Budget Preparation
We build your association’s annual budget — and guarantee it pays for itself.
Most association budgets are rolled forward year to year, hiding waste and cross-subsidized losses until they surface as a special assessment. CIA prepares your annual budget from the ground up — segregated, stress-tested, and built on the same forensic analysis we use in our engagements.
CPA • CMA • CFA
40+ Years of Accounting & Finance Experience • $1B+ in Association Budgets Reviewed • Nationwide Service
See Our Methodology in Action
This is that process, in full. For the proposed FY2026–27 operating budget at 175 East Delaware Place HOA, we reconstructed the association's assessment and fee schedule from underlying accounting records, stress-tested reserve funding against the reserve study, and reconciled the material assessment, revenue, expense, and reserve schedules reviewed — demonstrating the forensic methodology we apply in every Distinguished Budget Preparation™ engagement. Below is the complete engagement record: a 123-page forensic accounting report, a 21-page executive summary, a 12-page plain English summary, presentation decks in PDF and PowerPoint, and 76 pages of supporting exhibits and working papers — published in full and free of charge so you can judge our work before you hire us.
What the Review Revealed
- Assessment Increase Framing: The proposed assessment increase can be measured three different, fully reconciled ways — a 1.926% budget-over-budget change on the assessment account, a 2.500% increase measured on a normalized, consistent basis, or the 3.750% step actually implemented beginning January 1, 2027.
- Reserve Funding: The proposed budget funds only 60.3% of the reserve study's recommended contribution — a $973,400 shortfall that, on the study's own trajectory, would widen the Association's unfunded reserve gap from roughly $18 million today to an estimated $85 million by 2052, including $67.7 million of high-priority replacement work with no scheduled funding within the study's 30-year cash-flow plan.
- Revenue Reconciliation: The budget's own current-year actuals overstate revenue by approximately $325,000 by double-counting cable-television and Wi-Fi charges — converting a projected current-year deficit into an apparent surplus.
- Ancillary Operations: The proposed budget did not disclose the financial performance of the Association's ancillary operations. Our reconstruction and cost allocation identified a $452,351 aggregate ancillary operating loss that was not presented in the budget materials, preventing independent evaluation of those activities.
- Working Capital: The Association's operating-fund target has been frozen since at least 2009 and, measured against current expenditures, now understates the appropriate working-capital level by roughly $625,420.50.
Download the Complete Engagement Record
Every document in this engagement is published in full so prospective clients can evaluate our methodology before engaging our firm.
Forensic Review of the Proposed FY2026–27 Operating Budget
A full forensic accounting review of a proposed condominium operating budget, published in full so prospective clients can examine the same methodology behind every Distinguished Budget Preparation™ engagement before they inquire.
Plain English Summary
A concise, accessible overview for homeowners and board members.
Executive Summary
Key findings and recommendations.
Presentation Deck
Forensic Accounting Report
Complete forensic accounting report.
Exhibit, Appendices, and Companion Working Papers
Exhibit, appendices, and companion working papers.
$30,000 one-time fee.
We will identify at least $30,000 in operating savings every year for at least ten years — or we waive our fee.
The budget pays for itself in year one.
What Makes Our Budget Different
Assessment vs. ancillary segregation
Every line is split so you see exactly which services owners are subsidizing — and which ones quietly lose money.
5-year stress test
Your budget is projected forward so you see deficits and assessment pressure before they hit — not after.
Reserve funding analysis
Reserve contributions are tested against the reserve study, not just rolled forward from last year’s number.
What You Receive
- A segregated annual operating budget.
- The 5-year stress-test projection.
- A written savings-and-waste findings memo.
- A reserve-funding recommendation.
How It Works
- We review your financials. Audited statements, prior budgets, the reserve study, and the general ledger.
- We build the segregated budget and stress test. Every line split, then projected five years forward.
- We present the findings and the savings plan. Where the waste is, and exactly how we hit the guarantee.
- You adopt a budget you can defend to owners. Clear, documented, and built to hold up.
Who It’s For
- Boards heading into budget season who want a budget built right, not rolled forward.
- Self-managed associations without professional finance support.
- Associations facing rising assessments or recurring deficits.
See It in the Real World
At 175 East Delaware Place HOA, segregating the budget exposed ancillary operations running a $684,000 deficit quietly subsidized by assessments — and a five-year slide from operating surplus to a projected multimillion-dollar cumulative deficit. That’s the kind of structural problem this process surfaces.
How This Differs from a Reserve Study
Budget Preparation is full, done-for-you budget creation — we build the budget from the ground up. If you’d rather we review and advise on a budget your team prepares, see Reserve Studies & Budgeting.
Led by Michael J. Novak, CPA, CMA, CFA
Michael J. Novak is Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Common Interest Advisors. He holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and brings more than four decades of accounting experience, including more than thirty years serving community associations and nonprofit organizations.
Common Interest Advisors provides independent financial, governance, budgeting, reserve funding, and forensic advisory services to condominium, homeowners, and cooperative associations.
Ready to build a budget you can defend?
Tell us about your association and we’ll get started. Registration and inquiries go to info@cia.mba.
Common Interest Advisors, LLC provides non-attest forensic accounting and consulting services and is not a licensed public accounting firm. This page is informational and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice.
