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. Home Herald 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

Manage > Reports in the admin sidebar. Then click the Profit & Loss tab at the top.

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 ExpenseCategory buckets (Landscaping, Pool / Amenities, Insurance, Utilities, Legal, Maintenance & Repairs, Management Fees, Administrative, Security, Cleaning, Pest Control, Capital Improvements, Other) plus three “Home Herald” lines: Payment Processing Fees, Home Herald (Subscription + Mail), Refunds Issued.
3. Net Income at the bottom: revenue minus expenses for the period.

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 (current calendar month, day 1 through today)
• 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 immediately prior period of the same length. So “This Month” compares to “Last Month”, “Q3” compares to “Q2”, “2026 YTD” compares to “all of 2025”.

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.

Account filter

The All accounts dropdown lets you scope the report to a single cash account. This affects the Expenses section only (since revenue is computed from charges raised on the property ledger, not where the cash landed).

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 signing user 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.

Cash sanity callout

Below the summary cards, you’ll see a sentence like:

Revenue is computed on a modified cash basis. Charges raised in this period count immediately; uncollected charges show up in the AR Aging report. Cash actually received this period: $48,950.00.

This explains the accounting basis (see below) and shows how much actual cash hit the bank during the period, alongside what’s still outstanding in receivables.

The accounting basis: modified cash

Home Herald’s P&L uses a modified cash basis:

• Revenue is accrual. Charges raised in the period (dues, fines, assessments, booking fees) count as revenue for the period they were charged, regardless of whether the resident has paid yet. This is what most volunteer boards intuitively want, since “did dues hit our books in January” is more useful than “what cash showed up in January (which includes some December dues paid late).”
• Expenses are cash basis. A vendor bill counts as an expense in the period when it’s marked Paid. A bill received in March but paid in April lands on April’s P&L.
• Net income is the difference. This is “how much we cleared this period” in modified cash terms. The AR Aging report shows the gap between accrual revenue and actual cash collected, so you can reconcile both views.

If your board insists on pure cash basis or pure accrual, contact support. We can guide you through which fields to interpret differently.

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 cleaning deposits are excluded from revenue. They’re security held in trust, not income. If a deposit is forfeited (kept by the HOA after damage), it converts to a Booking_Fee charge and counts.
• 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?” Cash position (Manage > Dashboard top right) reflects everything from your account opening balance forward. Net Income only covers the chosen period. Your bank also includes prior period income that’s already been accrued.

“Why does dues revenue show $48k when I only collected $42k?” Modified cash basis: revenue counts when charged, not when collected. The $6k delta is sitting in receivables. Pull AR Aging to see who owes what.

“Where do bank service charges go?” The Home Herald reconciliation flow has an “Add Adjustment” button that lets you add a one off expense (bank fee, interest earned) inline while reconciling the bank statement. Those adjustments hit the Administrative category by default.

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 (Manage > Accounts > Reconcile button per account).