“What is our fee being spent on?” It’s the most repeated question in neighbors’ chat groups, and it almost always shows up when management hasn’t answered it first. Financial mistrust is one of the main causes of “on principle” delinquency, tense assemblies and boards that resign. The good news is that it’s prevented with something simple: report on time, in an orderly way and always in the same place.
The minimum every owner should be able to see
1. Their own account statement, at any time
Every owner should be able to check, without asking, which fees were charged, which payments were applied, their balance and their history. It’s the foundation for everything else: if owners don’t trust their own balance, they won’t trust the general report.
2. The approved budget and how it was executed
The budget approved by the assembly is the commitment; execution is what actually happened. A useful report puts them side by side, line by line:
| Line item | Budgeted | Actual | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security | ₡2,400,000 | ₡2,400,000 | 0% |
| Common-area maintenance | ₡800,000 | ₡1,050,000 | +31% |
| Common-area electricity | ₡450,000 | ₡410,000 | −9% |
The variance column is what matters: every significant deviation needs an explanation, such as “emergency repair of the water pump”.
3. Income, delinquency and the reserve fund
- Monthly income: billed versus actually collected.
- Delinquency as aggregate figures: percentage and amount by age, without names. Publishing lists of delinquent owners with personal data exposes the condominium under Law 8968.
- Reserve fund balance and its movements, since that’s the money that protects the condominium from special assessments.
4. The documents behind the decisions
Assembly and board minutes, the current bylaws, contracts with providers (security, cleaning, maintenance), insurance policies and financial statements. Keeping them in an organized repository, which each group accesses as appropriate, means information doesn’t depend on asking the manager for a copy.
Not every document is for everyone: some are for the board, others for owners and others for tenants too. Define the audiences and respect them.
How often
| What | For whom | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Individual account statement | Each owner | Always available |
| Short financial report | Board and owners | Monthly |
| Budget versus actual | Board and owners | Monthly or quarterly |
| Full financial statements | Assembly | Yearly |
| Minutes | By audience | Once approved |
The monthly close: the foundation
No report is reliable if a month’s numbers keep changing. A monthly accounting close freezes each month’s figures: from then on, any correction is recorded as a visible adjustment, not a silent change to the past. That’s what lets you compare months and makes March’s report say the same thing today as a year from now.
Common mistakes
- Reporting only at the annual assembly, when problems have already grown.
- Sending reports through WhatsApp, where they get lost.
- Publishing lists of delinquent owners with names and units.
- Reports that don’t match each owner’s account statement.
- Changing previous months’ figures without a trace.
Transparency also starts with a correctly calculated fee. If you’re unsure how the budget is split among units, see how to calculate the maintenance fee.
How CondoCMS handles it
In CondoCMS every owner sees their account statement in the portal at any time. Management publishes the approved budget by income and expense line items. Every month the system generates the accounting close with amounts billed and collected, collection efficiency and the number of delinquent units, as aggregate figures; management adds its notes and publishes it to the board and owners. The documents module shares minutes, bylaws and financial statements with the board, owners or residents, as management chooses. To see it with sample data, request a demo.
Next step: see reports and budget.
Frequently asked questions
Do owners have the right to see the condominium’s accounts?
Yes. Owners own the condominium and management is accountable to them, especially before the assembly. Beyond what the law and bylaws require, sharing information regularly reduces mistrust and conflict.
Can the list of delinquent owners be published?
Publishing names or personal data of delinquent owners in visible places or chat groups is not advisable, given the risks under Costa Rica’s data protection law (Law 8968). The right approach is to report delinquency as aggregate figures and handle each case individually with the owner.
How often should management report?
A healthy practice is a short monthly report to the board and owners, and a full annual report to the ordinary assembly with the executed budget and next year’s proposal.