You Manage The Association, We'll Handle The HOA Buildium Bookkeeping Services.
Buildium runs rental trust accounting and HOA association accounting on the same underlying ledger structure, which is efficient for a management company handling both, but it does not automatically enforce the fund segregation that reserve statutes require. The platform will let reserve and operating money share a chart of accounts, and sometimes a bank account, without flagging it. That gap is where HOA books on Buildium go wrong, not from the software, but from what it permits by default.
Homeowner Associations Accounting Inside Buildium
What Changes When You Run This Vertical On This Platform
Where it breaks
One ledger holding two funds that must stay separate
Buildium tracks an association's reserve and operating activity on the same chart of accounts and, often, the same bank account, because the platform was built around a single rental trust model, not statutory dual fund segregation. A manager can set up GL codes labeled reserve and post to them correctly for months. The break happens at the transfer entry: a shortfall in operating gets moved from reserve with a journal entry coded as interfund transfer, or worse, other income, instead of a documented loan with a board approved repayment schedule. Nobody notices until the reserve study is reconciled at year end and the balance comes up short.
How REA handles it
Reserve reconciled to bank, not just to GL
REA reconciles each association's reserve balance to its actual bank balance every month, not just to the GL control account, and every reserve to operating movement gets booked as an interfund loan with a memo, a board approval reference, and a repayment date, never as a transfer or a journal entry with no paper trail. Where Buildium allows classes or sub accounts per fund, we use them consistently across every association on the instance, not just the ones a client flags, so operating and reserve activity stay separable in reporting even when they sit in the same bank account. Special assessments post to their own revenue code, never blended into regular dues.
What we check in your Buildium instance
- Reserve bank balance matches GL reserve balance
- Interfund transfers booked as loans, not income
- Special assessments coded separately from dues income
- Reserve study balance reconciled to book balance
- Bank segregation matches state statute requirements
- Class or sub-account tagging consistent across associations
The Full Scope of the Engagement
Two Pages Carry the Detail
This page covers what is specific to running Homeowner Associations books in Buildium. 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 pageThe platform
Buildium Bookkeeping
What Buildium does well, where its accounting breaks, and how REA works inside your own instance.
See the Buildium page- 01
Trust Accounting
Tenant, owner, and security deposit money kept separate, tied out, and ready for a state audit at any time.
- 02
Bank Reconciliation Services
Every operating, trust, and escrow account reconciled on a fixed schedule, with the variances chased down rather than carried forward.
- 03
Accounts Payable & Receivable
Vendor invoices coded and paid, tenant receipts applied, management fees taken, and owner distributions cut on time.
- 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.
- 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.
- Single-Family
- Multifamily
- Student Housing
- Affordable Housing
- Community Associations
- CommercialSee the page
Check Out What Our Clients Have To Say About Us
Property Managers, Investors & Owner Operators
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.
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!
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.
230+
Property Accountants
30M+
Commercial Sq. Ft.
Up to 50%
Saved vs In-House
Every month
On-Time Close
Running Homeowner Associations On Something Else?
Same Vertical, Different Platform
- AppFolioHomeowner Associations bookkeeping in AppFolio
- EntrataHomeowner Associations bookkeeping in Entrata
- QuickBooksHomeowner Associations bookkeeping in QuickBooks
- Rent ManagerHomeowner Associations bookkeeping in Rent Manager
- YardiHomeowner Associations bookkeeping in Yardi
- MRIHomeowner Associations bookkeeping in MRI
- RealPageHomeowner Associations bookkeeping in RealPage
Frequently Asked Questions
We use one Buildium instance for both our rental properties and our HOA client accounts. Is that a problem?
Not by itself, but it raises the bar on bookkeeping discipline because Buildium doesn't force separation between rental trust funds and HOA money the way some dedicated HOA platforms do. It's on the management company to keep reserve and operating funds, and rental trust liabilities, cleanly split by class, sub-account, and where required by statute, by physical bank account. REA sets that structure up and checks it every month rather than assuming the initial setup holds.
Our reserve fund shows the right balance on the Buildium balance sheet. Why would that not be enough?
A GL balance can be correct on paper while the bank balance is different, especially if a shortfall was covered by pulling reserve cash without a matching entry, or if a transfer got coded to the wrong account. REA reconciles the reserve GL balance to the actual bank statement every month, not just to itself, which is the only way to catch a quiet borrow before it becomes a compliance problem at audit or reserve study time.
Can Buildium handle special assessments correctly for an HOA?
Buildium can track special assessments, but it won't stop someone from coding one to the same income account as regular dues, which overstates ordinary operating income and can misstate the reserve contribution rate a board is relying on. REA sets up a distinct revenue code for special assessments at onboarding and confirms every posting uses it, so the income statement your board reviews reflects what actually funds operations versus what was raised for a one-time purpose.
Ready for Accurate Homeowner Associations Books in Buildium?
Schedule a call with our team to talk through your Buildium instance, what it is doing to your homeowner associations financials, and what REA would take on.