A condo audit checklist tells you exactly what the accountant will ask your board for: bank statements, the general ledger, arrears reports, contracts, minutes, insurance documents, and reserve records. This guide lists every document by category, and shows how URBI keeps all of it audit ready before anyone asks.
Why do condo audits go badly?
Condo audits go badly because the records get assembled in a panic instead of kept in order all year. The accountant sends a document request list. The treasurer forwards it to the board. Then the scramble starts: bank statements live in someone's online banking login, invoices live in three email inboxes, minutes live on a former secretary's laptop, and the insurance certificate is a photo of a photo.
The audit itself is rarely the problem. The retrieval is. Every document the board cannot produce quickly turns into a follow up question, and every follow up question adds time to the engagement. For a self managed building, that time comes out of volunteer evenings.
The fix is boring and effective: know the list in advance, keep the documents in one place, and close the books monthly instead of annually. The rest of this article gives you the list.
What documents will the accountant ask for?
The accountant will ask for the association's core financial records, bank documentation, receivables detail, contracts and invoices, governance records, insurance documents, and reserve documentation. Here is the checklist, grouped the way an audit request list usually arrives.
Financial records
- General ledger for the full fiscal year
- Trial balance as of year end
- Prior year financial statements and the prior audit or review report
- Approved budget for the year, plus budget versus actual results
- List of journal entries and adjustments, with who made them and why
- Chart of accounts
If you want a refresher on what these reports mean, start with our plain language guide to condo financial statements.
Bank statements and reconciliations
- Statements for every account the association holds, operating and reserve, for all twelve months
- Monthly bank reconciliations matching each statement to the ledger
- Year end statements for any investment or term deposit accounts
- List of authorized signers and any signing authority changes during the year
- Records of transfers between the operating and reserve accounts
Receivables and arrears
- Owner ledger showing fees charged and payments received per unit
- Arrears aging report as of year end
- Collection correspondence, payment plans, and any liens filed
- Special assessment records: the resolution, the amounts levied per unit, and collections to date
Arrears draw auditor attention because they affect whether receivables are collectible. If your building struggles here, read our guide to condo fee arrears collection before audit season, not during it.
Contracts and vendor invoices
- All active vendor and service contracts: management, cleaning, landscaping, elevator, security
- Invoices supporting the year's expenses, matched to payments
- Documentation for any major repair or capital project: quotes, the awarded contract, progress invoices, final sign off
- Evidence of board approval for large or unusual payments
Board minutes and approvals
- Minutes of every board meeting during the fiscal year
- AGM minutes and the AGM package sent to owners
- Resolutions approving the budget, special assessments, contracts, and banking changes
- Records of board votes, including who voted and the result
Accountants read minutes carefully. Minutes are where they find commitments, disputes, and approvals that should tie back to the numbers.
Insurance documents
- Current insurance policies and certificates for the building
- The most recent insurance appraisal, if your association obtains one
- Records of any claims made during the year and their status
- Proof of premium payments
Reserve documentation
- The current reserve study or reserve plan
- Reserve fund bank and investment statements
- Records showing reserve contributions matched the budget and the plan
- Invoices and approvals for every project paid from the reserve fund
Auditors check that reserve money and operating money stayed separate. If the distinction is fuzzy in your building, our explainer on the condo reserve fund versus the operating fund covers what belongs where.
One caution before you treat this list as final: audit requirements vary by jurisdiction and by your association's bylaws, so confirm the exact scope and document list with the association's accountant.
Does your board need a full audit or a review?
That depends on your bylaws and local rules, and the difference matters because the two engagements ask different amounts of you. An audit is the deepest engagement, a review is lighter, and a compilation is lighter still. The AICPA publishes a guide comparing preparation, compilation, review, and audit services that explains the levels of assurance each provides. Whichever level applies to your association, the document list above barely changes. Clean records make every engagement cheaper and faster.
What year round habit makes audit week boring?
Closing the books every month and filing documents the day they arrive makes audit week boring. The board that suffers in audit season is the board that treats bookkeeping as a year end event. The board that cruises through does four things all year:
- Reconcile every account every month. A December pile of twelve unreconciled statements is where audits go to die.
- File the document when it is created. Minutes get filed the week of the meeting. Contracts get filed when signed. Invoices get attached to their payments.
- Record approvals in writing. Every payment above your threshold should trace to a minuted decision or a recorded vote.
- Keep one system of record. If the answer to "where is that document" is ever "check your email," you do not have a system of record.
We cover the monthly rhythm in detail in our piece on the modern month end close.
How does URBI keep a board audit ready?
URBI keeps a board audit ready by storing the documents, the money trail, and the decisions in one platform instead of scattered inboxes. Four pieces do the work:
- The document hub holds bylaws, rules, meeting minutes, budgets, and AGM packages in one organized place. When the accountant asks for minutes, you share them instead of searching for them. More on this in our guide to condo document management.
- A permanent audit trail records every payment, vote, role change, and action in the building. Board votes carry eligibility verification and quorum tracking, so approvals trace themselves.
- URBI Accounting, currently in beta, produces the general ledger, receivables and payables detail, and bank reconciliations from linked bank accounts, with AI receipt capture attaching support to transactions as they happen.
- Booking payments complete inside the app, so amenity, parking, and elevator booking revenue arrives with a transaction record already attached.
The result is that the accountant's request list stops being a scavenger hunt. Most of the list already exists as reports and files you can hand over on day one.
Frequently asked questions
Does every condo association need an annual audit?
No. Whether an audit, a review, or neither is required depends on your jurisdiction's condo legislation, your bylaws, and sometimes the size of the association or a vote of the owners. Some associations that are not required to audit choose to anyway for owner confidence. Confirm the requirement with your association's accountant before budgeting for the engagement.
What does the accountant mean by supporting documentation?
Supporting documentation is the paper behind a number. For an expense, that means the invoice, the proof of payment, and the approval. For revenue, it means the owner ledger and bank deposits. When an accountant tests a transaction, they want to follow it from the ledger entry back to the original document without gaps.
How long does a condo audit take?
It depends almost entirely on record quality. A board with monthly reconciliations, filed minutes, and organized invoices can answer document requests in days, and the engagement moves quickly. A board rebuilding a year of records from email attachments should expect weeks of back and forth and a longer, costlier engagement.
Can URBI produce the reports the auditor asks for?
URBI Accounting, currently in beta, produces the general ledger, receivables and payables detail, and bank reconciliations from linked accounts. The platform's document hub holds minutes, budgets, and AGM packages, and the permanent audit trail documents every payment and vote. Together they cover most of a standard audit request list from one system.
If your board wants its next audit to be the boring kind, we would love to show you how URBI works. Write to us at hello@myurbi.co and we will walk you through it.
