The five accounting annexes: what each one tells you in three minutes

They arrive with the notice, nobody opens them, and they hold everything you need before voting.

They come attached to the meeting notice, they run to five pages of columns, and most owners never open them. Yet everything worth knowing about the building’s finances is there — provided you know which one to look at, and for what.

Annex 1 — financial position: the closing-day photo

This is the association’s balance sheet: what it holds in the bank, what it owes suppliers, what owners owe it, and the funds built up.

The useful reflex: compare available cash with supplier debts. A building owing more than it holds is living on next quarter’s provisions, and that shows nowhere else.

Annex 2 — management accounts: actual against forecast

It sets the voted budget against what was actually spent, line by line, and presents the budget proposed for the coming year.

This is the annex of questions: which line overran, by how much, and why. See questions to ask before voting the budget.

Annex 3 — detail by allocation key

It restates charges split by allocation key, with several years side by side: the year approved, the one before, the current year and the next.

It is the most useful of the five for a board, because it makes trends visible: four columns side by side say at a glance what a meeting discussion never demonstrates. See how charges are calculated and split.

Annexes 4 and 5 — works, completed and ongoing

Annex 4 shows exceptional operations and completed works, ready to be settled by the meeting. Annex 5 shows those voted and committed but unfinished at year end.

Annex 5 deserves two readings: it is where the gap shows between the amount voted and the amount already spent on a live project. An overrun appears there before it is announced. See tracking works.

The annexes are not there to police the manager. They are there so you know what you are talking about before raising your hand.

Four checks that take fifteen minutes

• Does the bank balance in annex 1 match a real statement at the same date?
• Which annex 2 lines exceed budget by more than 10%, and was an explanation given?
• Are arrears growing from one year to the next?
• Do the works in annex 5 progress in step with the sums already called?

Those four need no accounting skills, and they are enough to prepare a useful intervention at the meeting. See the accounts checklist.

What the annexes do not say

They give amounts, not supporting documents. A line reading “maintenance 14,800” says nothing about how many visits, at what rate, or whether the contract was ever tendered.

That is precisely what checking the supporting papers is for, on site or on the online space, before the meeting. See checking the accounts and the condo extranet.

The right time to read them

Not the night before. The annexes arrive with the notice, which leaves comfortable time — and it is the only moment when a written question still gets an answer before the vote.

A board sending three precise questions a fortnight ahead changes the nature of the meeting. See running a board meeting.

Keep the history with CoproHarmony

CoproHarmony keeps each year’s annexes in one place: comparing three years no longer means finding three notices. Create your free space.