CUSTOMER STORY
How Community Financials Scaled to 36 States & 400+ Communities
A national HOA and condo accounting firm built its back-office operation on Smartwebs, growing from a startup to serving approximately 400 communities and 30,000 homeowners across 36 states.
~400 Communities
36 States
~30,000 Homeowners
66 Team Members
Built to Solve Two Problems: Trust and Responsive Service
Russell founded Community Financials in 2018, after 25 years in the community association industry.
After years in property management, Russell saw the same issues repeatedly drive communities to switch providers: a lack of confidence in how accounting was handled and poor responsiveness.
Community Financials was built around solving both.
As the company expanded nationally, however, its own technology stack started creating friction.
The Challenge
Growth Created More Systems, More Logins and More Training
Once Community Financials passed 10,000 homes under management, managing staff across multiple platforms became increasingly difficult.
Clients were dealing with multiple portals. Board members needed separate credentials for different functions. And when managers or board members changed, the Community Financials team increasingly found itself providing software training.
That created a problem the company had never intended to own.
Then I’d use three short visual callouts:
Multiple Platforms
Different systems created inconsistent experiences.
Separate Logins
Board members and managers had to move between tools.
Ongoing Training
Turnover created an unexpected support burden.
The Decision
Why Community Financials Chose Smartwebs
Russell evaluated multiple platforms before selecting Smartwebs.
His requirements were straightforward:
One unified login
Board members and property managers needed one experience rather than separate portals.
Easy to use
The platform needed to be intuitive enough that new users could get started without formal software training.
Built for the market
The platform needed to support self-managed communities as well as management companies.
Then comes the part I would emphasize heavily:
The Partnership Mattered as Much as the Product
Russell chose Smartwebs at a point when he believed the accounting functionality still had room to grow.
What made the difference was the willingness of the Smartwebs team to listen, collaborate and improve the platform alongside Community Financials’ experienced accounting team.
That is one of the strongest parts of this case study because it makes the story human.
Results
A National Operation on One Platform
Since adopting Smartwebs in September 2022, Community Financials has migrated its entire customer base onto the platform, including previous Tops and Calibre environments.
Today:
~400 communities on Smartwebs
~30,000 homeowners served
36 states and growing
2024 full migration completed
Testimonial
“Smartwebs was willing to listen and to make changes based on the collective wisdom of all the smart accounting people on our team. Over time, we’ve been able to take examples from other software and make Smartwebs even better. I really do appreciate the partnership we have with Smartwebs.”
Russell
Founder & CEO, Community Financials
Want the Full Story?
See how Community Financials built a national HOA accounting operation around one unified platform.
Could Smartwebs Support Your Growth?
Whether you’re managing communities locally or operating across multiple states, Smartwebs brings accounting, operations, and community management into one unified experience.
