Revenue Controls

The primary revenues for a condominium corporation are of course condo fees.

The best method of collecting fees, of course, is by way of preauthorized payments.

This ensures all revenues are collected and deposited on a timely basis and into the correct bank account.

Next best is post-dated cheques. This requires a manual deposit.

Finally cheques or cash may be received monthly. This method of collecting fees is the least desirable because it is more time consuming and subject to error or misappropriation.

Condo fees are relatively simple to account for and control, since the expected monthly individual and total amounts are known. Provided the corporation has a system to match the amounts expected with the amounts paid for each unit and in total each month and total deposited, there is little risk of error. The ledger balances for individual owners must tie into these amounts.

The more risky assessments are parking fees and laundry revenues.

If the corporation is collecting parking fees, it should also reconcile the actual amount received against the expected amount, based on the number of available spaces etc. "Vacant rent" should be explainable,.

Laundry income, if it is loosely collected cash, can pose a risk, if one person has access to the cash from the machines. The amount of cash collected can be compared against expected averages. Many condominiums opt to use a third party, that operates the machines and collects the condominium’s share of the proceeds.