Using Quicken for a small (50 member) HOA

VillageHOA

I am shopping for best software for our 50 member HOA.
I am Treasurer. Very familiar with QuickBooks and accounting for my primary business.
There are no employees. Dues are monthly.
I am using a trial version of MoneyMinder, but don't like that is on cash basis. Each year is basically a "start over." Would prefer accrual method.
Would also prefer cloud based or cloud backup in case of need to transfer to the next treasurer.

jacobs

Quicken is desktop based software, although there is a companion mobile app and web interface which allows you to view and enter some (not all) data. The desktop file can be transferred to a successor fairly easily; the online subset of data cannot be picked up by someone else to use going forward. Backup files can certainly be sent to any Cloud storage service; the live data file must be run from a desktop computer, not from the Cloud.

Quicken has an online-only product called Simplifi, but it's not as robust as desktop Quicken. I haven't used Simplifi, but I think it might not be a good fit for managing the books of your HOA.

Are you on a Mac or Windows? Quicken offers products for both, but they are not interchangeable. For Windows, there is a Home & Business version which has some added features for small businesses, including invoicing and tracking receivables. On a Mac, there is no such business version, but depending on your bookkeeping needs, you may or may not be able to do what you need. (You can create asset and liability accounts for tracking dues and billing, but it doesn't create invoices, and the tracking by member would depend on structuring your data correctly to make this feasible.)

I've done the books for a small non-profit association with roughly as many members as you have in Quicken Mac, and done so on an accrual basis. It's not the optimal tool, but I was able to get it to do what I needed. I have never looked at HOA management software, but you might want to look at that before deciding if a general-purpose personal finance package like Quicken will meet your needs.

Rocket J Squirrel

I used Quicken as treasurer for our really small 11-home HOA simply because I already had it and knew how to use it. It worked fine for producing cash flow reports and such which satisfied everyone. But we were on a cash, not accrual basis.

The thing I couldn't get it to do was easily answer the question “Who hasn't paid their dues yet this month?” For that, I had to keep a separate spreadsheet.