HOA Budget Template (Printable) and Reserves

An HOA budget answers two questions: what does it cost to run the community this year, and how much do we put aside for the big items that will wear out later? The template below prints on one page: use the print button above, which prints only the form. Budget approval steps, reserve requirements and owner-vote rules are set by your state and your governing documents. This is general information, not legal or accounting advice.

Budget template structure

A workable annual budget has the same skeleton every year:

HOA BUDGET TEMPLATE
[ASSOCIATION NAME]  PROPOSED BUDGET, FISCAL YEAR [____]

INCOME                         Prior year    Prior year     Proposed
                               budget        actual         budget
 Regular assessments            $____         $____          $____
 Special assessments (if any)   $____         $____          $____
 Late fees / interest           $____         $____          $____
 Other (amenity, parking)       $____         $____          $____
 TOTAL INCOME                   $____         $____          $____

OPERATING EXPENSES
 Insurance                      $____         $____          $____
 Utilities (common areas)       $____         $____          $____
 Management fee                 $____         $____          $____
 Landscaping / grounds          $____         $____          $____
 Repairs and maintenance        $____         $____          $____
 Legal and accounting           $____         $____          $____
 Contingency                    $____         $____          $____
 TOTAL OPERATING                $____         $____          $____

RESERVE CONTRIBUTION            $____         $____          $____

PER-UNIT ASSESSMENT (total needed / units, or by share per declaration)
 Per month                      $____

Build it from last year's actuals, not from last year's budget, and ask the treasurer to show budget versus actual at every regular meeting. Each owner's share follows the allocation in your declaration (equal per unit, or a percentage share), so check that before dividing.

Approval

Who approves the budget, how much notice owners get, and whether owners can reject it are state and document questions. Typically the board drafts the budget, sends owners a copy and a notice of the meeting at which it will be adopted, then adopts it by a recorded vote and records it in the minutes. See our meeting notice and minutes templates. Some states let owners ratify or reject a budget; check your bylaws and statute for the notice period and for any member vote.

The reserve fund in plain terms

A roof or a repaving job that costs a large sum once every 20 years can either be funded gradually through the budget or funded all at once through a special assessment. A reserve fund is the first approach. Its purpose is to avoid surprise bills.

A reserve study supports it (see what a reserve study is and how to read one). It is normally prepared by a qualified professional and covers:

• an inventory of the common components the association must maintain,
• the remaining useful life and estimated replacement cost of each,
• a funding plan showing how much to contribute each year.

The board then sets the reserve contribution in the budget based on the study. Update the study on the schedule your documents or state require, and sooner if costs change materially.

A worked example: Florida condominiums

Florida shows how specific the rules can become. Under § 718.112(2)(g) of the Florida condominium statute:

• A residential condominium association must have a structural integrity reserve study at least every 10 years for each building of three habitable stories or higher.
• It covers the roof, structure, fireproofing and fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and exterior painting, windows and exterior doors, and any other item with a deferred maintenance or replacement cost above $25,000 whose failure would affect the others.
• It must be performed or verified by a licensed engineer or architect, or a certified reserve specialist or professional reserve analyst, and the association must give owners the study or notice of its availability within 45 days of receiving it.
• Under the budget and reserve rules in § 718.112(2)(f), for budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, unit-owner-controlled associations that must obtain the study can no longer vote to provide no reserves or lower reserves for those items, and the reserve amount must follow the study's recommendations.
• A 2025 amendment to the same subsection (§ 718.112(2)(f)) lets reserves be funded by regular assessments, special assessments, lines of credit or loans; a special assessment, line of credit or loan needs a majority vote of the total voting interests. It also allows a temporary pause or reduction of reserve contributions, to fund repairs recommended by a milestone inspection, only if the association completed that inspection in the previous two calendar years, the board has the approval of a majority of the total voting interests, the pause covers no more than two consecutive annual budgets, and the budget is adopted on or before December 31, 2028. It does not apply to developer-controlled associations.

This guide doesn't cover whether Texas, California or Arizona require a reserve study; check your own statute rather than assuming Florida's rule applies. Florida HOAs are governed by chapter 720, which has its own rules.

How to do it in Unitify, and what we do not do

Unitify is not an accounting ledger and does not keep the association's books or build the budget for you. Here is where it helps:

• Billing turns the adopted budget into assessments: a flat amount per unit, a percentage share, or a one-off special assessment, with a separate line for the reserve contribution, invoiced automatically and tracked as paid or overdue.
• Payments and balances are tracked per unit, so the treasurer can see collected versus expected. You export to your accountant's tools for the general ledger, financial statements and tax work; Easybilly, Unitify's billing module, has no live two-way sync with accounting software out of the box.
• The resident app delivers the invoice and announcements, and resident voting can run an owner vote or survey on a budget item, where your documents and state allow, with the tool recording votes rather than deciding legal validity.

Plans are priced per apartment per month, with a free plan: Free is $0, Base is $1 and Pro is $3. Billing is an add-on at $0.5 per invoice, free on Pro (see the pricing page). See the United States page or book a demo.