How to bill condominium & HOA dues each month and reconcile payments

Dues pay for everything a condominium or HOA shares: the cleaning, the insurance, the elevator, the reserve. Billing them well takes a routine that runs the same way every month, so each unit is billed the right amount once, each payment lands on the right unit, and the board can always say who is behind. This guide describes common practice, not legal or tax advice: your bylaws and local law decide the details.

Set it up once

Four decisions come before the first invoice. Write them down where the owners can find them.

• Each unit’s monthly fee. In many associations it comes from the yearly budget, approved as the bylaws say, divided among the units by the share the governing documents give each one: a percentage, a fraction, the unit’s area, or equal parts. Record each unit’s fee and share, and change them only when the budget or the documents change.
• The due date. One day each month, the same for every unit, far enough after the invoices go out for people to pay without rushing.
• A late-fee policy. Whether a late fee may be charged at all, how much, from which day and how often is for the bylaws and local law to say. Some places cap it or require notice first. If your association has one, write down the exact rule and apply it the same way to everyone.
• How residents pay. Choose the ways you accept, such as a transfer to the association’s account; fewer methods mean fewer mistakes. Ask payers to put the unit’s number in the transfer’s description: it is what makes the bank statement readable later.

The monthly routine

The same steps, in the same order, every month:

1. Record the month’s expenses. Every bill dated that month, with the supplier, its date and, when it belongs to one building, that building. Whether the association has paid the supplier yet is a separate matter. An expense recorded after the run slips to the next month.
2. Preview the run. Before anything goes out, check what each unit would be billed: a missing unit, a unit billed twice, a share that looks wrong.
3. Issue the invoices. One per unit, numbered, with the due date. From here on an invoice is not edited: a correction goes on as a charge or a credit.
4. Tell the residents. Each household gets its invoice with the lines that explain the total.
5. Record payments as they arrive. Each one against its invoice, with the date, the amount and the method. A partial payment leaves a balance.
6. Reconcile the bank statement. Compare the account’s movements with the payments and expenses recorded.
7. Follow up what is overdue. List the unpaid invoices past their due date, send a polite reminder first, then follow what the bylaws and local law provide.

Sharing expenses by participation share

Many associations share expenses in proportion to each unit’s participation share: a unit with 2% of the building pays 2% of the elevator’s repair. The shares can be percentages, fractions or areas; what counts is the proportion between them. When the bylaws set different keys for different costs, such as water by use, follow them.

A split rarely lands on whole cents. The usual fix is to round every share down to the cent, then hand the cents left over, one each, to the units with the largest remainders, so the shares always add up to the bill exactly. Here is a bill of 100.00 shared by three units with equal shares:

When an association has several buildings, the bylaws may have an expense that belongs to one of them, such as its roof, shared by that building’s units only.

Reconciling the bank statement

Reconciling means proving that the money in the account matches what the books say. Once a month:

• Import the statement. Most banks export the month’s movements as a CSV file.
• Match each incoming line to an invoice, by the unit’s number in the description or by an amount equal to exactly one open balance. Record it as a payment on that invoice.
• Split one transfer over several invoices when an owner pays two months, or two units, at once.
• Set aside the bank’s fees and anything unrelated, so they do not sit in the list as unexplained lines.
• Tie money going out to an expense, so every payment from the account has a bill behind it.

Why monthly? A mismatch found within weeks is easy to trace, because the payer still remembers the transfer. A year later, nobody does. And a treasurer who steps down hands over clean books.

Common mistakes

• Billing a month twice. Check that the month has not been issued already, or use a tool that skips the units already billed for it.
• Editing issued invoices. The resident has seen the invoice and may have paid it; a quiet change breaks the paper trail. Add a charge or a credit instead, and void an invoice issued by mistake only before any payment is recorded against it.
• A late fee with no written rule. It is hard to defend in a dispute and may not be enforceable. Write the rule down and check it against the bylaws and local law.
• Mixing the association’s money with anyone else’s. Keep it in an account in the association’s name, apart from the manager’s or a board member’s own. Many bylaws, management contracts and local laws require it.

How Leasdesk does it (Pro)

Leasdesk bills dues on the Pro plan, as billing and dues shows screen by screen.

• Setup. Each unit carries its monthly fee, which starts from the property’s base fee, and its participation share, as a percentage, a fraction or an area: only the proportion counts. A unit has one share, so separate keys for different costs cannot be set. The property sets its currency and, if it has one, a late fee as a percentage.
• The run. A manager chooses the year, the month and the due date, and sees a preview first. Each unit with something to bill gets one invoice, numbered per property: the monthly fee, its share of the expenses to the cent (a building’s expense shared by that building’s units only), the fees of finished bookings, and the late fee, charged once on each overdue invoice’s balance. A unit that already has a live invoice for that month is skipped.
• Corrections are a charge or a credit added to an invoice still open. An invoice with payments cannot be voided.
• Residents with an account on the unit are mailed the invoice’s lines, with a link to the invoice and its PDF, and a receipt after each payment your team records.
• The bank statement comes in as a CSV with your own column mapping, up to 5,000 rows. Leasdesk suggests the invoice behind each line; you confirm it as a payment, split a transfer, ignore the fees, or attach money going out to an expense.

What it does not do: take payments online (there is no pay button), start the month by itself, mail overdue reminders, or keep a general ledger, a budget or financial statements. The invoices, the expenses and the bank statement export as CSV for whoever keeps the books.

Booking fees reach the same invoice; amenity booking rules covers how to set them. Tickets and amenity bookings are free on Starter, the free plan, and billing comes with Pro’s trial: see the pricing.