Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: financial report for members

[Mac Thomson (macthomson]

Each quarter someone on the Finance team (me  :-) provides the community with a 
financial summary (spreadsheet and narrative). I’ve copied below the most 
recent one, from Q4 2024. Unfortunately I can’t attach the 2024 spreadsheet pdf 
nor the annual stats pdf. Feel free to email me privately if you’d like a copy.

Team budget managers can also request an up to date spending request from 
bookkeeping anytime during the quarter.

Cheers,
Mac

-- 
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


"A man is rich to the in proportion to the number of things which he can afford 
to let alone."
      - Henry David Thoreau
**********************************************************
> On Feb 12, 2025, at 7:28 AM, 'Mac Thomson' via HW-BIZ <chat-heartwoodmembers 
> [at] googlegroups.com> wrote:
> 
> I have now completed work on last quarter's HOA Budget & Cash Flow report. 
> I've tacked up a copy of the report on the mailroom bulletin board. I’ve also 
> attached the report to this email as a pdf.
> 
> A huge thank you to Garrett for all the great bookkeeping work, to Gail for 
> her help with the bookkeeping work, to Mary W for watching over our 
> regulatory issues, Mosaic, and bookkeeping oversight, to Sasha and Julie M 
> for their help on the team, and to Paul N for watching over our insurance. 
> 
> Overall, it was a good quarter and a good year. Here are some of the 
> highlights from the quarter and the year that I noticed. Please jump in with 
> comments or questions.
> 
> 
> Cash Balance
> We ended the quarter with $221K in cash and investments. That’s up $8K from 
> Q3 and down $26K from a year ago, which isn’t bad considering the big 
> expenditures last year to upgrade ET bed #1 ($62K), a project we’ve known 
> about for decades and finally got around to fixing.
> 
> 
> Revenue (Sources)
> HOA Assessments were $85K, $1K more than budget and easily our highest level 
> of assessments ever. Our previous high was $77K in 2017.
> 
> IKAV Road Maintenance Fee was again $5K. That’s the reimbursement we receive 
> from the gas production company for maintaining Heartwood Lane so they can 
> access their gas wells.
> 
> Investment income for the year was $8.4K, which is good, but not great (3.6% 
> ROI).
> 
> Guest donations for the year were very good at $5.5K. We had only budgeted 
> $1K.
> 
> Home Sale Transfer Fees brought in $1K.
> 
> 
> Team Operating Spending and Budgets
> All of the teams were at budget or under budget for the year. In particular 
> LST ($398), PAT ($4,206), and CFT ($651) had fairly sizable surpluses.
> 
> 
> For the year, the Steering team made the following allocations from the 
> Contingency fund, leaving an ending balance of $268:
> Finance Team: Bookkeeping & Financial Management: $2,100
> Finance Team: Taxes: $443
> CFT: ES: ET 1 Expansion: $1,003
> Membership Team: Upgraded CohoUS Membership: $600
> CFT: CSR: CFT - Septic System: $800
> Steering Team: Work Party Lunches: $250
> 
> 
> The result of many of our revenue sources being better than budget and team 
> spending being less than budget was a strong net operating cash flow of 
> $20.5K for the year, which gets automatically added to Team Reserves.
> 
> 
> Team Reserves
> Team Reserve spending for the year was only $2.8K, which was about $100 for 
> snowplowing, $360 for mediation, $800 for the national cohousing conference,  
> and about $1500 for major tractor and UTV repairs. Team Reserve spending is 
> much lower than in prior years because we’ve pulled CSR spending out of Team 
> Reserves.
> 
> We had significant spending ($7.1K) for the year from our Carport Exterior 
> Wood Staining Reserve, which is separate from our Team Reserves because it is 
> only funded by carport owners.
> 
> 
> Critical Systems Reserves
> Q4 Spending, 2024 Ending Balances, and 2025 Beginning Balances were as 
> follows:
> 
> 
> CSR: CFT - Potable Water System
> Q4 Spending: $1,702
> 2024 Ending Balance: $4,611
> 2025 Beginning Balance: $25,211
> 
> CSR: CFT - Septic System
> Q4 Spending: $4,663
> 2024 Ending Balance: $-116
> 2025 Beginning Balance: $10,884
> 
> CSR: CFT - Roads, Parking, & Pathways
> Q4 Spending: $1,474
> 2024 Ending Balance: $4,070
> 2025 Beginning Balance: $8,370
> 
> CSR: LST - Cluster Irrigation System
> Q4 Spending: $477
> 2024 Ending Balance: $1,155
> 2025 Beginning Balance: $5,455
> 
> A huge thank you to Erika, Beth, and all of CFT for managing our new CSR 
> finances in their first year (and also all the PFAS grants). The CSR’s should 
> get easier going forward as balances increase.
> 
> 
> 
> Other Stuff
> Common Meals were slightly profitable for the quarter and the year — just 
> what we want.
> 
> In Q4, we took in $445 for the Humanitarian Fund plus their share of 
> investment income for year of $289, leaving it with a balance at the end of 
> the quarter of $9,057.
> 
> In Q4, we took in $4,915 for the Renewable Energy Fund (which is huge – thank 
> you to whomever made the big contribution!) plus the REF share of investment 
> income for year of $291, leaving it with a balance at the end of the quarter 
> of $12,508, after spending $1,000 for a deposit on ten new solar panels to be 
> added to the workshop array in 2025. Thank you Dick for driving that effort!
> 
> A big thank you to Sasha for leading the pledge drive earlier this year for 
> the HHF and REF, which always leads to more donations.
> 
> 
> PFAS Grants
> For the PFAS grant for Infrastructure, we spent $7,162, received $6,578, 
> leaving us with funds received in excess of funds spent of $1,149.
> For the PFAS grant for Emergency Assistance, we spent $150, received $3,002, 
> leaving us with funds received in excess of funds spent of $1,440.
> For the PFAS grant for Sampling & Testing, we spent $113, received $124, 
> leaving us with funds received in excess of funds spent of $132.
> 
> Note: My understanding is that it’s normal to have funds received in excess 
> of funds spent on the PFAS grants because we get an extra 10% reimbursement 
> for “Indirect Costs” and money we receive for grant related work done by Mary 
> W (and maybe Beth and Erika?) are being donated to the HOA.
> 
> 
> 
> —————————————————————
> I’ve attached the table of annual stats, which in my mind is perhaps the most 
> valuable financial information of the year because it reveals long term 
> financial trends. (Double click on the image to open it in a new window so 
> you can Zoom in.)
> 
> For this year, I added a whole new section to track Reserve Caps and Reserve 
> Balances as % of Caps. I think the latter is especially important to manage 
> our long term financial health. Ideally I think we’d like to see our Total 
> Reserve Balances as % of Caps at somewhere around 70%. We are currently at 
> only about 30%, which isn’t terrible given the huge spending of the past two 
> years for refurbishing the water tank and expanding ET bed #1, but something 
> we will try to improve in the future.
> 
> A few other highlights that jump out at me from reviewing the annual stats:
> Our dues, on a per household basis and in total were at all time highs in 
> 2024, which is unfortunate, but also a good thing as we prudently face the 
> increased costs of running this place and work to build reserves. Dues are 
> even higher in 2025, continuing with this strategy of staying ahead of 
> spending. The addition of 14 P2 homes should result in about a 60% increase 
> in assessment revenue, which will give us a lot more financial breathing room.
> Total spending in 2024 was also at an all time high of $145K, with Operating 
> Spending at an all time high of $47K, the big expansion of ET Bed #1 ($62K), 
> and significant spending for CSR: CFT - Potable Water System ($8.7K) and CSR: 
> CFT - Septic System ($11.7K).
> Common Meal Sales serves as a decent indicator of the strength of our common 
> meals. For 2024 Common Meal Sales were $8.6K, which represents a steady 
> growth since our 2020 Covid low of $3.2K, but far below our $13.2K average 
> from 2002 to 2019.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Heartwood Calendar: https://heartwood.cohousing.site/calendars.jsp 
> <https://heartwood.cohousing.site/calendars.jsp>
> ---
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> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/chat-heartwoodmembers/F24092E9-EDBB-4108-9A39-18F899DDA68C%40mac.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
> <2024 Annual Stats.jpg>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> As always, please post any questions or comments.
> 
> Cheers,
> Mac
> 
> -- 
> Mac Thomson
> 
> Heartwood Cohousing
> Southwest Colorado
> http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com <http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com/>
> 
> 
> "Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, 
> to make it easy for them.” 
>            - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
> **********************************************************



**********************************************************

> On Mar 25, 2025, at 7:59 AM, Lauren Lake <laurenlake161 [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> We share a monthly Budget vs Actuals report with all members, and do
> detailed reports for Circle Leaders on request.
> 
> Lauren Lake
> Green Grove Cohousing
> 
> On Mon, Mar 24, 2025 at 7:02 PM Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <
> cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Mar 24, 2025, at 9:08 PM, Rebecca Herman <rgherman07 [at] gmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Clarifying this is not about detailed financial records we will keep for
>>> the community but a financial report to share with all members. Looking
>> for
>>> example reports, templates or any related tips & ideas.
>> 
>> We have a management company that does our official books. We share the
>> monthly report with everyone. It includes the balance on dues not with
>> names of residents attached.
>> 
>> There is no reason everyone can’t have all the information the treasurer
>> has. Transparency is golden.
>> 
>> Sharon
>> ----
>> Sharon Villines
>> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
>> http://www.takomavillage.org
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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