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svtown
Level 1

HOA reserve accounting steps

@Rainflurry 


Thank you for all of your information.  I do have a follow on question.  We have 2 accounts at bank - 1 for our Reserve Fund (a money market account) - and 1 for our Operating Account (a checking account).  We just had a capital expense that needs to be paid from Reserve Fund.  In order to do that - I need to transfer the amount due to the vendor from our Reserve Fund account to our Operating Account in order for a check to be cut.  As these accounts are linked in QB, I will see the transfers in both the Reserve Account and Operating account.  I want to ensure I am recognizing this in our books (balance sheet and income statement correctly).  How do I record those transactions properly in QB per what you suggest in the thread to ensure things are recorded properly.  Just want to get it right.  Thank you very much for all your help in this thread!

Rainflurry
Level 13

HOA reserve accounting steps

@svtown 

 

Just so we're on the same page, it's important to distinguish the difference between your money market account (MMA) and a reserve fund.  A MMA is just a bank account.  A reserve fund is the amount of replacement reserves shown in the equity section of your balance sheet.  The amounts are unlikely to be the same.  Does your HOA have a reserve fund in the equity section of your balance sheet?  If you do (HOAs should), then there are two separate transactions that need to be recorded:

 

1) The transfer from your MMA to the checking account so you can pay the bill.  That is just a transfer (New > Transfer) between the two accounts.  You will then have a withdrawal from the MMA and a deposit to the checking account that can be matched to the bank feed.  

2) The bill for the capital expense should be assigned to a Capital Expenditures equity account.  That will create a negative equity (what's known as a contra equity account) amount that offsets the replacement reserve equity account.  Or, you can just assign the replacement reserve equity account to the bill, but I think it's better to be able to see the capital expenditures as a separate line item in the equity section. 

 

If you don't have replacement reserves in the equity section of your balance sheet then, presumably, the HOA recorded the dues received for replacement reserves as income and the bill for the capital expenditure should be booked to replacement reserve expense.  That's not really the appropriate way to do it, buy many HOAs do.       

svtown
Level 1

HOA reserve accounting steps

@Rainflurry 

Thank you for your reply back.  Very helpful.  We adopted the accounting from management company who were not doing as you note.  I have now setup the reserve fund in the equity section and will follow your instructions.  Thank you again!

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