I am not an accountant, a CPA, or a financial wizard, but I have been active in my condo association for 10 years, and have learned a lot about putting together a budget for a self-managed condo association. While some basic information about budgeting can be found in our Administrative FAQs, here are few specifics that I've come to believe over the years:

• Don't try to predict oil or gas prices. Budget according to the best information you can find. For instance, some economists forecast that inflation will be about 3% next year, so if your overall budget does not show an increase of at least that much, you might not have budgeted enough.
• For big ticket items, call up your oil company representative, building insurance broker, etc. and ask them if prices are going up. They may not know for certain, but they probably know more than you.
• A budget is meant to be spent. Many condo associations try too hard to come in under budget, but if you have a good budget and there is some money left over, maybe it's time to replace the vacuum, repair a cracked window in the basement, or resolve another noncritical issue, or even make a low-priority improvement (such as finally replacing all the common area lightbulbs with high efficiency ones).
• Petty cash should not be a line item in a budget. I used to disagree with this, but then we got a former CFO on our committee. He said that all expenses need to be assigned to a meaningful category-administrative costs, maintenance, gifts, etc. A petty cash item in and of itself does not tell you what the money was spent on, and as a result does not help you plan a budget.
• Carefully examine last year's budget and even the prior year's budget. If oil prices increased by 30% last year and your oil costs increased by 60%, it might be a sign of trouble in your furnace or boiler. Likewise, a big increase in the cost of water could indicate a leak in your building.
• Make sure you're aware of any major bills that are to come in. Before approving a budget, make sure your association hasn't spent a chunk of it on services or goods for which you have not yet been billed.
• Don't shortchange your reserve. The time will come when a major system fails. It's a lot easier to handle an emergency and impose an assessment if you have a halfway decent reserve. (Also see: http://www.condopedia.com/FAQs/administration/#reserveFunds)
• Get a second person to check the math in the budget. It's a big headache if a typo or an math error results
• Try the beta version of our Additional Revenue Calculator.

Post your own in suggestions in our condo forum.