Self-Managed Condo Association Software: What a Condo Board Needs That an HOA Does Not

Last verified: October 21, 2026 · See updates

Most features sold as HOA software do the same job in a condominium. Six do not. Your assessments come from each unit's ownership interest, a sale starts a certificate clock, some states make you post records online, structural reserves may be locked, the association insures the building, and limited common elements can split a repair bill. This page sets out each one and what to ask.

Six things a condominium does that a lot association does not

A planned community usually charges every lot the same dues and leaves the roof to the lot owner. A condominium divides one building among many owners, so the money, the records and the repairs all work differently. The whole list follows, with the rule and the software consequence. Each row is explained in its own section below.

Florida is used here for two reasons. Its condominium act states these rules in the most detail, and 718.111(12)(g) and 718.112(2)(g) have no equivalent in most states. The rule in the first row is not a Florida peculiarity: Illinois states it too, and our state law comparison table records the same allocation rule from the Massachusetts and Montana condominium statutes. Check your own state and, before anything else, your declaration.

1. Each unit's share of the budget is its ownership interest

In a condominium the budget is not divided by the number of units. It is divided by the interests written into the declaration. Florida puts it in two sentences:

"funds for payment of the common expenses of a condominium shall be collected by assessments against the units in that condominium in the proportions or percentages provided in that condominium's declaration."

"In a residential condominium, or mixed-use condominium created after January 1, 1996, each unit's share of the common expenses of the condominium and common surplus of the condominium shall be the same as the unit's appurtenant ownership interest in the common elements."

Fla. Stat. 718.115(2). Source: flsenate.gov, s. 718.115, read October 21, 2026.

Illinois says the same thing in different words: each owner pays "his proportionate share of the common expenses," and "The proportionate share shall be in the same ratio as his percentage of ownership in the common elements." The Illinois act also requires the proposed annual budget to "set forth each unit owner's proposed common expense assessment," which is a per-unit schedule by statute. Source: ilga.gov, 765 ILCS 605/9, read October 21, 2026.

Percentages in a declaration are often set from floor area. Eight floor plans give you eight different monthly figures. A building where every unit differs gives you one figure per unit. Use the percentages in your declaration, not your own measurement. Developers sometimes allocate by unit count, by value at the original sale, or by a formula that no longer matches the floor plans, and the recorded exhibit is what binds you.

What that looks like in dollars

Here is a 12-unit condominium of 12,000 square feet with interests allocated by floor area. The adopted budget is $96,000 a year, so $8,000 a month, which works out at $0.666667 per square foot a month. The right column shows the same schedule after a 4 percent budget increase to $99,840.

Three things in that table decide whether a product can run your building.

• Eight distinct amounts, not one. Twelve units produce eight different monthly figures here, because four floor plans repeat on two floors. A product that stores one dues rate for the community, or three or four dues plans, needs eight.
• Every figure moves when the budget moves. The 4 percent increase changes all eight. If the system stores dollars and not percentages, that is eight edits a year at minimum, and one typed digit becomes an owner billed the wrong amount for twelve months.
• The totals do not come out even, and that is normal. Percentages rounded to four decimals add to 100.0001%, and the rounded monthly amounts fall a cent short of $8,000 and a cent over $8,320. Your board decides where the cent goes and records the decision. A product that silently absorbs the difference, or refuses to save a schedule that does not total exactly, is a problem you want to find on the demo and not in March.

2. Every sale and refinance starts a clock you cannot miss

When a unit sells, the closing agent or the lender asks the association what the buyer is walking into. In Florida that request is not a courtesy. It is a statutory certificate, and the deadlines, contents and fees are set by law.

Under Fla. Stat. 718.116(8), the association must issue the estoppel certificate "Within 10 business days after receiving a written or electronic request therefor" from an owner, the owner's designee, or a unit mortgagee or its designee, delivered by hand, regular mail or email on the day it is issued. The certificate has to carry, among other items:

• The date of issue, the owner's name, the unit designation and address, and any parking or garage space number.
• The regular periodic assessment, the date it is paid through, and the next installment due.
• An itemized list of amounts currently owed, and a second itemized list of amounts scheduled to come due during the certificate's effective period.
• Whether a capital contribution, resale or transfer fee applies, any open rule violation, whether board approval or a right of first refusal applies, any other association the unit belongs to, insurance contact details, and the signature of an officer or authorized agent.
• The attorney's contact details if the account is in collection, for which no fee may be charged.

A certificate delivered by hand or electronically is effective for 30 days, and 35 days if sent by regular mail. The fee is capped: up to $250 where nothing is delinquent, an extra $100 for an expedited certificate delivered within 3 business days, and up to $150 more where a delinquent amount is owed, with aggregate caps for multiple units held by one owner and a five-year inflation adjustment. If the association misses the 10-business-day deadline, it may charge no fee at all. Source: flsenate.gov, s. 718.116, read October 21, 2026.

Read that list as a data requirement and the software question writes itself. The certificate needs the unit's ledger, the assessment schedule, the paid-through date, future scheduled charges, the open violation list, and a signature, pulled together inside 10 business days by volunteers with day jobs. An owner's account statement is not that document.

3. Some states make you post the records online, in an owners-only area

Florida requires an association "managing a condominium with 25 or more units which does not contain timeshare units" to keep a website or an application, accessible through the Internet, carrying the official records in digital format. Documents go up "within 30 days after the association receives or creates an official record" unless a shorter period applies, and the site or app must include a protected section "inaccessible to the general public and accessible only to unit owners and employees of the association." The association either owns and operates the site or app, or uses a third-party provider it has the right to use for association activities.

The posted set is prescribed, not left to the board. It runs to 15 categories:

• The recorded declaration, bylaws and articles, with all amendments.
• The association rules.
• Approved board minutes from the prior 12 months.
• Videos, or links to them, for video-conference meetings from the prior 12 months.
• The list of executory contracts, and bids received in the past year once bidding closes.
• The annual budget, and any proposed budget.
• The financial report, and monthly income or expense statements.
• Director certifications.
• Contracts with directors, officers or financially interested parties.
• Conflict-of-interest documents.
• Notices and agendas for owner and board meetings.
• Inspection reports, including structural and life-safety reports.
• The most recent structural integrity reserve study, where applicable.
• Building permits for construction under way or planned.
• The affidavits the chapter requires.

Source: flsenate.gov, s. 718.111(12)(g), read October 21, 2026.

Three software consequences follow. The portal needs a permission boundary rather than a folder, because part of the set is open to owners and employees only. Someone has to upload within 30 days of a record existing, so the portal has to be where records land, not a copy made later. And the categories map onto features that are usually sold separately: minutes, budgets, financial statements, contracts, bids, meeting notices and inspection reports. Our website and resident portal checklist turns that into a build list, and the record retention checklist covers how long each category is kept.

If you are not in Florida, do not buy a portal to satisfy this rule. Most states set no posting duty at all. Check the records column of our state law comparison table first.

4. Structural reserves can be locked, by component

A planned community can usually under-fund its reserves and live with the consequences. A Florida condominium of three habitable stories or more cannot. Fla. Stat. 718.112(2)(g) requires a structural integrity reserve study for "each building on the condominium property that is three habitable stories or higher in height, as determined by the Florida Building Code," completed "at least every 10 years after the condominium's creation." The study has to cover the roof, the structure including load-bearing walls and primary structural members, fireproofing and fire protection systems, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and exterior painting, and windows and exterior doors, plus any other item whose deferred maintenance or replacement cost exceeds $25,000 (or the higher inflation-adjusted figure set by the division) where its failure would affect the listed items.

The funding rule sits in the paragraph before. For budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, members of an owner-controlled association that must obtain the study "may not determine to provide no reserves or less reserves than required by this subsection," with a carve-out for a multicondominium association using a division-approved alternative funding method. Two narrower routes exist: owners may waive the reserves recommended by the most recent study if the association votes to terminate the condominium, and for budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028, a majority of total voting interests may approve a temporary pause of no more than two consecutive annual budgets following a milestone inspection in the previous two calendar years. Source: flsenate.gov, s. 718.112(2), read October 21, 2026.

What that asks of software is a reserve ledger that holds a balance per named component. The board can then show what sits against the roof and what sits against the plumbing, and build the budget from the study's own line items. A single pooled reserve balance cannot answer the question the statute asks. Three pages here carry the rest of this job. Our reserve study guide for small associations explains the study. The reserve study cost estimator prices one against your budget and unit count. The reserve contribution calculator turns a component list into a monthly figure. If a lender is involved, our page on Fannie Mae condo reserve requirements covers the separate 10 percent budget line that financing can turn on.

5. The association insures the building, the owner insures the inside

In a condominium the wall is a boundary in an insurance policy as well as in a deed. Under Fla. Stat. 718.111(11)(f), the association's property policy must provide primary coverage for "All portions of the condominium property as originally installed or replacement of like kind and quality, in accordance with the original plans and specifications," and for "All alterations or additions made to the condominium property or association property." Under 718.111(11)(d) an owner-controlled association must use its best efforts to insure the property the subsection requires it to insure.

What falls outside is listed. The association's coverage excludes "all personal property within the unit or limited common elements," and "floor, wall, and ceiling coverings, electrical fixtures, appliances, water heaters, water filters, built-in cabinets and countertops, and window treatments, including curtains, drapes, blinds, hardware" and replacements of those items "which are located within the boundaries of the unit and serve only such unit." The statute then says plainly: "Such property and any insurance thereupon is the responsibility of the unit owner." Source: flsenate.gov, s. 718.111(11), read October 21, 2026.

So a condominium board holds one master policy and, where the declaration requires proof, up to one owner certificate per unit, each with its own expiry date. The software question is whether documents can be attached to a unit record with a date the system will warn you about, or whether they land in a shared folder nobody checks. Note the difference between that and vendor insurance: a platform that tracks a contractor's certificate is not tracking your owners'. Our insurance renewal page covers the master policy side of the same job.

6. Limited common elements can split the repair bill

A balcony outside one unit, the window assemblies on one stack, a parking space: these are limited common elements, common property reserved to the use of one unit or a few. Fla. Stat. 718.113(1) begins "Maintenance of the common elements is the responsibility of the association," then adds the exception, "except for any maintenance responsibility for limited common elements assigned to the unit owner by the declaration." The cost allocation is left to the declaration: it can assign upkeep to the owners who use the element, or have the association do the work and charge it either as a common expense of everyone or only to those users, in which case the declaration must describe how the cost is divided among them. Source: flsenate.gov, s. 718.113, read October 21, 2026.

That means a work order in a condominium carries a question a work order in a planned community does not: which element is this, and who pays for it. Three answers are possible for the same leaking balcony door, depending on the declaration, and the answer decides whether the invoice is coded to a common expense account or billed to four owners. A maintenance module that records only an address and a description will not tell you later why a charge went where it went. Ask whether a work order can carry the element, and whether the resulting invoice can be charged to a named subset of units.

The 12 questions to ask on the demo

Take these to every vendor and write the answers down. A yes that arrives with a screen you can see is worth more than a yes in a sentence. The middle column is what a usable answer looks like; the right column is the answer that sounds like a yes and is not.

Two of those are worth putting first because they are cheap to test and they predict the rest. Question 1 takes two minutes on a demo. Question 4 is the one with a legal deadline behind it. Our free vendor comparison scorecard gives you a sheet to record the answers side by side, and the software match tool narrows the field before you book anything.

What three of the platforms publish about these six

We read the product pages below on October 21, 2026 and checked them for the terms these six requirements turn on. This section records what each vendor publishes and what its pages do not address. It is based on vendor documentation and public sources; not hands-on testing, and absence from a marketing page is not evidence that a product cannot do something. It does mean you have to ask. For prices, scores and the ranking of ten platforms, see the main comparison and the pricing page.

PayHOA

PayHOA's management features page is the only one of the three that publishes an answer to the weighted-vote question. Under Voting it says: "Sometimes, votes carry more weight than others. Account for that by applying different voting weights based on percentages or flat numbers," and alongside it, "Vote by Owner or Household," which can "Allow for and count votes by person and/or by home."

It also publishes a Resale Documents feature, which is a staffed service rather than a report. Its own FAQ says "There's no cost to your HOA. Title companies and lenders purchase the required resale documents directly, and the fee is included as a pass-through expense on the closing statement," and "A dedicated PayHOA staff member manages the entire process, ensuring all financials and documents are up to date." The packet "typically includes financial statements, governing documents, compliance information, and any other materials your community requires for disclosure."

The same FAQ answers the estoppel question in one line: asked whether the homeowner can export the data needed for an estoppel report, it says "The homeowner can export their account history to a PDF. This will show all payments/charges and if they carry a balance with the association." That is an owner's account statement, not the certificate an association signs. On the page we read, the words "limited common," "reserve fund," "10 business" and "condominium" do not appear at all, and "percentage" appears once, in the weighted-votes line. If you are in a state that caps the certificate fee and pays it to the association, question 5 above is the one to put to them. Source: payhoa.com/features/management, read October 21, 2026.

Condo Control

Condo Control publishes a certificate module, which neither of the others does. Its page is headed "Create, deliver and manage status/estoppel certificates faster online": the buyer or their agent fills out a form and pays online, by card or cheque; the system "automatically attaches common documents" such as bylaws; management is emailed when a request arrives; certificates are sent electronically and stored centrally. The page does not say where the financial figures in the certificate come from, and it names no state, no statutory deadline and no fee cap. Source: condocontrol.com status certificates, read October 21, 2026.

On voting, Condo Control's own support article for Electronic Voting lists "Optional Fractional, Share-Based and Cumulative Voting options" among the feature's capabilities without describing how any of the three works, so we cannot say whether share-based means a vote weighted by percentage interest. Ask. Note also that electronic voting carries the paid add-on marker on the entry tier, which our Condo Control assessment records with the band table and the published fees. Source: Condo Control support, Electronic Voting overview, read October 21, 2026.

Its accounting page publishes five things. A general ledger you can customize "to match how an association reports." Accounts payable with spending thresholds and board sign-off on larger invoices. Vendor records holding W-9s and insurance certificates. Real-time aging reports and owner ledgers connected to billing and payments. Bank reconciliation in which "reconciled periods can be locked so closed books stay closed."

Six terms appear nowhere on that page: "percentage," "ownership interest," "estoppel," "limited common," "reserve fund" and "fund accounting." So the page answers neither the assessment-allocation question nor the per-component reserve question. The insurance certificates it names are vendors', not owners'. Source: condocontrol.com accounting, read October 21, 2026.

Neigbrs by Vinteum

Neigbrs publishes its accounting as an integration rather than a ledger. Its financial features page describes a two-way QuickBooks connection: "All transactions flow automatically to QuickBooks, while you can create invoices, download balance sheets and reports based on paid, unpaid or delayed invoices," plus a QuickBooks Report view with an invoices summary and a balance sheet. The rest of the page is reception and visitor logs, package tracking, task management and administrator profiles.

We checked that page's visible text and its served HTML for all eight of the terms these requirements turn on: "percentage," "ownership interest," "estoppel," "status certificate," "limited common," "reserve fund," "operating fund" and "assessment." Each appears zero times, in both. The two matches for "reserve" and "fund" anywhere on the page are inside the titles of linked blog articles. For a condominium board that reads as one practical conclusion: on the published evidence, the accounting answer here is QuickBooks, so the limits of QuickBooks are your limits. Our QuickBooks Online for a self-managed HOA page sets out what those are, starting with one set of books where a condominium needs two funds. Source: vinteum.io financial features, read October 21, 2026.

We did not check the other platforms we cover against these six requirements today, so nothing above should be read as a finding about HOA Start, RunHOA, KindHOA, HOALife, TownSq, Smartwebs or Buildium. The software directory lists what each one publishes about price and category, with the date each entry was read.

What we could not establish

• Whether any of the three products can bill from a percentage. None of the pages we read says either way. We can report that the term "percentage" appears once across the three pages, in PayHOA's weighted-votes line, and nowhere in an assessment context.
• What Condo Control's "Share-Based" voting means. The support article names it and does not define it.
• Where the figures in a Condo Control certificate come from. The feature page does not say whether the module reads the unit ledger or expects the numbers to be typed.
• Whether PayHOA's resale arrangement is compatible with a capped statutory fee. The vendor states the fee is a pass-through purchased by title companies and lenders; Florida caps what the association may charge and bars any fee when the 10-day deadline is missed. Those are two different fees and we have not established how they interact. That is a question for the vendor and, if the money is material, for your association's attorney.
• The non-Florida picture on records posting and structural reserves. Our comparison table covers 49 states for reserves, records, meetings and elections, but no state column yet asks whether a condominium must post records online. That is a gap in our own data, not a finding that no other state requires it.

Frequently asked questions

Does a self-managed condominium need different software from an HOA?

Sometimes, and the test is narrow. Communication, violations and document storage are the same job in both. Six things differ: each unit's share of the budget comes from its ownership interest, a sale starts a statutory certificate clock, some states require the records to sit in an owners-only area online, structural reserves may not be waived, the association insures the building while owners insure the inside, and limited common elements can split the maintenance bill. A platform that cannot bill a different amount to every unit fails the first of those on day one.

Can HOA software bill each unit a different amount?

Ask before you buy. A platform built on one dues rate for the community, or a handful of dues plans, will hold a condominium schedule only if the treasurer enters and maintains every unit's figure by hand. In the 12-unit example on this page that is 8 distinct monthly amounts, and all 8 change whenever the budget changes. The question to put to the salesperson is whether the system stores each unit's percentage and recalculates, or stores only a dollar figure.

Which platforms produce an estoppel certificate?

Of the product pages we read on October 21, 2026, Condo Control publishes a status and estoppel certificate module and PayHOA publishes a resale document service coordinated by its own staff. Neither page names a statutory deadline or a fee cap. PayHOA's published answer to the estoppel question is that the homeowner can export their account history to a PDF, which is an owner statement and not the certificate the association signs.

Does our condominium have to put its records online?

In Florida, an association managing a condominium with 25 or more units which does not contain timeshare units must keep a website or application carrying the official records in digital format, posted within 30 days after the association receives or creates the record, with a protected section accessible only to unit owners and employees of the association (Fla. Stat. 718.111(12)(g)). Most states set no such duty. Check your own state before buying a portal to satisfy a rule you do not have.

Can we run a condominium on QuickBooks?

Boards do, with two limits. QuickBooks keeps one set of books, not an operating fund and a reserve fund, and it has no concept of an assessment billed to a unit by ownership interest, so both are built with classes, sub-accounts and a spreadsheet that produces the per-unit schedule. Our QuickBooks Online for a self-managed HOA page sets out those workarounds and what they still cannot do.

What is the first thing to ask on a demo?

Ask the salesperson to bill three units three different amounts from a percentage, in front of you, in a test community, and then to raise the budget by 4 percent and show what happens to all three. If that takes a spreadsheet and manual re-entry, you have the answer to most of the other questions on this page.

Text on this page is licensed CC BY 4.0. Suggested citation: CommonKeel, "Self-Managed Condo Association Software: What a Condo Board Needs That an HOA Does Not", https://commonkeel.com/software/self-managed-condo-association-software/, verified October 21, 2026. Based on Fla. Stat. 718.111, 718.112, 718.113, 718.115 and 718.116 at the Florida Senate and 765 ILCS 605/9 at the Illinois General Assembly, and on the vendor pages linked above, each read on the date shown. The 12-unit schedule, the demo questions and the software consequence column are our own work on those sources. Not legal, tax or accounting advice.