Collecting dues and tracking who paid: spreadsheet or software?
Short answer
Yes, you can collect dues and track who paid in a spreadsheet, and for one small building with one person editing it, it is the right tool. It stops working when several people edit the file, when owners ask for their balance every month, or when the first days of the month go on chasing numbers instead of people.
You run the dues for a building, an HOA or a condo association, and the list lives in Excel or Google Sheets. That is a sound way to start.
The task is the same either way: know what each unit owes, record what it paid, and tell the owner. The tool only changes how much of that you do by hand.
A dues sheet you can copy
Use one row per charge per unit, not one row per unit. When money arrives, fill Paid and Date paid on the charge’s own row.
| Unit | Owner | Period | Charge | Paid | Date paid | Balance | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12A | A. Owner | 2026-10 | 120 | 120 | 2026-10-04 | 0 | Bank transfer |
| 12B | B. Owner | 2026-10 | 95 | 50 | 2026-10-09 | 45 | Part payment |
| 14C | C. Owner | 2026-10 | 140 | 0 | 140 | Reminder due |
Paste into cell A1 of a new sheet (tab-separated):
Unit Owner Period Charge Paid Date paid Balance Note 12A A. Owner 2026-10 120 120 2026-10-04 =D2-E2 Bank transfer 12B B. Owner 2026-10 95 50 2026-10-09 =D3-E3 Part payment 14C C. Owner 2026-10 140 0 =D4-E4 Reminder due
Balance per row = Charge − Paid (=D2-E2). A unit’s total = SUMIF over its rows (=SUMIF(A:A,A2,G:G)). Freeze the header row and lock the Charge column, so only one person can change what a unit owes.
Signs you have outgrown the sheet
One of these is a reason to look. Three together mean the sheet now costs you more than a tool would.
- 1
The monthly close takes an evening
Rebuilding the balances by hand eats an evening each month, and one wrong row in a formula reaches every balance below it.
- 2
Two or more people edit the file
Copies multiply, someone types over a cell, and nobody can say which version is right. A sheet shows that a cell changed, not why a balance changed.
- 3
Owners ask “how much do I owe?” every month
Each answer is a manual lookup and a message. In a sheet the owner cannot open their own balance.
- 4
You send reminders by hand
The list of who is behind is rebuilt every month and the reminders go out one by one. See the arrears guide for that part.
- 5
Payments arrive by different routes
Transfers, cash and card payments each have to be matched to a unit by eye, and the matching is where mistakes enter.
- 6
Someone asks who changed a number
When a board member or an auditor asks for the history of one balance, you need an audit trail per entry. A shared file rarely has one you can trust.
The same task in Unitify
Start on the Free plan ($0 / apartment / month). A plan, not a trial. No card, no expiry. Collecting dues is the billing module, an add-on you can switch on in any plan.
- 1
Load your records
Send apartments, owners and opening balances as an Excel file or an export from your current system. Nobody retypes balances by hand.
- 2
Set the rules per building
Charge per square meter, per apartment, per resident or a flat amount. Each building keeps its own rules.
- 3
Close the month
Invoices are generated and land in the resident app. Each owner also gets a PDF invoice; where online payment is connected, it carries a QR code that opens the payment page.
- 4
Record what was paid
Every charge and every payment sits on the unit’s record, and every owner can inspect their own. Payments received outside the app are imported from a spreadsheet (CSV, XLS or XLSX) and matched to units by account number; any it cannot match you pick by hand.
Billing is an add-on at $0.5 per invoice, included on Pro ($3 / apartment / month). Base costs $1 / apartment / month. Prices follow the live pricing page, which shows euro excluding VAT in Europe.
What Unitify does not do here
- Billing is not an accounting ledger. Your accountant keeps the books; you hand over an export of charges and payments.
- Residents pay in the app only where a payment rail is connected in your market. Where none is, they get the PDF invoice and pay outside the app, and the payment is recorded against the unit.
- It does not decide what you may charge or how a cost is split between units. Your governing documents and local law do; you set the result as the building’s rules.
- It is built for owner-occupied buildings run by an association or a management company, not for a landlord collecting rent from tenants.
Collecting dues: questions
Can I track HOA or condo dues in Excel or Google Sheets?
Yes. One row per charge per unit, with Paid and Date paid filled in when the money arrives and a balance formula, is enough for a small building with one person editing. The trouble starts with several editors, monthly balance requests and hand-sent reminders.
How many units can a spreadsheet handle?
The file itself holds thousands of rows. The limit is people and time: once the monthly close takes an evening, or more than one person edits the file, the sheet costs more than the work it describes.
What should a dues spreadsheet contain?
Unit, owner, period, charge, amount paid, date paid, balance and a note. One row per charge, so a unit’s balance is a sum and not an overwritten cell.
Is there a free way to move from a sheet to software?
The Free plan has no expiry and needs no card, and you send your records as an Excel file to load them. Billing is a separate add-on you switch on only if you want it. The pricing page lists the current prices.
Can my accountant use the data?
Yes, as an export to Excel. Billing tracks charges and invoices and is not an accounting ledger, and there is no live two-way sync with an accounting system out of the box.
Keep reading
Try it on one building
Sign up for the free plan, add one building and move one task over. Or book a demo if you want to see it on your own building first.