ADDA hosted an Interactive Webinar on Housing Society Accounting along with an Ask Me Anything Session on May 18th, 2024. The speakers of the event were the Top Society Accountants of India.
Society Accounting is typically a less understood subject.
“I don’t understand Accounting”
Is a typical dialogue heard from various Management Committee members.
And hence most management committee members are happy to leave the accounting to the Society Manager and/or Accountant.
However, it is mandatory for a Committee member to understand the basics of Society Accounting, and how to supervise the overall finances of the Housing Society, as most compliances and risks happen to be around this area.
If a Management Committee does not understand and pay attention to the Society Accounts and leave it to the Accounting team, there is a high chance of financial mismanagement and even financial misappropriation.
Several Housing Societies have had to shell out lakhs of rupees as penalties to the government, or have lost lakhs due to mismanagement of funds, as the standing management committee did not pay the necessary attention to the Community’s Accounting.
This webinar was aimed to raise awareness around this crucial aspect of Housing Society Finances among Management Committee members.
For a Housing Society / Apartment Complex / Villa Complex, if the finances are well managed and supervised, then everything else falls into place!
The sessions for the day were on the following topics:
1. Gain the Superpower to Solve all Queries on Community Accounting by Mr Ivan Rosario – He is the Proprietor of Apartment Management Services (AMS). He is a Housing Society Accounting Expert with experience of around 32 years in this field. He is using ADDA as the exclusive Platform to manage Accounting for 100+ housing societies.
In this session, Mr. Rosario highlighted the aspects where residents typically raises lot of questions, and the practices which the management committee members should follow, to be able to easily answer those questions.
He pointed out to various features of ADDA, and how they are extremely helpful for management committee once implemented. Mr. Ivan manages his 100+ societies only on ADDA, and he has been long evangelist of ADDA! Thank you Mr. Ivan for the enlightening session!
You can download the detailed slide of the session here, to get more details on the tips and tricks shared by Mr. Ivan.
2. Pillars of a Successful Accounting Setup by Mr. Divakar Koyande – He is an esteemed member of the government as Statutory Auditor for Cooperative Societies. He is also a Guest Lecturer on Cooperative issues for Maharashtra Rajya Sahakari Sangh along with Mumbai Sahakari board and Sahakar Bharati Committee.
Mr. Divakar, took the attendees back to the basics, with a session on the pillars of a thriving accounting setup. He spoke about 5 pillars:
- Pillar 1: Transparent Financial Reporting
- Pillar 2: Effective Budgeting and Expense Management
- Pillar 3: Compliance and Legal Obligations
- Pillar 4: Proper Documentation and Record-Keeping
- Pillar 5: Active Member Participation and Oversight
You can download the detailed slide of the session here
3. Best practices for Closing of Books and Auditing by Ms. Radha Tunge – She specializes in auditing Cooperative Housing Societies in the cities like Pune, Jalna, Kalyan, and Dombivali. Every year she audits on an average 200-300 housing societies. She has been awarded as the Best Auditor by the Auditors Council and Welfare Association
Auditing for Housing Societies is often a dreaded activity. It takes a lot of time for the management committee members (specially the treasurer) involving multiple meetings, and to and fros to get it to completion. However, with the right processes and tools, audit can be a breeze!
In this session Radha Ma’am enlightened the audience about the various aspects of Audit:
- Understanding the crucial parts of Society’s finances which would be audited
- Understanding the parties involved in the Audit
- Setting up your Accounting System for Success
- Accounting Discipline to be Kept in Mind
- Apartment Financial Audit Preparation
- Handling the Apartment Financial Audit Process
- The Frequent Mistakes made by Apartment Association or Societies, and how to avoid them
- The list of documents and reports which should be kept ready for an Audit
Download the detailed slides of the session from here
4. Risks & Liabilities of Management Committee members by Mr. Rahul Patil. He is the Chairman of the Mumbai Division Certified Auditor Association, National Joint Head of Sahakar Bharati Housing Prakosth, State Head of the Housing chapter of Sahakar Bharati, and Member of All Maharashtra Federation of Auditors Association, Returning Officer for over 1000 Societies and an Administrator for more than 300 Housing Societies
This session was possibly the most eagerly anticipated session, where Mr. Patil spoke about the roles and responsibilities of the various Management Committee members, and the Risks and Liabilities for them.
He covered various aspects from financial liabilities to overall community management related mistakes which can land management committee members into serious trouble – including penalties from the government or even jail!
The various aspects he covered were:
- Roles and Responsibilities of various Management Committee members
- Common Mistakes Made by the Managing Committee
- List of Infringements
- Accounting Compliances
Download the detailed slides of the session here
The overall webinar was a whirlwind of information. We had almost 200 attendees in the webinar. They were left awed by the subject knowledge of the speakers.
There was an extremely helpful Q&A session post each session of the accounting workshop and also at the end of the webinar, where multiple interesting questions were posted to the speakers.
Below is a summary of few of the questions –
Question: Should the managing committee display the list of defaulting members at every month end? Bye-laws doesn’t specifically state about it
Answer: The managing committee can display the list of defaulting members at every month end, if the Annual General body meeting has permitted the same. Please make sure that the same has been discussed as approved in the AGM.
Question: What should the co-op society empanelled auditor do in case a society comes for the audit of the previous 3 years’ audit. When we approach the DR office for permission they appoint their own favorable auditor.
Answer: If the society is approaching for previous years audit, then the auditor on panel can approach to their respective district deputy registrar (DDR) office and take order in section 81 1 a
Question: Should the expenses include the GST? How do the set offs accounted for before viewing the expense repost?
Answer: The GST on the expenditure is taken into a pool account which is set off against the GST collected on income and thereafter unused input tax credit that is ITC has to be debited to the expenditure account.
For societies who do not have a GST number their expenditure is inclusive of GST. For societies who have GST number has to undergo the procedure of input tax credit and also reverse charge mechanism (RCM) to be followed before viewing the expenses
Question: Can any excess/shortage billing for electricity and water charges be credited or debited to members?
Answer: Excess or shortage in billing for electricity and water charges cannot be credited or debited to members in between of the year. The actual impact can be charged as per AGM or SGM decision or society can bear the same.
Question: Why does the expense comparison sheet change for a previous month after the MC has approved the previous month’s expenses?
Answer: Expense comparison sheets for previous month cannot be changed after MC has approved the previous month expenses unless they have forgotten to book some expenditure
Question: Are the TDS to be included in expense?
Answer: TDS is part of expenditure.
For example, you have to show 100% security charges as expenditure and TDS deducted thereon
Security charges Dr 100
Bank CR. 99
TDS payable. CR. 1
When TDS is paid
TDS payable Dr 1
To the bank. Cr. 1
Question: How do you pay incentives to sub contract staff
Answer: Incentives to sub contract staff cannot be paid unless it is passed in the managing committee within their spending limits
Question: For creating an AMC contract tracker, an asset must be there. Many assets like lifts, transformers etc. which have come from the builder. How to create the assets and why depreciation is not accepting zero value?
Answer: Assets provided by the builder can be shown separately under one group head. Contribution towards lifts and transformers in liability side and depreciation thereon can be deducted on the same instead of showing it as expenditure.
Question: In case of old pending dues and a payment is received. What is the order to apportion the amount received?
Answer: In case of old pending dues when the payment is received society can recover the interest first and principle there after from the amount received
Question: Will the late payment charges of maintenance charges attract GST?
Answer: Yes, the late payment charges of maintenance charges attracting GST if the society has applied for GST number
Question: General body resolution need not be approved by the deputy registrar if it is within the rules and regulations under the law. It is very difficult to achieve a quorum to have AGM or even Elections for having a new MC. What is the way out for the MC in this place? With reference to the Rajasthan Societies Act
Answer: If there is no quorum after half an hour of adjournment in an Annual General body meeting or special General body meeting, it can be conducted with whatever number of members present, but the agenda which require majority decision cannot be passed in such Annual General body meeting or special General body meeting
Question: What’s the role of accountant in adherence to accounting standards byelaws over MC guidance to him. Can he override them as professional?
Answer: The role of an Accountant is dependent on his or her qualification. If he is thorough in bylaws MC can take his guidance. Better to take advice from professionals. However, if the MC is instructing something which is according to the byelaws then the Accountant should be following it, as the Accountant is a paid employee of the Society.
Question: TDS is always a current liability and not an expense..
Answer: TDS payable is current liability and once deducted from expenditure if it is paid then the liability becomes Nil. However TDS is part of expenditure of that particular head.