February 20, 2013

To Members of the Board of the Stonebrook HOA:

My name is Lisa Moss. I have lived in Stonebrook for over a decade and have a Bachelors Degree in Accounting. I passed the CPA exam and have 18 years experience working with various businesses to help them run better and more efficiently.

Vic & Sue Jacobsen asked me to meet with them briefly about the HOA and write my recommendations to them in an email. I recommend the following:

First and foremost, I want the HOA to be treated as a business. I think Board Member’s time should be spent on important decisions and issues. I want predictable, routine tasks to be handled by others that we all, collectively, pay. I think the accounting information should be input into Quickbooks and not kept on an Excel spreadsheet. The accounting records should be kept in a consistent and accurate way.

Second, I recommend we hire an accountant to handle the following duties:

Produce and send annual bills to HOA members
Track payments and follow established collection procedures if no payment is received (including filing liens if necessary)
Annually update addresses from county records
Pay bills and give to President/Treasurer for signature
Send annual newsletter
Send standard covenant violation letters if board deems necessary
Present quarterly financial reports at Board Meeting
Check mail weekly
Answer calls/respond to requests from homeowners or title companies as needed
File an annual tax return

Third, I recommend we only allow the President and Treasurer to sign checks. The person we hire should not have any access to our cash/savings accounts. I recommend the bank send a copy of each monthly statement to the President and the accounting hire.

Cost info: I asked Kendra Moncur who is an accountant at a small accounting firm downtown (JF Bell) to give us a basic bid of cost. Her firm handles a number of water districts which she assumes would be similar. She would guess it would be $200/250 month. I also talked to Brandi Newton who has roughly my same experience and educational level. She estimated an individual would be willing to do the work for around $50 - $75 hour. (If we estimate an hour a week, I think it would cost about the same). I estimate it will take about 10 hours to sort out the records and set up the HOA in Quickbooks. I think it would take about an hour a week onging. (However, it is difficult to estimate until you dive into the process)

I appreciate the time you, as a Board Member, give to our Homeowners Association. I want to keep you all from burning out in your service and being overwhelmed by small things that others could handle. I think other homeowners are willing to pay their fair share of costs incurred to run this HOA. We all benefit from a happy board and a beautiful sub division.

I’m planning to come to the next board meeting on March 6 to discuss this letter. If you have any questions, you can email me.

Thanks!

Lisa Moss