Profit & Loss report

The Profit & Loss report (P&L) is the single most important financial document a HOA board sees at meetings. It answers two questions: how much money came in, and how much went out. HomeHerald produces a board ready P&L in two clicks, with prior period comparison and PDF export, so your treasurer never has to wrestle with spreadsheets the night before a meeting.

Where to find it

Finances > Reports in the admin sidebar. Then click the Profit & Loss tab at the top. Reports are part of Herald Automate; on a plan without it, the screen shows an upgrade prompt instead.

What’s on the report

Three sections:

1. Revenue rows by source: Dues, Fines, Special Assessments, Amenity Rentals, Credit Adjustments. Each row shows the amount for the chosen period, the prior period total (if comparison is on), the change, and how many transactions are in that bucket.
2. Expenses rows by category: all 13 expense categories (Landscaping, Pool / Amenities, Insurance, Utilities, Legal, Maintenance & Repairs, Management Fees, Administrative, Security, Cleaning, Pest Control, Capital Improvements, Other) plus three “HomeHerald” lines: Payment Processing Fees, HomeHerald (Subscription + Mail), Refunds Issued.
3. Net Income at the bottom: revenue minus expenses for the period, labeled with the basis (cash or accrual).

Three summary cards at the top mirror the totals: Revenue, Expenses, Net Income. Each shows the current period figure, the prior period figure, and the delta (color coded green for favorable, red for unfavorable).

Choosing a period

The period picker has six preset buttons:

• This Month (the whole current calendar month)
• Last Month
• This Quarter (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec)
• Last Quarter
• YTD (year to date)
• Last Year (full prior year)

There’s also a Custom button that exposes start and end date pickers. Use this for non standard periods (fiscal year boundaries, partial periods, mid month cutoffs).

Prior period comparison

The Compare prior period checkbox (top right) toggles a comparison column. When on, the report shows what the same revenue and expense buckets looked like in the stretch of the same number of days immediately before the period. So “This Month” compares to roughly last month and “Q3” to roughly Q2, while “2026 YTD” compares to an equally long stretch at the end of 2025, not to all of 2025. To compare against a whole prior year, run Last Year separately.

The Change column shows the absolute dollar delta. Color coding:

• Green: revenue up, or expenses down (favorable)
• Red: revenue down, or expenses up (unfavorable)

This is how boards see “are we ahead or behind last quarter” at a glance.

Cash basis or accrual

The Cash basis / Accrual toggle next to the account filter sets how revenue is counted. It opens on Cash basis.

• Cash basis (the default): revenue is the payments actually received in the period, broken down by what they paid for (dues, fines, assessments, amenity rentals) using the same oldest-charge-first allocation as the AR Aging report. This is how most volunteer treasurers and most small association CPAs work.
• Accrual: revenue is the charges raised in the period (dues, fines, assessments, booking fees), whether or not the resident has paid yet. Uncollected charges show up on the AR Aging report.

Expenses are the same on both bases: a vendor bill counts in the period it was marked paid. A bill received in March but paid in April lands on April’s P&L.

Account filter

The All accounts dropdown lets you scope the report to a single cash account. On the cash basis it filters both the payments received and the expenses to that account. On the accrual basis it affects the Expenses section only, because charges are raised on the property ledger and are not tied to a bank account.

For most HOAs with one operating account, leave it on “All accounts.” If you keep separate books for Reserve fund expenses (e.g., capital improvement projects paid out of the reserve account), filtering to a single account lets you generate that separate income statement.

Export to PDF

The PDF button at the top right downloads a print ready letter sized PDF with:

• Community name and report title at the top (letterhead)
• Period label
• Revenue table with totals
• Expenses table with totals
• Net Income line
• Generated date and the user who generated it at the bottom
• Page numbers

Hand to the board, file with the meeting minutes.

Export to CSV

The CSV button produces a comma separated grid suitable for opening in Excel or Google Sheets. Use this when a board member wants to re sort, re categorize, or pull a specific line into their own analysis.

Basis note

Below the summary cards is a short note naming the basis the report is on. On the cash basis it points you to the AR Aging report for charges still outstanding. On the accrual basis it also shows how much cash was actually received in the period, so you can see the gap between charges raised and money collected.

What does NOT appear on the P&L

• Inter account transfers (Operating to Reserve) are excluded from both revenue and expenses. They’re cash movements between buckets, not income or expense.
• Held amenity deposits are excluded from revenue. They’re card holds, not income. If a deposit is forfeited and captured (kept by the HOA after damage), it counts like any other amenity payment.
• Voided records are excluded entirely. The audit trail is preserved but the math ignores them.

Common questions

“Why is my Net Income smaller than what’s in the bank?” The Cash Position tile on the Dashboard reflects everything from your account opening balances forward. Net Income only covers the chosen period, so your bank also holds everything the association kept from earlier periods. The Balance Sheet’s tie-out strip shows the two agreeing for the year to date.

“Why does dues revenue show $48k when I only collected $42k?” You are on the Accrual basis: revenue counts when charged, not when collected. The $6k delta is sitting in receivables. Pull AR Aging to see who owes what, or switch to Cash basis to see only what came in.

“Where do bank service charges go?” The HomeHerald reconciliation flow has an Add Adjustment button that lets you add a missing bank line (bank fee, interest earned) inline while reconciling the bank statement. Money Out adjustments land in the Administrative category.

What’s next

• Print the AR Aging report to see who’s behind on payments.
• Print the AP Aging report to see open vendor bills.
• Reconcile your bank statement at month end (Finances > Accounts > Reconcile button per account).