Confused??? Let me give you some clarity about invoice booklets–formerly, payment booklets. At the first of this year we began doing much of our own accounting; that is, we took on the duties of accepting payment of your condo fees and paying the bills for the Association. These are known more formally as Accounts Receivable (A/R) and Accounts Payable (A/P). The reason we did this is that accountants cost a lot of money and, as a small association, we simply could not afford to pay for services which we could do ourselves. The money we save can be better used to provide important services like home repair. We were paying about $5,000.00/yr for an accountant; we still have an accountant now but we are only paying about $1,500.00/yr to our new accountant, mostly to manage our taxes. The savings of $3,500.00 will be better used elsewhere.

The Association uses a wonderful software tool called MoneyMinder to manage our finances. It does this efficiently and gives us great depth in reporting to members. There are dozens of similar programs available but MoneyMinder is lean and is perfectly suited to our needs. Most homeowner associations do their own finances and use one of the many programs out there; it just makes good sense.

The original purpose of payment booklets was to help us have better control of our income and help members know how much their payment is and where to send it. In the past our Boards of Directors relied on an honor system to do this. Members were merely told to call our accountant to have their method of payment set up. Such a practice is fine if there are only a few members; but, with several dozens of members it is inevitable that some are going to get lost–and that is exactly what has happened. Payments are missed and payment amounts misquoted.

Payment books, and now invoice books, are a solution to the problem stated above. Not only do members have a tangible invoice for their condo fees; but, they have all the information needed to get the correct amount to the correct party (our Treasurer) for processing. Members no longer have to return coupons with their payments; they submit their payments however they want. The invoices provide a material record of what they owe and are theirs to keep, or discard, as they wish. For members who sell their condos, it would be useful if they marked the months paid and pass the booklet on to their buyer who can then pick up where the seller left off.

M Marshall