Fall Maintenance Checklist to Improve HOA Vendor Management

Fall is a visually spectacular season, with leaves changing from green to dazzling shades of red, orange, and yellow. The falling leaves also serve as a signal that you’ve got fall maintenance to take care of. 

If you don’t take care of these tasks now, you’ll find yourself with unhappy residents come springtime. You’ll need to turn to vendors for tasks such as gutter cleanup, HVAC checkup, season-end lawn care, road maintenance, and water feature management. Managing vendors–keeping track of their invoices and making sure they get paid on time–is one of your duties as a self managed HOA board member. HOA management software helps you streamline this process for greater efficiency, transparency, and ease. 

What’s on Your Fall Maintenance Checklist? 

There will be a few must-do items on your fall maintenance checklist: 

• Gutter cleanup in shared structures
• An HVAC checkup
• Season-end lawn care
• Road maintenance
• Water feature management 

Gutter Cleanup in Shared Structures 

When was the last time you thought about your gutters? If you’re like most people, probably never. As long as gutters are doing their jobs–collecting rainwater and funneling it away from the property–they’re not a cause for concern. 

However, leaves can clog gutters, leading to water damage. The gutters in your clubhouse, gatehouse, and any auxiliary buildings are all vulnerable. Professional gutter cleaners can remove those potential clogs quickly and safely to prevent potential leaks.

An HVAC Checkup

As the temperatures dip, the HVAC system in your clubhouse will work harder to keep the facility warm. Checking how it’s working helps you avoid any problems in the colder months.

You might discover you’ll need preventive maintenance on your HVAC system. By bringing in HVAC specialists to check your system now, you’ll avoid bigger, costlier problems down the line. 

Season-End Lawn Care 

Fall doesn’t only mark the changing leaves. You’ll also notice grass begins to go dormant, and seasonal flora changes. Residents notice and appreciate when the HOA invests in landscaping, and fall is the perfect time to prepare for the next planting season. 

A landscaping company can clean up last year’s plants, cut back the grass for winter, and plant hardy flowers and shrubs that will thrive in the colder weather. 

Road Maintenance 

There are times when the municipality will be responsible for road maintenance, and there will be times the HOA will bear the responsibility for it. 

Autumn is the best time of year to maintain the road surfaces for which your HOA is responsible. It’s not too hot, and if you act now, you can fix the potholes that will grow even larger in the winter. 

Water Feature Management 

Water features such as ponds, fountains, and waterfalls, make beautiful, calming additions to your neighborhood. They also need maintenance as the seasons change.

During the fall, leaves can clog the debris net. If you’re in an area where early frost is a common occurrence, you’ll have to decide whether you want to keep the water feature operating or shut it down for the fall and winter. 

In addition, your irrigation and sprinkler systems will need maintenance before the winter comes. If your HOA runs a pool, it will need to be closed up and prepared for the winter season so reopening it come the spring will be simple and hassle-free. These tasks might require separate vendors. 

Manage Your Vendors and Service Crews in One Place 

Each of the items on your fall maintenance checklist requires specialized vendors who can accomplish these tasks safely with professional results. For your self-managed HOA, that means tracking invoices, ensuring they’re paid in a reasonable amount of time, and making sure those transactions are accounted for. 

While some HOA board members might have accounting expertise, other volunteers don’t have that experience. That’s where HOA management software comes in. 

The right HOA management software helps you by: 

• Centralizing vendor documentation
• Offering multiple payment methods to vendors
• Digitizing invoices
• Automating payment synchronization
• Generating 1099 forms
• Customizing payment approval workflows to fit your HOA’s needs

Centralize Vendor Documentation 

Do you know where your vendor’s insurance certificate is? What about the contract with that vendor? 

HOA management software offers a centralized vendor document repository. You can easily and quickly pull up documents such as insurance certificates, contracts, invoices, and other important forms. If a document is missing or out of date, it’s simple to upload it. Market-leading software for managing HOAs runs in the cloud, so all board members can have access to it. 

Offer Multiple Payment Methods to Vendors 

Your vendors might not want a check. Make it easy for them to work with you. 

The right software for HOA management allows you to pay your vendors through their preferred method. If a vendor is outside your HOA’s banking network, the software should have a setting that lets it reach out to the vendor to set up payment. In the case that a vendor can’t be reached, the software will ensure they receive a check. 

Digitizing Invoices 

We’re in the paperless age, and your HOA should move into it, too. There’s a good chance that your vendors send digital invoices. 

With the right HOA management software, you can accept digital invoices. They’ll be seamlessly scanned into the software and then primed for swift approval workflows. It’s a win-win all around–with a digital invoice, you have greater transparency and visibility into your accounting practices, and your vendors receive their payments faster. 

Automating Payment Synchronization

Accounting can be time-consuming and laborious, and if you’re manually recording transactions, there’s the risk of errors. Management software purpose-built for HOAs can automate payment synchronization with your accounting software. 

Automation saves you time and effort–you no longer need to manually update entries. Moreover, it reduces the risk of errors, because the software records the exact amount paid. 

Generating 1099 Forms 

When your HOA hires vendors to take care of tasks such as fall maintenance, you need to create 1099 forms for them for tax purposes. You want to stay compliant with your HOA’s policies and follow US tax laws. 

Software for HOA management generates 1099 forms for your vendors automatically, so you can remain compliant and reduce your time and effort as an HOA volunteer. 

Customizing Payment Approval Workflows for Your HOA’s Needs 

You and other HOA board members volunteered for this role. Many of you have full-time jobs, and that might be in addition to your responsibilities raising a family. You need a payment approval workflow that fits your life.

Market-leading software for HOA management offers customized payment approval workflows for your HOA. You can choose the approvers and tailor it to the vendors and payment amount, so you can improve your control over the process and oversight of it. 

Simplify Vendor Management with the Right Software

Your HOA relies on vendors to maintain facilities, landscapes, and road surfaces. Every vendor has their own invoices, insurance certificates, and contracts. Keeping those documents organized, and ensuring vendors get paid on time, is much simpler with the right software. Automating processes and creating a digital repository for important documents saves time and boosts accuracy.

PayHOA offers an HOA management software solution for HOAs of any size or managerial priorities. To find out if PayHOA fits all your HOA management needs, try our software free for 30 days.