REA.co Real Estate Accounting & Tax

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

Rent Manager was built to manage rental portfolios first, associations second, so its default chart of accounts and owner distribution logic assume a single operating fund. An HOA board expects operating and reserve to read as two funds that never blend, but a Rent Manager database only enforces that separation if someone configured it that way, and every manager afterward respected the configuration.

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Homeowner Associations Accounting Inside Rent Manager

What Changes When You Run This Vertical On This Platform

Where it breaks

Reserve fund transfers hide inside generic GL codes

In Rent Manager, a property card can hold multiple bank accounts with no system rule stopping a journal entry from moving money between them. When a board covers an operating shortfall from reserves, the entry often gets coded as a plain transfer, not an interfund loan with a receivable on one side and a payable on the other. The GL balances still look fine, since both accounts remain on the books. Nothing flags that reserves are owed money until a reserve study or an audit tries to reconcile the reserve balance to what the study assumed was there, sometimes a year later.

How REA handles it

REA rebuilds fund separation into the chart of accounts

REA sets up or corrects each association's chart of accounts so operating and reserve post as genuinely separate funds, with any movement between them recorded as a loan: a receivable in reserve, a payable in operating, and a repayment schedule the board can see on a report. Where an association's Rent Manager database was configured by a prior manager, REA audits the existing GL mapping and property level bank account setup before posting anything new, since a mapping built for a different entity's rental income can quietly reclassify a special assessment as ordinary dues. Custom reports get rebuilt to match the corrected structure, not layered on top of it.

What we check in your Rent Manager instance

  • Operating and reserve funds post to separate GL segments
  • Interfund transfers booked as loans, not distributions
  • Special assessments coded to their own income account
  • Reserve fund balance reconciled to the reserve study
  • Property level bank accounts matched to their fund
  • Prior manager's custom GL mappings reviewed before reuse

The Full Scope of the Engagement

Two Pages Carry the Detail

This page covers what is specific to running Homeowner Associations books in Rent Manager. 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

Rent Manager Bookkeeping

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

See the Rent Manager 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

Onboarding and responsiveness

Real Estate Accounting truly is a special company. They helped as if they were a part of our company, with the concern and caution as an employee would have, but even more. They quickly ascertained our needs and developed an effective team to help with our accounting needs. They were extremely responsive and always accurate. I would recommend their services to anyone who needs help with their property management accounting.

KSKelly StanawayProperty Manager

Smaller portfolio, still looked after

Adam the owner took a personal interest in my situation and was willing to work with me to see if his company was a good fit. I may be too small for them but I would highly recommend them to anyone considering a bookkeeper for their property management business.

TSTrevor SmithProperty Manager

Came from a bookkeeper who did not know real estate

Following a series of erroneous financials from my previous bookkeeper, who lacked expertise in real estate, it's been truly remarkable to receive not only accurate financials on a consistent basis but also proactive advice without prompting. The REA team is a game-changer in real estate accounting!

SCSara CrosbyReal Estate Investor

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

Our Rent Manager reports show the reserve account balance, so why isn't that enough to prove reserves are funded correctly?

A displayed balance only shows what's in the account, not what's owed to it. If operating borrowed from reserves and the transfer was never booked as a loan, the balance looks intact while the fund is actually short. REA checks whether transfers between funds are recorded as receivables and payables, not just as one number moving to another account.

We've used the same Rent Manager setup for years without an issue. Why would REA want to audit it first?

Rent Manager keeps whatever chart of accounts and property configuration was built when the association was set up, even after the staff who built it are gone. A GL mapping created for a rental property, then copied for the association because it was faster than building one from scratch, can miscode assessments or blend funds that state statute requires kept separate. REA reviews the existing setup before posting anything new so old drift doesn't carry forward.

Can Rent Manager track our reserve study for us automatically?

No. Rent Manager will hold whatever balance is posted to the reserve fund, but it has no built in logic comparing that balance to a reserve study's funding targets. That reconciliation has to be done by whoever manages the books, on a schedule the board can see. REA reconciles the reserve fund balance to the study directly and reports the gap, if there is one, rather than assuming the GL balance and the study already agree.

Ready for Accurate Homeowner Associations Books in Rent Manager?

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