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BoardBook: self managed HOA software for volunteer boards
Dues, minutes, and bids in one place instead of the treasurer's laptop.
BoardBook is self managed HOA software for volunteer boards of small associations with no management company. BoardBook keeps the dues ledger, the agenda and minutes, vendor bids, and owner notices in one place that survives a change of treasurer.
Waitlist Not built yet Updated 5 September 2026
What problem does BoardBook solve?
The association has forty-two homes, a landscaping contract, a retention pond, and a treasurer who volunteered because nobody else raised a hand. The dues ledger is a spreadsheet on her laptop. The minutes from the last three years are documents in her email. The vendor bids for the fence are attachments in a thread she can find, probably. Then she moves, or she resigns after a hard annual meeting, and the association discovers how much of itself lived on one machine. The new treasurer starts a fresh spreadsheet, because the old one has formulas nobody understands, and two owners immediately dispute what they paid in April. The secretary cannot find the minutes where the board approved the fence bid, so the whole conversation happens again from the start. Owners ask for documents and get silence, not because the board is hiding anything, but because nobody knows which folder anything is in.
Board meeting agenda and minutes
One sheet to run the meeting from and file afterwards, carrying the decision and the owner of each action.
| Agenda item | Presenter | Discussion | Decision or vote | Action owner | Due |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Free to use. No account. Nothing you type here is stored.
What would BoardBook do?
BoardBook would be the association's filing cabinet rather than the treasurer's. The dues ledger holds every owner, every assessment, and every payment, with a balance per lot the treasurer can show an owner without exporting anything. Agendas are built from a template, and minutes are typed into that same document during the meeting, with motions, seconds, and the vote recorded beside each item. Vendor bids sit under the project they belong to, so the three fence quotes and the decision live together. Owner notices go out from the roster the board already maintains, and what was sent, and when, is kept. Every board member has an account, so when the treasurer moves away, the association loses a volunteer instead of losing its records.
How would it work?
- 1Import the owner roster and open a dues ledger with a balance for every lot.
- 2Build the agenda from a template, then type minutes under each item during the meeting.
- 3Attach vendor bids to the project they belong to, next to the decision the board made.
- 4Send an owner notice from the roster and keep a record of what went out and when.
Who is it for?
- A treasurer of a forty-home association who tracks dues in a spreadsheet only she can read.
- A secretary who writes minutes in a notebook and types them up a week later.
- A board president handing over to next year's board with no folder to hand over.
How do you run a meeting from an HOA board meeting minutes template and still find it later?
Write the agenda first and send it to the board a few days ahead. A workable order: call to order and who is present, approval of the last minutes, treasurer's report, old business item by item, new business item by item, owner comment, and adjournment. Put a name and a number of minutes next to each item. An agenda with a name against every item is the difference between a ninety-minute meeting and a three-hour one. Take minutes into the agenda itself, in the same document, while the meeting runs. Under each item record only three things: what was discussed in a sentence or two, what was decided, and who is doing it by when. Minutes are a record of decisions, not a transcript. When a motion is made, write the exact words of the motion, who made it, who seconded, and the count for and against. If the board goes into a closed session, note that it happened and the general subject, then stop writing details. File it so the next treasurer can find it without asking you. Use one shared folder the whole board can reach, not a personal drive, with subfolders for minutes, financials, contracts and bids, insurance, and owner notices. Give every minutes file a name that opens with the meeting date, such as 2026-09-05-board-minutes. Sorting by name then sorts by time forever. Keep dues in one sheet with a row per lot and a column per month, plus a running balance, and back it up somewhere the association owns. Reconcile it against the bank statement in the same week every month, and email a one-page summary to the board so the number lives in more than one inbox. Your governing documents and your state law decide what your association must actually do about meetings, notices, and reserves, so read those first and shape all of this around them.
What do people use today?
| Option | Good at | The gap |
|---|---|---|
| A spreadsheet and a shared drive | Free, familiar, and enough for a small association while one organized volunteer maintains it. | Everything rests on that volunteer, and nothing ties a payment to a lot or a decision to its minutes. |
| HOA management company software | Full accounting, violation tracking, and owner portals used by professional community managers. | Sold with the management contract and priced for portfolios of communities, not for a board of five neighbors. |
| A neighborhood social app | Reaches owners where they already are, and handles announcements and discussion well. | No dues ledger, no minutes, no bid file, and a post is not a record the next board can rely on. |
| A shared email account for the board | Correspondence survives a change of board member, and it costs nothing to set up. | A thread is not a ledger, and finding the approved bid means guessing at somebody's subject line. |
What would it cost?
Board
$19/mo
- Dues ledger with a balance per lot
- Agenda and minutes with motions and votes
- Archive for bids, contracts, and insurance
- An account for every board member
Board+
$39/mo
- Everything in Board
- Owner portal with statements and documents
- Notices sent from the owner roster
Prices are proposed. Founding members lock in the lowest price if we build BoardBook.
Questions people ask
What is self managed HOA software?
Self managed HOA software is built for a volunteer board that runs its own association without a management company. BoardBook would cover the jobs those boards actually do: tracking dues, writing agendas and minutes, keeping vendor bids, and sending notices from a roster the board maintains.
Does BoardBook tell us what our association is required to do?
No. What an association must do about meeting notices, quorum, voting, and reserves comes from state law and from your own declaration and bylaws. BoardBook would hold whatever your documents call for and give the board a place to record it. Ask your attorney about interpretation.
Can owners see their own dues balance?
On the Board+ plan, yes. An owner signs in and sees their own statement, the association's documents, and the notices sent to them. Boards that would rather not run a portal stay on the Board plan and print or email a statement instead.
How does BoardBook handle a change of treasurer?
Records belong to the association, not to a person. The outgoing treasurer's account closes and the incoming one opens, while the ledger, the minutes, and the bid archive stay where they are. Nothing has to be re-keyed from a spreadsheet nobody else can read.
Do we still need a bookkeeper or an accountant?
Many boards do, and BoardBook would not replace one. The ledger tracks assessments, payments, and balances per lot so the figures are ready for whoever prepares or reviews your financials. Tax questions and audits belong with a professional.
What happens to our records if we hire a management company later?
Everything exports. The dues ledger comes out as a spreadsheet, minutes and contracts come out as files, and the roster comes out as a list. A board that changes its mind should not have to abandon its own history to do it.
When will BoardBook launch?
There is no date. BoardBook would be built only if enough volunteer board members join this waitlist and say their association would pay for it. Joining costs nothing, and the agenda and minutes sheet on this page is free regardless.
Where does this stand?
BoardBook is a proposal, not a product. This page collects demand from search and answer engines. Askwright builds it only if enough people join the waitlist and say they would pay. Read how this works.