eBooks, Articles, & More

Replacement Reserve Costs vs. “Total Insurable Value”

A Reserve Study helps the Board assemble a responsible budget to care for the Association’s major common area repair and replacement responsibilities, and disclose the Association’s Reserve Fund status to its members. The individual projects listed in the Reserve Study (roofing, painting, asphalt, elevator, etc.) are very different from an Association’s “total insurable value”.

Capital Replacement Fund: When to use it?

Fund accounting segregates money according to different uses (Operating, Capital Replacement, Capital Improvement, etc.). The concept of fund accounting is based on the nature of the expense incurred by an association,

Reserve Funds – How best to account?

“How do I reserve? Let me count the ways” is not exactly what Elizabeth Barrett Browning had in mind when she penned her famous poem about love, but if you have 37 different Reserve components, how many Reserve contributions do you make and track each month? One or 37? There is a good answer.

What Exactly is Percent Funded?

Instinctively, we all know that large associations with many common area amenities in need of replacement should have a high Reserve Fund balance. Similarly, newly constructed small associations with only a few common area amenities have little need for much of a Reserve Fund balance.

Capital Improvements vs. Reserve Expenses

What is the difference between a Capital Improvement and a Reserve project? Or more specifically, when can a Capital Improvement be more properly considered as a Reserve expense? This question becomes important to Association-governed communities s they consider what funds can be used

Can An Association Move Surplus Funds to Reserves

Associations that have excess funds at the end of the year face the decision if and how those funds can be moved to Reserves, or if they must be rolled over to the Operating Fund the following year.