Commentary · Guide · Reference · Community Managers · How-to

12 articles in Guides · Clear filters

Topic Budgets & Assessments 11 Maintenance & Vendors 1

Audience Owners & Residents 7 Board Members 14 Community Managers 12

Medium Guide 12 Checklist 1

Kind Commentary 4 Reference 6 How-to 2

Series The Three Ways Every HOA Budget Goes Wrong 7 The Responsibility Map 1

The Three Ways Every HOA Budget Goes Wrong

The Three Ways Every HOA Budget Goes Wrong

When I rebuilt my own association's budget, I expected to find bad numbers. What I found was a process designed to produce them. Since then I have looked at a lot of association budgets, and the failu...

Budgets & Assessments The Three Ways Every HOA Budget Goes Wrong Board Members Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

Nobody Chose 3%. The Calendar Did.

Nobody Chose 3%. The Calendar Did.

Pull your association's last two budgets and put them side by side. If every line moved by the same percent, nobody built this year's budget. And before you get angry at the person who sent it, do the...

Budgets & Assessments Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

Why HOA Budgets Get Recycled: The Process, Not the Person

Why HOA Budgets Get Recycled: The Process, Not the Person

This is a piece in defense of the person who copied last year's budget. Not because the copy is good, but because copying is the rational move inside the process they were handed. The failure is a lac...

Budgets & Assessments The Three Ways Every HOA Budget Goes Wrong Board Members Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

Seven Inputs Your HOA Budget Ignored

Seven Inputs Your HOA Budget Ignored

When I rebuilt my own association's budget, the biggest corrections did not come from arithmetic. They came from things the budget had never been told. The information existed, in minutes, contracts, ...

Budgets & Assessments The Three Ways Every HOA Budget Goes Wrong Board Members Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

What Accounts Does HOA Reserve Accounting Actually Need?

What Accounts Does HOA Reserve Accounting Actually Need?

If you are setting up reserve accounting for an association, here is the whole answer: you need five accounts. Every account beyond these makes the books harder to read, not easier, and the reasons wh...

Budgets & Assessments Board Members Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

When Equal Isn't Equitable: Audit Your Split Against Your Documents

When Equal Isn't Equitable: Audit Your Split Against Your Documents

Splitting every cost equally feels like the neutral choice. It is not neutral. It is a choice among three lawful bases, and at many associations it is a choice the governing documents already made dif...

Budgets & Assessments The Three Ways Every HOA Budget Goes Wrong Board Members Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

The 20% Cap You Think You're Under

The 20% Cap You Think You're Under

Compliance asserted from a miscalculation is worse than no compliance check at all, because it is confidently wrong, and the confidence goes in the minutes. The 20 percent cap is a one-line rule with ...

Budgets & Assessments Board Members Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

Why Budgeting Off Your GL Is Wrong

Why Budgeting Off Your GL Is Wrong

In twenty years of business systems work, I never once saw a serious company budget directly on its chart of accounts. Dimensions, cost centers, analytic layers: separating "where the money posts" fro...

Budgets & Assessments The Three Ways Every HOA Budget Goes Wrong Board Members Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

A Budget You Can't Revise Is a Budget You'll Violate

A Budget You Can't Revise Is a Budget You'll Violate

Here is what happens at an association with no revision process when reality departs from the adopted budget: nothing. The spending continues, because the insurance must be paid and the water stays on...

Budgets & Assessments The Three Ways Every HOA Budget Goes Wrong Board Members Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

Budgeting for an Insurance Renewal You Haven't Seen

Budgeting for an Insurance Renewal You Haven't Seen

Every HOA budget contains at least one number nobody has seen: next year's insurance premium, because the renewal lands mid-year, months after adoption. You cannot fix that. What you can fix is everyt...

Budgets & Assessments The Three Ways Every HOA Budget Goes Wrong Board Members Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

Loans and NBI: The Two Lines Nobody Budgets

Loans and NBI: The Two Lines Nobody Budgets

Two lines go missing from association budgets more reliably than any others, and not because they are small. Debt service can be one of the largest lines an association carries, and the tax on non-exe...

Budgets & Assessments Board Members Community Managers

Sep 4, 2026

Who Carries This Cost? The Responsibility Map Hiding in Your CC&Rs

Who Carries This Cost? The Responsibility Map Hiding in Your CC&Rs

Every association fights the same fights: who fixes the balcony, who pays for the pipe in the wall, whose insurance covers the fence. Here is the part almost nobody says out loud: at most associations...

Owners & Residents Board Members The Responsibility Map Community Managers Maintenance & Vendors

Sep 4, 2026