By Dave Jensen, CEO, CoPS on Doody · Commercial Pet Waste Station Service
Most community budgets are built backward: open last year's spreadsheet, nudge a few numbers, ratify. The math is easy, but the logic is circular. A budget copied from last year quietly assumes the community isn't changing. Communities always change. A budget creates possibilities; a plan creates results and the plan has to come first.
Planning first doesn't mean planning big. It means asking one question before any number gets typed: if next year's budget is approved exactly as proposed, what will the community look like a year from now? If the honest answer is "the same, including the problems," the spreadsheet is driving.
Six areas cover what actually changes a community's pet waste needs from one year to the next:
Work through those six and the budget nearly writes itself: each identified need lands in the right fund, with a reason attached. For the mechanics of filing costs into operating versus reserves, see our board budget primer.
Because boards approve reasons, not numbers. A line item that arrives as "same as last year plus 3%" invites exactly one question: can we cut it? The same line arriving as "here's what's changing in the community, here's what it requires, here's which fund each piece belongs in" invites a different question: does the plan make sense? That's a conversation a community manager can win if the plan gives every dollar a reason to exist.
Deferrals get easier too, and this is the part managers underrate. A plan lets you defer deliberately "equipment replacement moves to next year; here's the risk and the trigger" instead of silently, where deferred needs vanish until they become emergencies. Write down what you're *not* funding. The planning worksheet includes a deferral list for exactly this.
Anchor it to evidence, not ambition. Your program assessment and element scores (if you've done them) say where the gaps are; the complaint log says what residents feel; the property walk says what's actually happening on the ground. A plan built from those three sources stays modest and credible and sometimes concludes that next year needs no new spending at all, just reconfiguration.
Then keep it to one page. A vision the board can read in two minutes beats a binder every time.
Isn't "vision" a bit grand for pet waste?
Call it a plan, then. The point stands: decide what the community should look like next year, cleaner trails, fewer complaints, stations where people actually walk and let that decide the numbers, not the other way around.
When should this planning happen?
Before the draft budget is assembled for most associations that means late summer, since budgets are typically drafted in Q3–Q4 and ratified in the fall. Check your governing documents for your community's own calendar.
What if the board only wants the number?
Give them the number on page one, with the one-page plan behind it. Boards that only wanted the number consistently read the plan anyway, because it answers the questions they were about to ask.
A spreadsheet remembers what you spent. A plan decides what you'll get. Work through the six planning areas, write the one-pager, and then build the budget in that order.
Related reading: A pet waste budget that passes the board · Assess your program before budget season
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