Treasurer Readiness Checklist for Resident Associations

What treasurer readiness means

Treasurer readiness is not the same as running a full accounting system. For a resident-led association, the immediate goal is to keep financial decisions, supporting documents, and follow-up actions clear enough for committee review, member transparency, and accountant handoff.

1. Set up repeatable service-charge records

• Create a demand template for each recurring charge cycle.
• Generate demands from the template for active members.
• Track due dates, payment status, arrears state, and reminder history.
• Link budgets, invoices, insurance, Section 20 notices, meeting records, and vote results as evidence.

2. Record the budget and reserves

• Create an annual budget with clear categories and assumptions.
• Track forecast vs actual amounts for each category.
• Record reserve or sinking-fund targets and current balances.
• Capture major-works assumptions early, even if the scope is still uncertain.

3. Add approval controls

• Agree approval thresholds for invoices, reimbursements, quote approvals, and money movements.
• Use dual approval for higher-value decisions.
• Avoid self-approval unless the association has explicitly decided it is acceptable.
• Keep approval decisions immutable once recorded.

4. Track supplier commitments

• Record key suppliers and contract documents.
• Track renewal dates and committed spend.
• Link high-value quote approvals to approval requests.
• Review upcoming renewals in the governance calendar.

5. Prepare for transparency and year end

• Keep a request and response timeline for service-charge information requests.
• Create inspection windows with clear access periods and redaction status.
• Build a dispute timeline that links demands, notices, meetings, votes, documents, and approvals.
• Prepare a year-end handoff with budgets, reserves, commitments, missing evidence, and accountant notes.