Quicken Classic Business & Personal for Mac - HOA Bookkeeping

FredRVet
FredRVet Quicken Mac Subscription Member ✭✭

I just took over the Treasurer's position for our Home Owners Association. The HOA has 25 homes in it. The previous Treasurer used just a spread sheet to track Dues and Expenses.

I have Quicken Classic Deluxe and I'm considering upgrading to Quicken Classic Business & Personal for Mac to help me track Dues and expenses. I assume I could set up a separate Data File and name it HOAMacBooks.quicken or something similar to that.

Has anyone had any experiance with the MAC version for HOA bookkeeping?

It looks like a P&L (Income & Expenses) would be easy to set up but can you also set up a Balance Sheet (Assets & Liabilities)

Best Answers

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Quicken Mac Subscription Member, SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓

    @FredRVet With respect to @NotACPA who is a Quicken expert - but not a Quicken Mac one - no, you cannot generate a proper Balance Sheet, even as a Net Worth, with QMac when businesses are involved… yet. It is planned, but currently a Net Worth in QMac does not show Accounts Receivable nor Sales Tax Payable.

    So, while each homeowner can be a "Client" who you can invoice and track their HOA dues etc - and see who has not paid by generating a "Business Accounts Receivable Aging Report" - that amount will not show up as an asset whether your HOA has historically been using accrual accounting or not. If you want to show it, you'll have to export the Net Worth report to Excel/Numbers and then add that in.

    Setting up as Clients is the only way to track who has and hasn't paid - and how long they are in arrears in case your HOA terms include penalties to be assessed. That give you Categories and Tags to organize transactions as needed for any special reporting, as well as annual / tax reports. Note that most "regular" QMac reports don't work with businesses - such as the Crosstab reports. No doubt Business filters for the other reports are coming, but your guess is as good as mine as to when.

    I can't imagine that there is sales tax collected for anything from homeowners, so the sales tax payable liability line omission shouldn't matter. (Sales tax collected but not yet paid to the taxing agency.)

    So, yes, it should be doable - certainly with the HOA having its own file as @NotACPA stated - and all normal reporting should be fine with the exception of the Balance Sheet which will likely need to be assembled in Excel until we have a Business Balance Sheet implemented.

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.3.1 (and Win 11 under Parallels Desktop)

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Quicken Mac Subscription Member, SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓

    @FredRVet It sounds like you did not generate an invoice for each lot… thus having no way to track who hasn't paid. If everyone pays on time, I guess that's not necessary…

    Most importantly is that only the Business reports at the moment are geared towards business function reporting. No other reports in any Report category let you filter by Business or Client.

    That said… the other reports … which we hope will properly filter by business, client and billable status sooner than later… do let you display the "Business" column … but presently (8.01) do not allow us to show the "Client" or "Billable" info in columns.

    I would hope that that feature is coming sooner than later also. When it does, you would do the steps that you attempted…

    - run a "Transactions by Category" report - which will give detailed transactions - click the Edit button to specify your desired date range … and then right-click the column headings (or click the View button and then Columns) … and put a checkmark in front of Client (once that is possible).

    You should then have a report that lists all payments made for each lot. They will be sorted by date, not the Client name (lot number or whatever). If you need it sorted by Client Name / Lot … then you'll have to export and sort it in Excel, Numbers, etc. Click the Export button at the top of the report. Personally, I don't export to CSV, but rather copy to the clipboard. Then in Excel, I paste into a blank workbook. I find it faster. And I leave QMac open until I'm sure I have the data I want to work with.

    Today - the only way to break out the transactions by lot is to use the Tag field and include that field as a column in a Transactions by Category report. Unfortunately, that means duplicating information… having each lot be a Tag as well as a Customer.

    (When we can eventually display Customer in a column in transaction reports, then the Tags wouldn't be needed any longer and could be deleted to avoid confusion about why they're there. QMac has a relatively easy way to do that via bulk editing.)

    Karl

    PS. Anticipating a question: Suppose you have a homeowner who wants a statement of their past payments/transactions? Today, that is also impossible. You can go to Business > Clients tab and open the Client Details (by double-clicking, or clicking the View toolbar button, or clicking the 3-dots in front of the Client name and choosing View Client). You can then view the Invoices tab which shows invoices and payments on them - but there is no mechanism for printing or exporting the data. You'd have to screenshot it to send to the homeowner. The Transactions tab should have relevant Client transactions, but seems to only include business transactions tagged to the Client (billable or not) rather than all transactions. Seems weird to me that those are somehow different than Client invoice payment transactions which appear in the Invoices tab and not here. If you accepted payments directly from homeowners without invoicing them, then those should show up in the Transactions tab.

    Note that there is also no means of generating a checking account register report just for one homeowner, as the register filters are limited to Date, Type and Status

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.3.1 (and Win 11 under Parallels Desktop)

Answers

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yes you can set up a Balance Sheet (also known as "Net Worth") in any version of Q.

    And, you DEFINITELY want a separate data file for the HOA. Their finances shouldn't be commingled with yours … and neither should the financial record keeping.

    The question then becomes, how do you want to keep track of the (presumably) monthly dues income from each home? Would you want to set each up as a Client? As a Category? Or what? Do you intend to send monthly invoices to each owner?

    BTW, while I don't use QMac, I've been (at one time or another) the Treasurer of 3 HOAs and several clubs/associations.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Quicken Mac Subscription Member, SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓

    @FredRVet With respect to @NotACPA who is a Quicken expert - but not a Quicken Mac one - no, you cannot generate a proper Balance Sheet, even as a Net Worth, with QMac when businesses are involved… yet. It is planned, but currently a Net Worth in QMac does not show Accounts Receivable nor Sales Tax Payable.

    So, while each homeowner can be a "Client" who you can invoice and track their HOA dues etc - and see who has not paid by generating a "Business Accounts Receivable Aging Report" - that amount will not show up as an asset whether your HOA has historically been using accrual accounting or not. If you want to show it, you'll have to export the Net Worth report to Excel/Numbers and then add that in.

    Setting up as Clients is the only way to track who has and hasn't paid - and how long they are in arrears in case your HOA terms include penalties to be assessed. That give you Categories and Tags to organize transactions as needed for any special reporting, as well as annual / tax reports. Note that most "regular" QMac reports don't work with businesses - such as the Crosstab reports. No doubt Business filters for the other reports are coming, but your guess is as good as mine as to when.

    I can't imagine that there is sales tax collected for anything from homeowners, so the sales tax payable liability line omission shouldn't matter. (Sales tax collected but not yet paid to the taxing agency.)

    So, yes, it should be doable - certainly with the HOA having its own file as @NotACPA stated - and all normal reporting should be fine with the exception of the Balance Sheet which will likely need to be assembled in Excel until we have a Business Balance Sheet implemented.

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.3.1 (and Win 11 under Parallels Desktop)

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    @MontanaKarl I believe what you wrote … but I find it ABSOLUTELY INEXCUSABLE that QMac B&P can't produce a Balance Sheet.

    Q should have NEVER released the product without such an essential, to accounting, function.

    Yet another reason to avoid QMac.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • FredRVet
    FredRVet Quicken Mac Subscription Member ✭✭
    edited January 26

    Thanks for the response. No Sales Tax on the dues. Dues are billed Annually. So not a lot of billing to do for the 25 Home Owners. As mentioned the previous Treasurer(s) only used Excel and emailed Home owners when Dues were due for payment.

    I agree that Quicken needs to step up there game with Quicken Mac. Used Widows for years but I like my MAC.

    Just a foot note to MontanaKarl. We recently moved after 30 years in Montana to Florida. Miss Montana but the fishing is great in Florida.

  • FredRVet
    FredRVet Quicken Mac Subscription Member ✭✭

    I am Treasure of a 25 lot HOA. Trying to use MAC Quicken Classic Business & Personal (Version 8.0.1) to do the books. I set up each home owner as Clients. Made January's annual entry deposits into checking account picking each client.

    Tried to run different Transaction reports on checking account but I can not select Clients as a Column. Only Payee which does not show the Client name for the deposit.

    IE: Transaction Reports - View - Columns - No Choice for "Clients" only Payee

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Quicken Mac Subscription Member, SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓

    @FredRVet It sounds like you did not generate an invoice for each lot… thus having no way to track who hasn't paid. If everyone pays on time, I guess that's not necessary…

    Most importantly is that only the Business reports at the moment are geared towards business function reporting. No other reports in any Report category let you filter by Business or Client.

    That said… the other reports … which we hope will properly filter by business, client and billable status sooner than later… do let you display the "Business" column … but presently (8.01) do not allow us to show the "Client" or "Billable" info in columns.

    I would hope that that feature is coming sooner than later also. When it does, you would do the steps that you attempted…

    - run a "Transactions by Category" report - which will give detailed transactions - click the Edit button to specify your desired date range … and then right-click the column headings (or click the View button and then Columns) … and put a checkmark in front of Client (once that is possible).

    You should then have a report that lists all payments made for each lot. They will be sorted by date, not the Client name (lot number or whatever). If you need it sorted by Client Name / Lot … then you'll have to export and sort it in Excel, Numbers, etc. Click the Export button at the top of the report. Personally, I don't export to CSV, but rather copy to the clipboard. Then in Excel, I paste into a blank workbook. I find it faster. And I leave QMac open until I'm sure I have the data I want to work with.

    Today - the only way to break out the transactions by lot is to use the Tag field and include that field as a column in a Transactions by Category report. Unfortunately, that means duplicating information… having each lot be a Tag as well as a Customer.

    (When we can eventually display Customer in a column in transaction reports, then the Tags wouldn't be needed any longer and could be deleted to avoid confusion about why they're there. QMac has a relatively easy way to do that via bulk editing.)

    Karl

    PS. Anticipating a question: Suppose you have a homeowner who wants a statement of their past payments/transactions? Today, that is also impossible. You can go to Business > Clients tab and open the Client Details (by double-clicking, or clicking the View toolbar button, or clicking the 3-dots in front of the Client name and choosing View Client). You can then view the Invoices tab which shows invoices and payments on them - but there is no mechanism for printing or exporting the data. You'd have to screenshot it to send to the homeowner. The Transactions tab should have relevant Client transactions, but seems to only include business transactions tagged to the Client (billable or not) rather than all transactions. Seems weird to me that those are somehow different than Client invoice payment transactions which appear in the Invoices tab and not here. If you accepted payments directly from homeowners without invoicing them, then those should show up in the Transactions tab.

    Note that there is also no means of generating a checking account register report just for one homeowner, as the register filters are limited to Date, Type and Status

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.3.1 (and Win 11 under Parallels Desktop)

  • FredRVet
    FredRVet Quicken Mac Subscription Member ✭✭
    edited February 9

    Thanks Karl for the in depth answer. I did not create an invoice for the HOA owners due to that they all paid their Annual Assessment payment on January 1st +/- for 2025 and I was not the Treasure until a couple weeks ago. Since the previous Treasure(s) only used an excel spread sheet that is very hard to follow. I wanted to get a better P&L for the 2024 Income Tax preparation so that's why I'm converting to Quicken. I have used Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax for several years.

    So, I set up a HOA Quicken file and downloaded all of the historical 2024 and 2025 Transaction from the bank. I set up all of the HOA Members as Clients and after editing the downloaded bank transactions it does show there payments in each individual Client File.

    Maybe I can create 25 Invoices for each one for just the 2025 payments and re-enter them and see how that works.

    Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. Hopefully Mac Quicken will catch up withe the features in the Windows Quicken in the near future.

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Quicken Mac Subscription Member, SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    Maybe I can create 25 Invoices for each one for just the 2025 payments and re-enter them and see how that works.

    If they’ve all paid, creating the invoices now won’t really give you anything I don’t think. Yes, hopefully additional improvements are on the way to flesh out the business features of QMac.

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.3.1 (and Win 11 under Parallels Desktop)