Board Fundamentals · Onboarding

The Volunteer Treasurer's First 90 Days

You did not run for treasurer because you wanted a second job in accounting. You ran because your community needed someone to step up. The first 90 days decide whether you spend the rest of your term reacting to surprises or working from a clear picture — and the right onboarding sequence is the difference.

The Bottom Line

The volunteer treasurer’s real job is not bookkeeping. It is custody of the board’s financial visibility. The community has a management company or an accountant doing the day-to-day mechanics. What the treasurer owns is whether the rest of the board ever sees a clean, honest, useful financial picture — on a predictable schedule, with the right questions already asked. The first 90 days set up the routine that makes that possible. You do not need a finance background to do it well. You need a sequence: gather the documents, inventory the accounts, establish your signing authority, attend the right meetings, and learn to ask three or four questions every month that will keep the community out of trouble for the next year.

Why the First 90 Days Matter More Than Any Other Stretch of Your Term

Three things tend to happen when a new treasurer skips the onboarding sequence. The board defaults to whatever was done last year, even if last year was wrong. Quiet drift in expenses or delinquencies that an attentive treasurer would have noticed in month two becomes a six-figure surprise in month seven. And the rest of the board — including the residents who elected you — quietly concludes that nobody is actually watching the money.

None of that is the new treasurer’s fault. It is what happens by default when no one builds the routine. The 90-day onboarding fixes the default. After 90 days of structured work, you will know where every account is, what every recurring report should contain, who at the management company answers which kind of question, and what the next four meetings need to cover. You will not be an accountant. You will be a treasurer the board can actually rely on.

Days 1–30: Gather, Inventory, and Read

The first 30 days are about acquiring the documents and the access. Nothing else. Resist the urge to start fixing things. You cannot fix what you have not yet seen end-to-end.

Governance documents to gather

Get a complete, current set of the association’s governing documents. Either request them from the management company or download them from your community’s file portal:

• The recorded declaration (sometimes called CC&Rs, master deed, or declaration of condominium) and every recorded amendment.
• The bylaws and any amendments.
• The articles of incorporation.
• The current board-adopted rules and resolutions, including the collection policy, the fine schedule, the architectural rules, and any reserve funding resolution.
• The current and prior year’s annual budget.
• The most recent reserve study and any updates.
• The most recent audit, review, or compilation report from the association’s CPA.
• The current management agreement with the management company.
• The association’s insurance declarations pages — property, liability, fidelity/crime, and directors-and-officers.
• A current list of the board, the officers, the committees, and the term-expiration dates.

Read the assessment article of the declaration first. It defines who can charge what, for what purpose, and on what authority. Every dollar the association ever collects traces back to that article. If you read nothing else in your first week, read that.

Accounts to inventory

The association probably has more accounts than you think. Build a single inventory listing every one of them, in one place. For each account, capture:

• Account type (operating checking, operating money market, reserve money market, reserve CD or CDARS, special-purpose fund).
• Bank name and last four digits of the account number.
• Current balance as of the most recent statement.
• Listed signers and authorized contacts.
• What the account is for — operating receipts, reserve cash, working-capital deposits at closing, a particular sub-association or service area.
• Whether statements come to a board email address or only to the management company.

Most associations have one operating checking account, one or more reserve accounts (often money market or sweep accounts plus laddered CDs), and sometimes additional accounts for sub-associations or restricted funds. Confirm every one of them appears on the most recent balance sheet. If an account exists at the bank but not on the balance sheet — or vice versa — that is a finding you bring to the manager in your first meeting.

Reports to subscribe to

Tell the management company you want to be on the standing distribution list for the monthly financial packet. A typical packet contains a balance sheet, an operating income statement, a reserve income statement, a budget comparison with variance columns, a general ledger, an accounts receivable past-due report, an accounts payable check register, and an expanded bank reconciliation for every account. You may not read every page every month — this guide will not ask you to — but you need every page available.

Ask in writing for the historical packets going back at least 12 months. Reading the trailing year of packets is the single fastest way to learn what is normal for your community and what is not.

Signing authorities to establish

If the bylaws or banking resolutions require the treasurer to be a signer on operating and reserve accounts, this is the moment to update the bank’s records. The transition usually requires a board resolution authorizing the new signers and a banking signature card update. Coordinate with the management company — they have done this many times and know each bank’s process.

One important caution: being a signer is not the same as approving the disbursements. In most well-run associations, the management company runs accounts payable and is the operational signer on routine checks. The treasurer’s signing authority is a backstop — required for large payments above a threshold, for emergency disbursements, and for closing a bank account. Confirm what your association’s policy actually requires. Then make sure your name and signature card are on file at every bank.

People to meet

Set up an introductory meeting with two specific people in the first 30 days: your assigned account manager at the management company, and the management company’s accounting contact for your community. Some management companies use a single relationship manager who handles both; others split the roles. Find out who answers what kind of question, and ask each of them how they prefer to receive non-emergency questions.

If the association has a CPA who performs the annual audit, review, or compilation, schedule a 30-minute introduction. The audit firm is a resource, not just a vendor that shows up once a year. They know your governing documents, they have seen your reserve study, and they can answer general questions about how the books are kept.

Days 31–60: Read the Last Year and Find the Rhythm

The second 30 days are about pattern recognition. You now have the documents, the access, and the introductions. Spend the next month learning what the community’s normal financial rhythm actually is.

Walk the trailing 12 months of packets

You do not need to read each packet cover-to-cover. You need to look at the same handful of things across every month and notice the pattern.

1. Cash balances. What did total operating cash run from month to month? When did it peak? When did it dip? Was the dip explainable (a large vendor payment, a reserve transfer, a deferred maintenance project)?
2. Reserve transfers. Did the operating-to-reserve transfer happen on the cadence the budget called for — monthly, quarterly, or annually? Did any month skip a scheduled transfer?
3. Accounts receivable past due totals. Did the total past-due balance trend up, down, or sideways? Were any quarters dramatically different?
4. Major expense lines. Track the running total of the three or four largest expense categories — usually some combination of landscape, insurance, utilities, management fee, repairs and maintenance. Where did each one land against budget?
5. Reserve fund change. In which months did capital projects execute? How much was spent? Were the projects on the reserve study’s schedule?

By the end of this exercise, you will know what a quiet month looks like for your community, what a project month looks like, and what an outlier looks like. That knowledge is what lets you spot trouble early. A treasurer who has only seen one month of packets has no baseline; a treasurer who has walked a full year has a calibrated eye.

Map the annual financial calendar

Most communities run on a recurring annual cycle. Build a one-page calendar that captures it:

• Fiscal year start and end.
• Annual budget preparation window and adoption deadline.
• Member notice of the new assessment rate.
• Audit/review/compilation engagement window and CPA fieldwork timing.
• Year-end close and the date the final packet for the prior year arrives.
• Annual meeting date.
• Insurance renewal date.
• Reserve study update cycle (typically every three to five years).
• Tax return filing deadline (Form 1120-H or Form 1120 for most associations).

You will use this calendar every month for the rest of your term. Put it in the front of your treasurer binder.

Confirm the reserve picture

Pull the most recent reserve study. Two numbers matter most:

• The percent funded — the ratio of actual reserve cash to the fully-funded balance the study calls for. CICSC’s general benchmark is that anything below 70% deserves an explicit board conversation about long-range funding.
• The annual reserve funding recommendation — what the study says the association should contribute to reserves this fiscal year.

Then compare the funding recommendation against what the adopted budget actually contributes. If the budget under-funds reserves, that is a conversation the board needs to have. It does not require a fix in your first 60 days — but it needs to be on the calendar for the next budget cycle, and you should know exactly what the gap is before that meeting.

Understand the collection process

Open the most recent accounts receivable past-due report. Look at the over-90-day column. Count the accounts and add up the balances. Then ask the management company to walk you through, account by account, where each delinquent account stands in the collection escalation: reminder notice, demand letter, intent-to-lien, attorney referral, payment plan, or board review.

In Texas, Property Code § 209.0064 requires that before an association can foreclose for unpaid assessments or initiate certain legal collection actions, the owner must receive notice and a 45-day cure period to bring the account current (not 30 days — the 45-day cure is the current statute and the most commonly misstated number in the state). Property Code § 209.0056 governs the form and delivery of pre-enforcement notice. In Florida, § 720.3085 governs HOA collections and lien procedures and § 718.116 governs condominium assessments and the lien process.

You do not need to memorize the statutes. You need to know they exist, what cure period applies, and who at the management company is responsible for making sure the notices go out correctly. If a 90+ day delinquent account is still showing as a Step 1 reminder, that is a finding for the next board meeting.

Days 61–90: Build the Routine and Run It Once

The final 30 days are about putting the routine in place that you will use every month for the rest of your term. The goal at day 90 is not perfection. It is a repeatable, 30-minute monthly review you can actually execute, and a board-meeting financial section that takes about 10 minutes and answers the three questions every director cares about.

The 30-minute monthly review

The first time you do this, it will take longer than 30 minutes. By the third or fourth month, the routine becomes automatic. The order matters:

1. Minutes 0–3: The tie. Open the balance sheet and find total fund balance. Open the income statement and find the period fund change. Add the period fund change to last month’s fund balance. If they tie, the packet is internally consistent and you proceed. If they do not, stop and ask the management company before going further.
2. Minutes 3–8: The headlines. Three numbers: operating cash on hand, total accounts receivable, period fund change. Compare each to last month and to budget. Anything moving sharply without an obvious cause becomes a question for the rest of the review.
3. Minutes 8–15: The income statement. Walk top to bottom against budget. Mark any year-to-date variance over 10% or over a few thousand dollars (whichever matters more for the community).
4. Minutes 15–20: The accounts receivable past-due report. Look at total past-due. Look at the over-90 column. Identify the top five delinquent accounts. Confirm each is in the right collection step.
5. Minutes 20–25: The bank reconciliation. Confirm each account is reconciled and the difference is zero. Scan outstanding checks for any item over 60 days old. Most months this is a 30-second check.
6. Minutes 25–30: The notes. For the top three variances you marked, write one sentence each explaining the likely cause. This is what you will say at the board meeting.

The three questions every board wants answered

The board meeting financial conversation runs about 10 minutes. Structure it around three questions:

1. Are we okay this month? Cash, accounts receivable, fund balance. Three numbers, with one sentence on each.
2. Are we on track for the year? Year-to-date actual against budget. Three numbers, with the one or two variances worth discussing.
3. Is anything about to change? Capital projects coming up, special assessments under consideration, insurance renewal, audit timing — anything in the next 90 days that affects the picture.

That is the entire structured part of the financial section. Detail is in the packet for any director who wants it. Most months they will not need it.

Manager Q&A script for your first months

The list below is not a quiz for the management company. It is a structured way for you to learn the operation. Send the list in writing. Ask for written replies where helpful. Use what you learn to build your own briefing file.

• Who at the management company prepares each piece of the monthly packet, and who do I contact for what kind of question?
• When does the packet typically arrive, and how do I follow up if it is late?
• Are all the association’s bank accounts represented on the balance sheet? Can you walk me through any that are not?
• Which reserve cash positions are held at which institutions, and what are the maturity dates on any CDs or CDARS?
• What is the operating-to-reserve transfer cadence and how is the amount calculated?
• Walk me through one delinquent account at each major stage of collection so I understand what the status codes mean in practice.
• Are there any vendor accounts on the AP register that we have not used in the last 6 months but are still active in your system?
• What does the year-end close cycle look like, and when will the CPA begin fieldwork?
• What does the association currently spend on the management company’s billable services that are outside the base contract?
• What governance or financial issue do you think the board is not paying enough attention to?

The last question is the most important one. A good account manager will answer it honestly if you ask in good faith.

What to Avoid in the First 90 Days

Actionable 30/60/90 Checklist

By day 30

1. Have a complete current set of the governing documents in one folder.
2. Build the account inventory listing every operating and reserve account.
3. Be on the standing distribution list for the monthly financial packet.
4. Confirm the bank signature cards have been updated.
5. Have introductory meetings completed with the account manager and the accounting contact.
6. Read the assessment article of the declaration.

By day 60

1. Walked the trailing 12 months of packets and noted what is normal for the community.
2. Built the one-page annual financial calendar.
3. Identified the reserve study’s percent funded and the gap between recommended and budgeted reserve contributions.
4. Walked the current accounts receivable past-due report account by account with the management company.
5. Confirmed the association is following the applicable statutory notice and cure procedures.

By day 90

1. Run the 30-minute monthly review once on your own, end to end.
2. Delivered a board financial section structured around the three questions.
3. Sent the manager Q&A list and read the replies.
4. Built a personal treasurer binder containing the documents, the calendar, the account inventory, and a running notepad of open questions.
5. Identified the next three or four financial issues the board needs to discuss in the next two meetings.

What Comes After Day 90

The routine you built in the first 90 days is the routine you will run for the rest of your term. From here forward, your work is mostly consistency — the same review every month, the same three questions in front of the board, the same calendar markers, the same paper trail. The harder financial conversations — the next budget cycle, the next reserve study update, a difficult assessment increase, a vendor change, an audit finding — will arrive on schedule. When they do, you will have the picture, the records, and the credibility to lead the board through them.

You did not become an accountant in 90 days. You did become a treasurer the board can actually rely on. That is the job.

Related CIC-SC Resources

• The Volunteer Director’s 30-Minute Financial Review
• How to Read the Reserve Income Statement (Plain Language)
• How to Read the Budget Comparison and 12-Month Income Statement
• How to Read the AR Past Due Report
• Treasurer Onboarding Packet (downloadable checklist)
• Director Financial Glossary

References & Sources

1. Texas Property Code § 209.0056 — Pre-enforcement notice requirements for residential subdivision associations.
2. Texas Property Code § 209.0064 — Statutory 45-day cure period before initiating certain collection actions.
3. Florida Statutes § 720.3085 — HOA collection, lien, and foreclosure procedures.
4. Florida Statutes § 718.116 — Condominium assessments, liens, and collection procedures.
5. FASB Accounting Standards Codification 958-205 — Presentation of financial statements for not-for-profit entities, applicable to most community associations.
6. AICPA, Audit and Accounting Guide: Common Interest Realty Associations — Reserve disclosure, fund presentation, and recognition guidance.
7. Community Associations Institute (CAI), Best Practices Report — Financial Operations.
8. Common Interest Community Standards Council, Annual Budget Review Framework (CIC-SC governance template).

Tags: treasurer onboarding · first 90 days · volunteer board member · financial oversight · reserve study · collections · Tex. Prop. Code § 209.0064 · Fla. Stat. § 720.3085

CICSC provides educational resources and governance standards. CICSC does not provide legal, accounting, tax, engineering, insurance, or reserve study services. Boards should consult qualified professionals for matters requiring professional judgment.