to our HOA website www.wildingpointe.org and click on 'Financials'.

We did not keep a separate account for our reserves. All of our finds were in a checking account until recently. We decided to put the Capital Reserve funds into CD's of varying lengths so the money would grow (not much- but something!)We do not have an early withdrawal penalty in the event that we need the money before maturity.

Hope it helps!

hoatalk (California)
Posts: 599

Posted:

Have a look at: http://www.forestcreekhoa.org/budgets.htm

This is a large HOA, but you can see 4 years of detailed budgets here.

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DianeW (Maryland)
Posts: 147

Posted:

Thanks for posting the links. I will certainly check them out!

TammyS2 (Indiana)
Posts: 21

Posted:

Vinnie,

I am the treasurer for our HOA, with 31 lot owners. There was never a budget until I pulled one together. I have attached it for an example. Also, our 'reserve' funds were put into a savings account, however, we don't have much need for reserve funds as we use money for road maintanance and office expenses. Hope this helps.

Tammy

📎 Attachments (1):

📎1108135647171.xls(24 KB)

JohnO6 (Georgia)
Posts: 424

Posted:

Tammy - Although I'm confident your intentions were really good, I wonder about the value of responding in a thread that hasn't had a posting in nearly 4 years?

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 7,043

Posted:

Tammy,

I doubt Vinnie will be responding to your message; however, I feel I should respond to yours.

Reserve funds should be held in an account separate from the operating account. Generally it is a savings or money market account or the funds may be deposited into CDs, depending upon when the funds may be needed. You say you don't need a separate reserve fund because you only use reserve funds for road maint and office expenses. First of all, office expenses should come out of the operating account, certainly NOT the reserve account. Secondly, if you have private roads that is definitely cause for a reserve fund. If and when the roads need to be repaved the cost will most likely be in the tens of thousands and that is why the assn should be putting aside monies into a reserve fund. Normal maint on the roads can be funded through the operating account.

TammyS2 (Indiana)
Posts: 21

Posted:

No value. Geez, misread the year. Same month wrong year. Excuse me.

MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By TammyS2 on 10/17/2009 7:19 PM
No value. Geez, misread the year. Same month wrong year. Excuse me.

LOL! I know. I've gotten caught in that sort of thing here recently myself!

No worries!

DeeS1 (Michigan)
Posts: 223

Posted:

Tammy:

I know your post's timing was accidentally, but I started looking at your budget because I'm putting one together myself this year for a small community. Do you mind if I make a few inquiries?

Do you mind if I ask what "trenching" the roadside is? And, why do only some of your homeowners have to pay for it and whatever you are doing to the roads? I'm curious because in our HOA all homeowners have to pay to maintain the common areas based on percentage of unit value.

Why are you pulling money out of savings for the roads versus assessing? Do you have a huge surplus ... normally we are not allowed to use our reserve savings for operational expenses.

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