CAM Comon Area Maintenance

"Meebers" wrote

We use excel to track the CAM fees and percentages as there can be changes from time to time in unit size and/or the occupied units, and as you mention the changing CAM costs. Then those unit fees get booked into QuickBooks to generate bills and track the receivables and payments. It'd be a lot of work in QB to account for the changing dynamics of those costs and space to automatically bill back to the unit owners or tenants.

"Meebers" wrote

We use excel to track the CAM fees and percentages as there can be changes from time to time in unit size and/or the occupied units, and as you mention the changing CAM costs. Then those unit fees get booked into QuickBooks to generate bills and track the receivables and payments. It'd be a lot of work in QB to account for the changing dynamics of those costs and space to automatically bill back to the unit owners or tenants.

Are you billing actual usage or the budget?

If you are billing the budget then setup the invoice for your first month and memorize them.

If you are billing actuals then you will need to use Paul's method to setup the invoices. You can still memorize the invoices with each item that needs to be billed to simplify things a little bit.

SW >programs to do this, but in the end, seemed to be equally difficult.

Are you billing actual usage or the budget?

If you are billing the budget then setup the invoice for your first month and memorize them.

If you are billing actuals then you will need to use Paul's method to setup the invoices. You can still memorize the invoices with each item that needs to be billed to simplify things a little bit.

Using Excel to determine yearly budget/12, (adjusted from last years actuals) Using QB for monthly invoice based on budget Using QB reports for monthly receivables Using Excel to input actuals Use Excel & QB for reconcile at years end.

A lot of back and forth, just trying to simplify/eliminate errors.

You are doing your CAM in the simplest way possible by billing the monthly Budget.

I would memorize the monthly billing by customer/unit. Set it up for one customer and memorize it. Call it up again and change the customer name and memorize it as a NEW transaction. repeat for all customers.

You can set the program to prompt you to post the invoice or you can do it manually.

At year end or other true-up time call up the memorized transaction and change the amounts on the invoice and post/mail it out.

For each new year, just call up the transaction customer by customer so that you can change the amounts per the new budget. Resave that memorized invoice and continue your billing for the year.

It sounds to me that the OP is trying to settle up the variances (over or under) each month, which is a huge waste fo time and effort in my book.

Set the budget for the year, make adjustments to the monthly billings only if you change the budget, then settle up the variances at year-end. So much easier to deal with.

I'd like to hear from the OP how they handle reserves, ie: saving up for the big expenses, like a new HVAC, or roofing, or repaving the parking lot, etc. Sticking it to the tenant that is unlucky enough to be there when you decidde to replace the roof or repave the parkling lot isn't the coolest thing to do to the tenant.

On our books it's a budget items every year and that amount goes into a reserve account (generally a CD) once a year.

Not exactly. The format******* Using Excel to determine yearly budget/12, (adjusted from last years actuals) Using QB for monthly invoice based on budget Using QB reports for monthly receivables Using Excel to input actuals Use Excel & QB for reconcile at years end.

A lot of back and forth, just trying to simplify/eliminate errors.

So it appears that he is billing the budget each month and reconciles the actuals at year end. Sounds like the simplest way of handling things.

It sounds to me that the OP is trying to settle up the variances (over or under) each month, which is a huge waste fo time and effort in my book.

Set the budget for the year, make adjustments to the monthly billings only if you change the budget, then settle up the variances at year-end. So much easier to deal with.

I'd like to hear from the OP how they handle reserves, ie: saving up for the big expenses, like a new HVAC, or roofing, or repaving the parking lot, etc. Sticking it to the tenant that is unlucky enough to be there when you decidde to replace the roof or repave the parkling lot isn't the coolest thing to do to the tenant.

On our books it's a budget items every year and that amount goes into a reserve account (generally a CD) once a year.

"Laura" wrote

So I'm still seeing some duplication of entering the actuals back into excel, unless you enter that once per year to aid in the budge setting process only.

You are aware that QB has budget capabilities. And then a nice budget -v- actual variance report.

"It sounds to me that the OP is trying to settle up the variances (over or under) each month, which is a huge waste fo time and effort in my book."

Never said that. Its on a spread sheet, the over/under is calculated automatically, no "huge"?? time/effort. Yearly reconcile.

"On our books it's a budget items every year and that amount goes into a reserve account (generally a CD) once a year."

So if you have to use some reserve, do you pay a penalty to cash in you CD, then what happens to the remainder? That doesn't sound logical in my book!

"Meebers" wrote

You can get 31 day CD's. If something that big comes up you're one month max from funding it. When there is enough money, you can have several staggered CD's with longer terms, each maturing every few months apart. And of course, you leave plenty in the checking to cover known bills, enough excess to make cash flow, and then some.

We're talking about an Association with an annual operating budget from $50 - $60K a year, with $80K in cash built up over many years. You don't need all $80k in the checking, it's "reserve" for the future costs of new roofs, repaving the parking lots and drives, etc. So you take say, $60k of the excess and buy CD's. You could do 6 CD's @ $10k each, staggered such that one is maturing every two months. You could do 4 CD's at $15k for 90 days, each maturing every month apart. You could do one large CD @ say, $40k for a year to 18 months, with two smaller ones maturing more frequently. Mix and match the possibilities.

But you leave $20k in the checking to cover cash flow, which along with the current assessment receipts should keep you well covered for fluxuations in your expenses.

It sounds perfectly logical to me.