How to choose condominium & HOA management software: a checklist
Published
Many condominiums and HOAs run on a mix of spreadsheets, a group chat, a mailbox and one person’s memory. Software can replace that mix if it fits the way your community is run, and switching twice costs time and goodwill. This guide gives a checklist to compare products, the questions to ask any vendor, and what a free plan should cover to be worth your time. Whatever you choose, check that it fits your bylaws and the rules that apply where you are: the software supports the work, it does not decide how the community is governed.
Who is choosing
The right product depends on who runs the community.
- A self-managed board or an independent manager with one condominium or HOA. Board members are volunteers, they change every year or two, and the budget is tight. What matters most: simple enough to learn in an evening, a cost the owners will approve, and records that belong to the association rather than to whoever held the job. See for property managers.
- A management company with a portfolio. It needs every community in one place, each manager seeing only the properties they run, a trail of who changed what, and its own brand. See for management companies.
A checklist of what to look at
Go through the list with a real property in mind, not a demo.
| Area | What to check |
|---|---|
| Residents’ access and roles | Can residents sign in, and do they see only their own unit? Which roles come built in, and do residents count as paid seats? |
| Tickets | Priorities, statuses, assignment, photos, and a record residents can follow from report to closure |
| Amenity bookings | A shared calendar that checks your rules: hours, slot length, quotas, approvals, fees |
| Dues billing | A month’s invoices in one step, expense shares by participation share, late fees, partial payments |
| Bank reconciliation | Importing the statement and matching lines to invoices, with fees set aside |
| Records with expiry alerts | Contracts, insurances and maintenance schedules that warn someone before they lapse |
| Languages | The app and the mails in each resident’s language, if your community is mixed |
| A phone-sized screen | Residents and staff on site use a phone; every screen should work there |
| Exports | Invoices, expenses and payments as files your accountant can open |
| The pricing model | Per unit, per seat, flat, or by use; what grows as you grow, and what happens at a cap |
| The trial | How long, whether it takes a card, and what happens when it ends |
| Support | How you reach a person, and from where |
Not every row matters to every community: a board that bills on paper today may start with tickets and bookings, and move the dues later.
Questions to ask any vendor
A demo shows what a product does. These questions find what it does not.
- What is not included? Ask for the list, in writing. A product that takes no payments online, or keeps no accounts, is fine if you know it before you move your dues.
- What happens to our data after a downgrade or a cancellation? Can you still read it? Can you still export it? For how long?
- Which exports exist, and in which format? A CSV of invoices, expenses and payments is the minimum for whoever keeps the books, and for leaving one day.
- Who can see what? Ask to see what a resident sees. A resident reading another unit’s invoice, or a manager of one community seeing the next, is a real failure.
What a free plan should cover to be useful
A free plan is worth trying only if you can run a real property on it, not a sample.
- Enough to run the day to day: the buildings and units, the residents, the tickets and the amenity bookings. Without residents on it, it is a demo.
- Caps stated up front. How many units, staff seats and how much storage, printed before you sign up, with what happens when you reach them.
- No card. A plan that needs a card to start is closer to a trial.
- No time limit. Free for as long as the property fits in it.
- An upgrade that keeps everything. Moving to a paid plan should not mean setting the property up again.
How Leasdesk’s Starter fits
Starter is Leasdesk’s free plan for one property, with no card and no time limit. It covers the structure (buildings, units and parking lots), the residents, the bylaws, tickets, amenities and bookings, the building’s assets, and support from the Leasdesk team opened from inside the app. Its caps on units, staff seats and storage are printed on the plan cards, and they are hard caps: at one, the app asks you to upgrade before you add more, so nothing is billed by surprise. Residents never take a seat. The free plan has the details.
Pro adds invoices, expenses and bank reconciliation, contracts, insurances and maintenances with their alerts, announcements, and the desk’s packages, visitor passes and incident log, still for one property. Business adds several properties, custom roles, the audit log, your brand, and mail from your own address, which the Leasdesk team connects when you ask on a support ticket; it is sold to verified companies after an application. Pro and Business start with a trial, once per organization and per person, with the card on file and nothing charged before it ends. Above the included units, seats and storage, they bill by use. The pricing shows each plan.
Here is how Leasdesk answers the vendor questions above. It does not take payments online or keep a general ledger, a budget or financial statements. After a downgrade, Pro’s records stay readable and the invoices and expenses still export as CSV; the bank reconciliation and its statement come back with Pro, and the audit log with Business. A resident sees their own unit and what belongs to it, nothing of the other units. The app, the mails and the invoice PDF come in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, each person in their own. It is a web app that fits a phone’s screen, with no native app to install, and no push notifications, SMS or WhatsApp messages.
Your first week
Day one: the setup wizard. Create an account and the wizard asks whether you run one property or a group. Describe the property: its type, address, time zone and currency, and, for billing later, a base monthly fee and a late fee. Pick Starter or a trial. Generate the buildings and units from blocks and floors, numbered by floor and unit (101, 102), by floor and letter (1A, 1B) or in sequence, with a preview you can edit before saving. Tick the amenities from a checklist, mark the bookable ones and set their rules. Add the parking lots, then invite the people who help you run the property as Managers, Staff or Officers. A short tour shows each page the first time you open it.
Days two to four: the residents. Invite each household from its unit, as owner or tenant, with a move-in date. Publish the bylaws and put each amenity’s rule sheet on the amenity, so residents find them when they first sign in.
Days five to seven: the first tickets and bookings. Ask residents to report the next problem as a ticket instead of a message, and to book the party room on the calendar. Answer the first tickets quickly: the habit forms in the first week, or it does not.