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BallastBook builds next year's operating budget for each association you manage, line by line, with last year and this year beside every number. Then it works out the assessment per unit and gives you a clean PDF for the board.

Getting started

Add your associations. On the Associations page, type or paste them, one per line, with the unit count after a comma: Maple Ridge HOA, 120. A list copied from a spreadsheet works too.
Start a budget. Click "Start" beside an association on Home, or "+ New budget" at the top. It opens with your standard lines, ready to fill in.
Fill it in. Type amounts into the table. Everything saves as you go, and the totals and the per-unit figure update as you type.
Confirm your email. We email you a link when you sign up. Click it, then "Yes, confirm my email." Team invites wait until you do. No email? Check your spam folder, or use "Send it again" at the top of any page.

You decide the numbers. Budget requirements and deadlines vary by state and governing documents. BallastBook never suggests an amount, never applies an inflation factor, and never says what a budget must contain.

Filling in a budget

Each line shows, from left to right: last year's budget, this year's budget, this year's actuals to date, this year's projected total, next year's budget, the change in dollars and percent, and a note for the board.

Typing amounts: 48,000 or 48000.50 or $1,200 all work. Use (1,200) or -1,200 for a negative. Leaving a cell blank means nothing's been entered, which isn't the same as zero.
Moving around: Tab moves across; Enter and the arrow keys move up and down a column. Escape puts a cell back the way it was.
Projected: the faint number is actuals to date scaled to a full year, using the "Actuals through" month above the table. It's only a hint. It isn't saved or counted unless you type a number in.
Changing a line: click its name to rename it, move it up or down, or hide it. Use "Add line" at the bottom of a group for one of your own. Hidden lines are listed under the table, never deleted, and don't count in any total.
History: the History button lists every change, with who made it and when.
Net: an operating budget usually nets to zero. If it doesn't, a "Not balanced" badge shows in the totals bar. It's a heads-up, not an error.

The assessment

The annual assessment is total expenses minus income other than assessments. BallastBook divides it equally by the association's units and shows the payment per month, per quarter and per year. The one marked "Owners pay" is set on the association's page.

Each payment is rounded to the cent (half a cent rounds up), so the payments can add up to a few cents more or less than the exact total. The Per unit card shows both, so you can see any difference.

If the Assessments line doesn't match the annual assessment, the Assessment card offers to set it. That only happens when you click.

Units that don't all pay the same? On the Per unit card, choose "Add assessment classes." Give each class its units and its percentage share of the assessment, as your governing documents set them. Each class's share is then divided equally among its units.

Draft, Proposed, Adopted, Final

Draft: you're working on it. A draft started by mistake can be deleted.
Proposed: sent to the board. You can still change it, or move it back to Draft.
Adopted: the board voted. You enter the date of the vote. From here on the budget is read-only, so check it before you click. If it was marked by mistake, the account owner can reopen it. That moves it back to Proposed, and the history keeps who did it and why.
Final: filed away. Also read-only, and it can't be reopened.

On an adopted budget, "Make a copy" starts next year's draft. Last year's lines come across, including anything you renamed, hid or added, and its next-year column becomes the new budget's this-year column. Next year starts blank.

Importing from your accounting system

Open a budget and click "Import." Choose a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) export that has last year's budget, this year's budget or this year's actuals. Older .xls files need saving as .xlsx first.

Say which column is which. We remember it for your company, so the same report needs no setup next time.
Match the accounts. Same names match on their own. Choose a line for the rest, skip them, or add them as new lines. We remember those too. Several accounts can go on one line, and their amounts add up.
Import. It all lands at once and shows in the history. A blank in the file changes nothing on the budget. An import never writes to the next-year column.

PDF, Excel and Compare

Download PDF gives you a cover, the budget table, the assessment summary and your notes, ready for the board packet or for owners. The status is printed on every page, so a draft can't pass for an adopted budget. Download Excel gives you the same table on one sheet.

Compare shows three years side by side, by line and by group. It follows a line even if it was renamed along the way.

Your chart of accounts

Every new company starts with a standard chart of about 40 lines. The account owner can rename, reorder, hide and add to it under Settings. Each budget keeps its own copy, so changing the chart never changes a budget you've already started.

Your team

The account owner invites people from the Team page. Everyone on the team can open and edit budgets. Only the owner can change the chart, the team, the company details and the plan.

When someone leaves, the owner removes them from the Team page. They lose access right away, and their name stays in the history of the budgets they worked on.

Plans and billing

30-day free trial. No credit card needed.
Each person on the team is a seat: $100 per year or $10 per month.
Adding someone during a billing period is charged right away for the rest of the period. Removing someone lowers your bill from the next renewal (no refunds), and if you replace them before then, there's no extra charge.
The owner manages the plan, card and invoices, and can cancel, from Settings.
If a trial ends without a plan, or a plan ends, your budgets become read-only. You can still open and download them for 30 days after an unpaid trial, or 13 months after a plan you've paid for. We email the owner 7 days before anything is deleted.
You can download spreadsheets of every budget line and every recorded change anytime from Settings.

What it doesn't do

To stay simple, BallastBook isn't accounting software: no ledgers, no bank feeds, no reserve studies. A reserve contribution is one line you type. It has no owner logins, and it doesn't email boards: you download the PDF and send it yourself. It doesn't use AI, look up state laws, or add inflation on its own.

You sign in to BallastBook with your Longline Labs account: one account for every Longline Labs app. On the sign-in page, click Continue with Longline Labs. New to it? The same button lets you create the account in a minute.

Forgot your password, or want two-step sign-in? Both are managed at account.longlinelabs.com, not in BallastBook. Settings has the link too. To change the email address BallastBook uses, write to support@ballastbook.com.

Questions?

Email support@ballastbook.com, or just reply to any BallastBook email.

Also from us: PacketSkipper builds board packets.