Beyond the Budget
Financial Clarity & Decision-Making for Community Associations
Approved Continuing Education Sponsor by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) — CAM Sponsor License No. 292.000041
Most associations don’t have a budgeting problem. They have a financial understanding problem.
Boards approve budgets they can’t fully read. Managers present condensed summaries that hide as much as they reveal. Reserve shortfalls, tax exposure, and cross-subsidized losses accumulate quietly — until they surface as a special assessment or a lawsuit. This course exists to change that.
Beyond the Budget is a four-part educational program — offered monthly, May through November, and approved for Illinois CAM continuing education credit. Over its four parts, it gives directors, managers, and owners a structured, practical framework for reading association finances, spotting risk early, and making decisions before the year closes the door on them. Taught by Michael J. Novak, CPA, CMA, CFA, it is built on the same analysis CIA uses in its forensic engagements.
Who It’s For
- Board members who vote on budgets they didn’t write and want to understand what they’re approving.
- Community association managers who want to move from reporting numbers to explaining them.
- Owners who suspect the consolidated statement isn’t telling the whole story.
No accounting background required. The course teaches the reasoning, not the jargon.
The Framework
Every session follows one financial system, end to end:
If any step is wrong, everything that follows is wrong. The course teaches you to test each one.
2026 Course Schedule
Beyond the Budget™ is delivered through four live, interactive online sessions totaling eight hours of Illinois CAM continuing education credit.
Each session consists of two 50-minute instructional periods separated by a 10-minute break, consistent with Illinois CAM continuing education class-hour requirements.
Upcoming Cohorts
Held live online via Zoom · 6:00 PM – 7:50 PM Central Time
Choose the cohort that best fits your calendar.
- Session 1 — Tuesday, July 21, 2026
- Session 2 — Thursday, July 23, 2026
- Session 3 — Tuesday, July 28, 2026
- Session 4 — Thursday, July 30, 2026
- Session 1 — Tuesday, August 18, 2026
- Session 2 — Thursday, August 20, 2026
- Session 3 — Tuesday, August 25, 2026
- Session 4 — Thursday, August 27, 2026
- Session 1 — Tuesday, September 15, 2026
- Session 2 — Thursday, September 17, 2026
- Session 3 — Tuesday, September 22, 2026
- Session 4 — Thursday, September 24, 2026
- Session 1 — Tuesday, October 20, 2026
- Session 2 — Thursday, October 22, 2026
- Session 3 — Tuesday, October 27, 2026
- Session 4 — Thursday, October 29, 2026
- Session 1 — Tuesday, November 10, 2026
- Session 2 — Thursday, November 12, 2026
- Session 3 — Tuesday, November 17, 2026
- Session 4 — Thursday, November 19, 2026
What You’ll Learn
Data, Trends & Budget Integrity
Read financial statements with a critical eye. Why netting hides risk, why accrual consistency matters, and how a five-year trend reveals structural problems a single year conceals. Includes the Illinois budget-disclosure baseline.
Forecasting, PYE & Financial Decisions
Turn current data into a Projected Year-End you update monthly. Classify variances, run the surplus decision framework, understand Revenue Ruling 70-604, and size the working capital your association actually needs.
Allocation & Financial Transparency
Follow the money past the consolidated total. The three buckets — assessment income, core operations, ancillary operations — direct vs. fully-loaded cost, and how to find the losses hidden inside an apparent surplus.
Reserves, Taxes & Decision-Making
Capital vs. non-capital, reserve adequacy and percent-funded trajectory, the Form 1120-H framework and the 90% expenditure test, intergenerational equity, and a clear decision framework: increase, adjust, reduce, or defer.
You Build the Model
This isn’t a lecture you watch. Participants work in a live financial model — five-year trend analysis, a PYE engine, core-vs-ancillary visibility, and a working-capital tracker — and leave able to run it on their own association. The tool is yours to keep.
Why This Course Is Different
You work from the same association budgets and reserve schedules CIA examines in live forensic engagements — not textbook abstractions.
Read percent-funded trajectories and judge whether a reserve plan protects owners or quietly defers risk to the future.
See what netting, condensed summaries, and accrual choices hide on an association’s financial statements.
Understand Form 1120-H, Revenue Ruling 70-604, and the everyday decisions that quietly create tax exposure.
Connect the numbers to the board’s duty of care — and the questions directors are obligated to ask.
Apply the same investigative lens CIA uses to surface waste, misclassification, and hidden losses.
See It in the Real World
The failures this course teaches you to catch aren’t hypothetical. CIA documented every one of them at a single Chicago flagship association — netting and hidden ancillary losses, reserve waivers without the required vote, expense-vs-capital misclassification, and a surplus never protected under 70-604.
→ Read the 175 East Delaware Place case study
The case study shows what goes wrong. This course teaches you to see it coming.
Format & Tuition
- Four parts, eight hours total
- Offered monthly, May through November
- $299 per person or $995 per association (up to 10 attendees). Need more than 10 attendees or interested in a private board or management company session? Contact us at mnovak@cia.mba.
Beyond the Budget is an educational program. It provides general information for community association governance and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice for any specific association.
Register for Beyond the Budget™
Choose the registration option that best fits your needs.
Ideal for community association managers, board members, accountants, attorneys, reserve specialists, and industry professionals seeking Illinois CAM continuing education credit.
Includes up to 10 participants from the same condominium, homeowners, cooperative, or community association. Need more than 10 attendees or interested in a private board or management company session? Contact us at mnovak@cia.mba.
Ready to register? Select your preferred registration option below.
Registration includes Illinois CAM continuing education credit through an IDFPR-approved CAM education sponsor. Sponsor License No. 292.000041. Upon registration, participants will receive a confirmation email with course participation details, scheduling information, Zoom access instructions, and any required pre-course materials. Participants are expected to attend all four sessions to receive continuing education credit.
