Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: DIY Accounting vs Management Company

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Oct 29, 2015, at 4:50 PM, Tom Smyth <tom [at] sassafras.coop> wrote:
> 
> Hmm, I'm curious what your management company is managing? And what would
> the online condo management software do?

The management company handles all the bill paying, condo fee collection and 
processing, etc. Basically all the books. But we still have to sign off on all 
the one time bills, have the vendors send the bills to the management company, 
review the non-regular bills, submit reimbursement forms, correct errors, etc. 
It seems to me that the back and forth takes as much time as just doing it in 
the first place.

For facilities management, they are supposed to walk the property once a month 
to see what needs fixing, but we also do this ourselves and fix it faster. Our 
assigned manager attends one facilities team a month and gives advice on 
various things. He also recommends vendors and consultants. This can be helpful 
but I’m not convinced it is worth ~$8,000 a year.

Part of the reason is for people’s sense of confidence, but since we have so 
many professional people who handle accounts, budgets, and financial decisions 
at work with much greater responsibility, it seems like not a great risk to me. 
Plus we have annual audits!!!!

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org