Guide: How to Draft a Budget with HOAi – HOAi

Budget season does not have to be overwhelming. With HOAi, Community Association Managers can go from a blank Excel sheet to a draft budget in minutes. HOAi drafts a full proposed budget for every association — automatically. It pulls historical actuals, contracts, and the reserve study straight from Vantaca, applies your company's preferences, and produces a board-ready Excel workbook with a justification on every line.

This article walks through the full flow, from one-time setup all the way to importing the approved budget back into Vantaca.

What HOAi Budgets does

A few things to know up front:

Automatic kickoff — budgets trigger from a Vantaca action item; no manual start needed
Customizable template — coloring, columns, and spreadsheet tabs built to match your team
Upfront configuration — a one-time questionnaire captures your company's preferences before HOAi touches anything
Review & edit in HOAi — make changes by describing them in chat, or directly on the document
Posted straight to the action item — once you click Proceed, the draft lands in the Vantaca XN
Vantaca import-friendly — once approved, the data is ready to import — no manual entry

Before you start

A few things that help the first draft come out as accurate as possible:

Historical actuals in Vantaca — not required, but three or more years gives the best projections; fewer years still work, with less context
Active management contract uploaded to Vantaca documents — the agent reads renewal dates and escalators directly from the source
Reserve study, if applicable, uploaded alongside it
Current vendor contracts (landscape, insurance, pool, etc.) — the agent applies contracted increase rates wherever they're available

You'll also want a completed HOAi Budget Configuration Questionnaire (not required, but helpful) — that's Step 1.

Step 1 — Fill out the Configuration Questionnaire

The questionnaire is short on purpose. It captures the few decisions the agent can't figure out on its own — everything else (GL accounts, contract terms, historical trends) is pulled automatically. Anything you leave blank, the agent auto-detects.

Six sections, each one a single decision:

Projection Method

How the agent estimates the "Projected" column — the full-year current-year total your proposed budget is compared against. Pick one:

Historical average — uses past years in the database
Annualized current year — YTD actuals ÷ months elapsed × 12
Current year budget — uses the approved budget for unfilled months

Management Fee

Management fees are company-controlled, so the agent needs explicit input. Enter a company-wide % increase, a flat dollar change, or leave it blank — if blank, the agent reads the management contract from Vantaca documents (or falls back to current inflation if no contract is found). Add an anniversary month if renewals don't line up with the fiscal year.

Utility Increase Overrides

Optional overrides per utility type. Blank = 3% inflation default.

Contract Increase Overrides

Optional overrides for landscape, insurance, pool, etc. Blank = the agent checks contract documents in Vantaca first, then falls back to 3%.

Reserve Funding Minimum

The floor below which the agent flags a warning. Options: no minimum, FHA 10% minimum, or a custom company target. The actual reserve transfer comes from the reserve study or prior-year method — this question is only about the warning threshold.

Assessment Increase Cap

Maximum regular assessment increase per year. If the budget needs more than that, the agent caps the regular assessment and recommends the excess as a special assessment. Leave blank if you don't have a cap.

Homeowner Fees

Whether to include non-assessment homeowner fees (key fob, parking, etc.) as line items.

Special Notes

Free-form field for anything else — known upcoming changes, association-specific instructions, unusual GL treatments.

Screenshot needed — Completed questionnaire (one section): Show the Projection Method or Management Fee section filled in. Helps readers see the format before opening the Word doc.

One thing to remember: save the completed questionnaire as a PDF before uploading. In Word: File → Save As → PDF.

Step 2 — Upload the Questionnaire and Review Configuration

This is the one-time setup that tells HOAi how every future budget should look.

Log into HOAi and click your name in the top-right corner.
Select Company from the dropdown.
Click Budget Setup.
Click Edit.
Upload your completed questionnaire PDF.
Review the configuration on the right — you can toggle columns, sheets (Summary, Mailing Sheet, etc.), historical actual years, and projection thresholds.
Pick any association from the preview dropdown to see a sample render in real time.
Click Run Budget to generate a one-off test budget for that association — no action item needed.

Screenshot needed — User menu dropdown: The top-right user menu showing Company, Analytics, Sign Out. Helps users find the entry point.

Screenshot needed — Budget Setup page (full view): The Budget Setup screen with the uploaded questionnaire on the left, the rendering config panel in the middle (Sheets, Projection Methods, Budget Columns), and the association preview on the right.

The preview + Run Budget combo is your sandbox — use it to confirm the structure matches your team's expectations before you start kicking off real runs.

Step 3 — Draft a Budget

Two ways to draft, depending on whether you're running production budgets or just testing:

Option A — Scheduled runs (recommended for production)

Each association has a Budget Delivery action item scheduled on its Vantaca calendar. When the calendar date hits, the XN is auto-created and routed to HOAi. No manual work — you'll see the draft show up in the Vantaca action item, where you'll be linked to the HOAi proposal.

Option B — Ad-hoc runs (testing or re-runs)

Trigger a one-off draft for any association whenever you want:

From HOAi: Company → Budget Setup → Run Budget
From Vantaca: Action Items → create a new XN, select Budget Delivery as the action type, advance to the HOAi step

Screenshot needed — Budget Delivery action step chain: Vantaca Action Types page showing the configured steps (Draft Budget → Review → Send to Board → Pending Board Approval → Board Approved Budget → Import Budget to Vantaca → Board Adjustments Needed → Update Assessments → Complete).

Screenshot needed — Run Budget button: Zoomed-in view of the Budget Setup header showing the Edit Configuration and Run Budget buttons.

Either path opens an HOAi chat where the agent walks you through what it's doing — pulling GL accounts, income statements, historical budgets, reserve study, contracts — and drops the draft budget as an artifact in the chat.

What the agent does behind the scenes

The agent works the same way a manager would, but in parallel:

Lists every GL account for the association
Pulls multiple years of income statement actuals
Reads prior approved budgets
For each GL, picks a projection method (average of actuals, annualized, or fall back to the approved budget when actuals are thin) and a proposed-budget method (inflation %, contract amount, match-to-expenses for assessment income, etc.)
Writes a justification in the Notes column for every line item
Renders the workbook — one Operating Budget sheet per fund, plus Current Year Monthly and Proposed Year Monthly tabs, and any optional sheets you turned on

Drafts may take up to 30 minutes minutes.

Step 4 — Review and Modify the Draft

Open the generated budget in HOAi chat. As you look it over, the questions to ask yourself:

Does the structure and layout match how your team works?
Are all the right tabs there?
Is the data formatted in a way that makes sense?
Would you show this to a board as a first draft?

Every line item in the Operating Budget has a Notes column explaining the agent's reasoning — the contract reference, historical trend, or assumption it applied. No black box.

Screenshot needed — Budget preview in chat: HOAi chat with the budget artifact open, tabs visible (Current Year Monthly, Proposed Year Monthly, Operating Budget), and the Notes column populated with agent justifications.

When you want to change something, click Modify. Two ways:

Modify via chat

Type natural-language requests. For example:

"Increase landscaping by 5% across all months."
"Set management fee to $3,739.68 per month per the new contract."
"Zero out the special assessment line — it ended last year."

The agent applies the change, re-renders the workbook, and shows you a before/after summary.

Screenshot needed — Chat modification example: A chat with a modification request ("Increase landscaping by 5%") and the agent's response showing the before/after change summary.

Modify directly in the document

Click a cell in the on-screen budget table and type a new value. The change is captured, the workbook re-renders, and the Notes column stays put unless you edit it directly.

Screenshot needed — Inline cell edit: The budget table on screen with one cell actively in edit mode (pencil/edit indicator visible).

Every modification is tracked and auditable — you can see every change the agent made vs. every change you made.

Step 5 — Proceed to Board Review

When the draft is ready to share with the board:

Click Proceed on the HOAi recommendation card.
The Budget Delivery XN advances to the next step in Vantaca.
The draft Excel workbook is automatically attached to the action item, ready to bring to board review.

That's it — no copying, no re-uploading, no manual handoff.

Screenshot needed — Proceed/Reject buttons: The HOAi recommendation card at the top of the chat with Proceed and Reject buttons highlighted.

Screenshot needed — XN with attached Excel: Vantaca action item view showing the "Updated budget file has been attached for review" note and the Excel attachment link on the right-hand side.

Step 6 — Board Review & Final Adjustments

Once the budget is back in Vantaca, the manager and board review the Excel workbook directly. Any last-minute adjustments — board-requested changes, revised assumptions, late-breaking contract info — happen by editing the file in Excel.

Save the edited file back to the action item. That becomes the "approved" budget.

Step 7 — Import the Approved Budget into Vantaca

Once the board has signed off:

Open the approved HOAi budget document.
Find the Export for Import tab for one of the funds (e.g., Operating).
Select and copy the import data.
Paste as values into a new blank spreadsheet — don't use a standard paste. The source tab has formulas linked to other tabs; Vantaca needs clean values.
- In Excel: right-click destination cell → Paste Special → Values, or Ctrl+Shift+V (Windows) / ⌘+Shift+V (Mac).
Save the blank spreadsheet as a new Excel file. It should contain only the import data — nothing else.
In Vantaca, navigate to Settings → Import.
Select Budget as the import type.
Select the association, fund, and upload your file.
Click Commit to post the budget to Vantaca.
Repeat for each fund (Reserve, Capital, etc.).

Screenshot needed — Paste Special menu in Excel: The Excel right-click menu expanded with Paste Special → Values visible.

Screenshot needed — Vantaca Import dialog: Vantaca's Settings → Import → New Import dialog with Import Type = Budget, Import Mode, Association, Fund, and Import File fields visible.

FAQ

The budget skipped a GL account I expected to see. The agent includes every expense GL with activity in the current or prior year, and every income GL with a current-year approved budget. If something's missing, check: (a) does the GL have any actuals; (b) does it have a current-year approved budget in Vantaca? If yes to either and it's still missing, send feedback and we'll dig in.

The projected column looks wrong for one line item. Ask in chat: "What did you use to project [line item]?" The agent will explain its method. Then ask it to change the method or the value directly.

The Notes column shows a warning about a reserve transfer mismatch. That means the Transfer to Reserves line in the Operating fund doesn't match the Transfer from Operating line in the Reserve fund. The agent flags it for you to reconcile — usually one fund needs to be updated to match the other.

I want to re-run the budget from scratch. Use the Run Budget button in Budget Setup. It creates a fresh draft, independent of the scheduled XN.

A board member is asking for a scenario comparison (e.g., 3% vs 5% assessment). Run one version, export it, then run a second version with a modified assessment cap or management fee override.

Questions or feedback?

Email ask@hoai.com.

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