REA.co Real Estate Accounting & Tax

You Manage The Association, We'll Handle The HOA Appfolio Bookkeeping Services.

AppFolio was built for rental portfolios, where the general ledger tracks units and owner distributions to landlords. An HOA runs on fund accounting: operating and reserve are legally separate pools of member money, and AppFolio does not enforce that separation on its own. Every association onboarded into the platform inherits whatever chart of accounts decisions were made at setup, good or bad.

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Homeowner Associations Accounting Inside AppFolio

What Changes When You Run This Vertical On This Platform

Where it breaks

Operating and reserve funds sharing one ledger

AppFolio treats each association as a single property with one general ledger, not two segregated funds, by default. If the chart of accounts was set up without a separate reserve bank account and separate GL codes, a transfer that covers an operating shortfall posts as a plain expense or an inter-account transfer, not a documented loan from reserves. The bank balance looks fine. The income statement looks fine. Nobody sees the two together until someone reconciles the reserve study against the actual reserve balance, often at year end, by which point the shortfall has been building for months and the board has already reported clean numbers to members.

How REA handles it

Chart of accounts built as two ledgers, not one

REA sets up each association's AppFolio instance with operating and reserve as separate bank accounts, each carrying its own GL codes, before a single transaction posts. Special assessments get their own income account, coded to the purpose stated in the assessment resolution, never blended into regular dues. Any transfer between operating and reserve is booked as a loan with a repayment schedule and board approval attached, not a journal entry that disappears into miscellaneous. Because REA works inside the client's own AppFolio instance with accountant access, this structure is visible to the board and to REA at the same time, not rebuilt from an export after a problem surfaces.

What we check in your AppFolio instance

  • Reserve funds held in a separate bank account
  • Special assessments coded to their own GL account
  • Interfund transfers booked as loans, not expenses
  • Reserve study balance reconciled to actual reserve GL
  • New property onboarding uses correct chart of accounts
  • Bank feed reconciliation timing on both accounts

The Full Scope of the Engagement

Two Pages Carry the Detail

This page covers what is specific to running Homeowner Associations books in AppFolio. The complete service scope, process, and pricing conversation live on the two pages below.

The vertical

Homeowner Associations Accounting

Full scope, monthly process, property types, FAQs and the team on the account.

See the Homeowner Associations page

The platform

AppFolio Bookkeeping

What AppFolio does well, where its accounting breaks, and how REA works inside your own instance.

See the AppFolio page
  1. 01

    Trust Accounting

    Tenant, owner, and security deposit money kept separate, tied out, and ready for a state audit at any time.

  2. 02

    Bank Reconciliation Services

    Every operating, trust, and escrow account reconciled on a fixed schedule, with the variances chased down rather than carried forward.

  3. 03

    Accounts Payable & Receivable

    Vendor invoices coded and paid, tenant receipts applied, management fees taken, and owner distributions cut on time.

  4. 04

    Bookkeeping Cleanup & Catch-Up

    Months or years of unreconciled books diagnosed, corrected, and brought current so the numbers you report are numbers you trust.

  5. 05

    CAM Reconciliation

    Common area maintenance pools built from the lease terms, reconciled against actuals, and billed or credited with a defensible tenant statement.

Experts In All Property Types

Residential, commercial and everything in between. The asset class changes what the books have to prove, and our teams are staffed accordingly.

Check Out What Our Clients Have To Say About Us

Property Managers, Investors & Owner Operators

Client story

Real-estate-only specialists

As REA exclusively specializes in Real Estate, I rest easy knowing my financials are precise every month while saving money at the same time, an invaluable benefit.

SWSteve WilkoOwner Operator

Handed over the whole accounting function

I highly recommend Real Estate Accounting (REA) services from this group. They truly are great and have helped us tremendously at a time we needed it the most. I felt very comfortable giving up all my accounting responsibilities to this team and I'm still glad I made the decision to work with this group. Nothing less than an amazing experience!

TCTracy CollinsProperty Manager

Day-to-day financial operations

REA and team have been nothing but excellent helping our firm with its day to day financial needs. Their expertise, professionalism, and timeliness have made our lives so much easier. We foresee a long relationship with REA and team.

BCBrian CookOwner Operator

230+

Property Accountants

30M+

Commercial Sq. Ft.

Up to 50%

Saved vs In-House

Every month

On-Time Close

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Running Homeowner Associations On Something Else?

Same Vertical, Different Platform

Frequently Asked Questions

We already use AppFolio's reserve fund tracking. Isn't that enough?

AppFolio can display a reserve balance, but nothing forces that balance to sit in its own bank account. A reserve figure on a report can be a memo line, not money segregated from operating cash. REA checks whether the reserve number in AppFolio actually reconciles to a dedicated reserve bank account and matches the reserve study, not just a labeled row in the general ledger.

Our previous manager covered an operating shortfall out of reserves and called it a transfer. Is that a problem?

That depends on whether it was ever booked as a loan with board approval on record. A transfer from reserves to operating that is never repaid or documented is a use of member reserve funds for operating purposes, and most state statutes restrict or require disclosure of that. REA's first step on a new association is checking every interfund transfer in the AppFolio ledger against board minutes.

We're onboarding a new association into our AppFolio portfolio. What should we watch for?

The chart of accounts AppFolio assigns to a new property is often cloned from an existing one in the portfolio. If that source template blended operating and reserve, or had no separate special assessment account, the new association starts with the same defect already built in. REA builds the chart of accounts for each new HOA property from the governing documents and reserve study, not from whatever template AppFolio suggests by default.

Ready for Accurate Homeowner Associations Books in AppFolio?

Schedule a call with our team to talk through your AppFolio instance, what it is doing to your homeowner associations financials, and what REA would take on.