Creating Your Annual Budget

Why Budgets Matter

An annual budget is the financial backbone of your HOA. It determines how much each owner pays in monthly assessments, how much goes to reserves, and whether you can afford the maintenance and improvements your building needs. A well-crafted budget also demonstrates financial transparency to your community.

Using the Budget Wizard

Navigate to Budget in the sidebar. Nestingbird always shows the latest fiscal year. If no budget exists yet, click Continue Budget Setup to launch the wizard. It walks you through four steps:

1. Review last year's spending — see your total spend from the previous year broken down by category. This gives you a clear baseline for planning the year ahead; adjust categories as needed.
2. Set your reserve rate — choose a baseline reserve contribution percentage for your operating budget. This is your general reserve savings rate before accounting for any specific capital projects.
3. Define capital projects — add major upcoming expenses you need to save for (roof replacement, elevator work, etc.) with cost estimates and target years. The annual savings needed for these projects are added on top of your baseline reserve rate.
4. Summary — review your complete budget, including total expenses, reserve contributions, capital project allocations, and the resulting per-unit assessment amounts.

Approving the Budget

Once the wizard is complete, the budget isn't active yet — it needs board approval. After your board meeting to discuss the budget, come back to the budget page and approve it by attaching meeting minute details (date, notes, and any relevant context from the discussion). Once submitted, the new budget takes effect immediately:

• Unit fees are updated to reflect the new assessment amounts.
• If online collections are active, units automatically roll over to the new pricing at the next billing period — no manual updates needed.

Tips for a Strong Budget

• Use the spending breakdown from step one as your starting point — expense history is the best predictor of future costs.
• Build in a small contingency (3–5%) for unexpected expenses.
• Even a modest baseline reserve rate adds up over time — pair it with capital project savings to build a healthy reserve fund.
• Share the budget with your community for feedback before the board votes to adopt it.

Plan Requirement

Budget planning is available on the Good Standing plan and above.