Homeowner associations (HOAs), also commonly referred to as community associations or residents associations, are on the rise in the US.

A 2019 study found that nearly 60% of recently built single-family houses, and 80% of houses in new subdivisions, are part of an HOA.

If we were to break that down by region, HOAs govern about 33% of homes in the Northeast, about 50% of homes in the Midwest, and at least 75% of homes in the West and the South.

All in all, there are now almost 310,000 HOA-governed communities in the United States, which is a staggering 260% growth since their inception in the 1970s.

Needless to say, it’s likely that you will encounter an HOA property while house-hunting, and if you are on the other side (an HOA community member) it’s important that you and the other members manage the association well to keep the community happy and attract new residents who could easily choose an alternative.

This post aims to provide you with the tools you need to manage an HOA that stands out and establish a community that not only feels confident in the leadership team, but also provides the space for members to contribute in a way that benefits the collective.

We will be covering:

• What is Homeowner’s Association Management?
• Process Street Checklists: Optimizing HOA Management
• HOA Audit Checklist
• HOA Budget Preparation Checklist
• HOA Property Maintenance Checklist
• HOA Home Cleaning Checklist
• HOA Newsletter Template
• HOA Board Meeting Agenda Template
• HOA Annual Board Organization Checklist
• HOA Transition Checklist
• Enhance Productivity and Collaboration with our Approvals Feature
• Other Useful Resources for HOA and Property Management

Here is a preview of the free homeowner’s association management checklists that we’re offering in this post:

Let’s get started!
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Taking the appropriate measures to ensure products we come into close contact with are clean & safe is now more important than ever, and there is nothing we come into closer contact with than food.

If you are in the food manufacturing, farming, processing, packaging, catering, or another food-related industry, a robust, well-documented Food Safety Management System (FSMS) is essential to maintaining a strong position in the market.

Of course, strict regulations that make sure the food we ingest is safe is nothing new. In the US, food safety regulations have been developed since the mid-1800s.

However, It was the worldwide implementation of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system in the early 90s that really kicked things off on a global scale. Since then, numerous kinds of schemes and certifications have been developed to monitor the industry more closely.

FSSC 22000 (and the resulting FSSC 22000 checklists) is one of the newest and most highly-respected of such schemes.

The FSSC 22000 system was designed to provide companies in the food industry with an ISO-based food safety management system certification that is recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). Recognition by GFSI provides worldwide recognition and acceptance by food manufacturers and retailers.

“GFSI recognition demonstrates that the Scheme meets the highest standards globally leading to international food industry acceptance. Furthermore the Scheme is widely accepted by Accreditation Bodies worldwide and supported by important stakeholders like FoodDrinkEurope (FDE) and the Consumer Brands Association (CBA).” –  FSSC 22000 Scheme

Also, the fact that the scheme is ISO-based means that it integrates nicely with other management systems such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

In other words, FSSC 22000 certification is not only an internationally-recognized scheme that helps you improve market reach, food safety processes, and works great with ISO standards, but is also a powerful marketing tool.

“Statistics show that approximately 1 out of 4 certified companies are asking their suppliers to achieve certification. Chances are that if you have not been asked yet, you will be asked in the near future. Becoming certified can help you stay competitive and qualified towork with your current customers as well as to gain access to new ones.” – FSSC 22000 Quick Start Guide

In this post, Process Street is releasing a set of 6 FSSC 22000 checklist templates that will enable you to conduct meticulous internal audits and have an actionable, clear picture of everything that needs to be done in order to gain certification.

Click the links below to go to that section of the article:

• Overview of steps to gaining FSSC 22000 certification
• FSSC 22000: Process Street checklists that get you to the finish line
• FSSC 22000 Checklists: GFSI Compliance Checklist
• FSSC 22000 Checklists: HACCP Compliance Checklist
• FSSC 22000: ISO 22000 Audit Preparation Checklist
• FSSC 22000 Checklists: ISO/TS 22002-1 Internal Audit Checklist
• FSSC 22000 Checklists: ISO/TS 22002-3 Internal Audit Checklist
• FSSC 22000 Checklists: ISO/TS 22002-4 Internal Audit Checklist
• Perform superior FSSC 22000 audits with our approvals feature
• Other useful resources for establishing a first-class FSMS

If you’re just here for the checklists, here’s a taster of the free ones you’ll be getting!

Before we dive into the checklists proper, however, let’s take a quick look at a basic overview of what the steps are to gaining certification, and clarify where the checklists we have created fit into the process.
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People are the most important asset in a company; processes need people to execute them, and the outcome of these processes is often a function of how well the instructions have been put together.

If the outcome is less than ideal, then don’t just blame your employees: check your processes.

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are there for your employees to follow so that the job gets done properly. SOP software is all about figuring out how to innovate and improve efficiency in your internal processes.

This Process Street article will help you understand the benefits of SOP management software and give you some actionable SOP templates to get started. We’ll be looking at:

• What is SOP management software?
• Should you implement standard operating procedures at your company?
• 5 features to look for when choosing a SOP management software
• Benefits of a SOP management software
• Using Process Street to manage your SOPs
• More SOP resources

Let’s start with a simple introduction to what SOP management software actually means.
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Data-driven.

This short statement could be used to accurately summarize the way big business wants to function in today’s world.

Its all about data; gathering it, processing it, analyzing it, and then leveraging insights to continuously improve business operations and customer experiences.

And yet, despite its importance, many companies are failing to do it very well.

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a framework that enables organizations (mostly enterprises and government agencies) to efficiently perform this process of leveraging data.

Of course, this is a very simple, reductionist way of putting it. The framework is incredibly complicated and how exactly it delivers such a powerful service is not easily understood.

Here is a more comprehensive definition:

“ITIL, or Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a well-known set of IT best practices designed to assist businesses in aligning their IT services with customer and business needs. Services include IT related assets, accessibility, and resources that deliver value and benefits to customers. ITIL framework objectives include the delivery of valuable service offerings, as well as meeting customer needs, and achieving business goals of a given organization. Despite the individuality of each organization, ITIL provides guidelines for achieving these objectives and measuring success with KPIs.” – Jarod Greene, The Essential Guide to ITIL Framework and Processes

Thankfully, this vast framework can be simplified and broken down into 5 core stages, illustrated in the graphic below.

These categories make up the ITIL Service Lifecycle, which we here at Process Street have written an extensive post about:

• The Secret to IT Service Management: The ITIL Service Lifecycle

I highly recommend reading this article if you would like to learn more about what exactly the ITIL service lifecycle is, how each stage relates to one another, and for valuable information on how you can apply ITIL to your business.

The article you are reading could be considered a follow up to the post linked above, as it provides you with 8 free ITIL processes in the form of practical checklists that you can integrate into your business right away.

Each of the 5 stages contains a certain number of standardized processes and functions. Processes make up the majority and are the focus of this post.

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Imagine your business is a car.

Whether it’s a new, sporty little number or an old, cumbersome hatchback, aside from an engine and four wheels, what does it need to run smoothly?

A dashboard.

A dashboard will advise you to slow down when you’re moving too fast. It will tell you when more fuel is needed. It will alert you when there’s a problem.

A good dashboard will save you heaps of time, effort, and money, while you’re under the hood, trying to work out why you’re not reaching your goal quickly enough.

Lucky for you, Process Street has just the ticket.

Our checklist dashboard has been designed and built to give you an instant snapshot of your team, or company’s, performance so you can stay on track and reach your business goals.

Want to find out more?

Join me on a journey, where we will accelerate through the following topics to get you up to speed with the checklist dashboard and how you can use it in your business:

• Why use a checklist dashboard?
• How to use the checklist dashboard
• How to use the checklist dashboard in Process Street
• Checklist dashboard use case #1: The project manager
• Checklist dashboard use case #2: The remote workforce manager
• Checklist dashboard use case #3: The property manager
• Checklist dashboard use case #4: The HR manager
• Checklist dashboard round-up

Buckle up and put your foot down! Let’s go!

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LA Creative Technologies uses Process Street to streamline operations, with particular focus on (but not limited to) client onboarding, offboarding, and project management procedures.

With process automation and cloud process documentation solutions, Process Street has allowed LA Creative Technologies to productively, effectively and efficiently manage their remote team, and complex procedures.

We spoke with LA Creative’s Founder and CIO Josh Weiss to find out how they are using Process Street for client onboarding, offboarding and project management. We then opened the floor, accepting questions brought forth by our webinar listeners. Here’s what we found out.

Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to that section. Alternatively, scroll down to find out all Process Street and LA Creative Technologies have to say.

• The LA Creative Technologies story: LA Creative Technologies as a management service provider
• The challenge: Client onboarding and offboarding
• The challenge: Project management
• The results: Client onboarding and offboarding
• The results: Project management
• Question time with LA Creative Technologies

Let’s get started.
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Process Street is a 100% remote company. We have been from day one.

But our CEO Vinay Patankar has been remote longer than that. Process Street is Vinay’s third remote company, meaning 10 years of running companies remotely.

At the time of writing, we have around 50 employees across multiple continents and it’s working so well for us that we’ve just sealed our Series A funding round from Accel, Atlassian, and Salesforce Ventures.

We thought now would be a good time to do a deep dive into Vinay’s thoughts on remote work and why his experience of it has kept him remote.

For this Process Street article, we sat down with Vinay to ask him 4 key questions, which we’ve provided links to below:

• Were you distributed from day one?
• How many employees do you have and in how many countries?
• What are the biggest challenges of having a distributed team?
• What are the biggest advantages?

Vinay has also produced a short video series of key things to learn when working in or running a remote team. You can check these videos out in the section below: Continue Reading

In today’s business environment where managed services are constantly being outsourced, creating a concise, official document outlining the terms of an agreement between the client and service provider is critical to setting the foundations for a trustworthy and ultimately fruitful relationship.

“Service-level agreements, amongst other things, bolster trust in and between organizations – making it clear what needs to be done, to what standard, and when.” – Adam Henshall, What is an SLA? How to Use Service-Level Agreements for Success

It’s simply an essential component that requires care and attention.

As you may well have already noticed and perhaps even put to good use, Process Street has been creating some excellent content for those of you looking to create first-class service level agreement’s in quick and easy fashion.

For a comprehensive introduction into what an SLA is, exactly what one consists of and why you need them, have a read through the following article:

• What is an SLA? How to Use Service-Level Agreements for Success

If you are already familiar with the fundamentals of SLAs and are looking for guidance on how to create and edit one for your organization, you’ll find this post useful:

• Service Level Agreement Template: How to Create Solid SLAs at Super Speed

Bear in mind that the article referenced above also contains a free, easy-to-use Process Street template from which you can create as many service level agreements as you like.

And that’s what this post is all about – providing free, easy-to-use examples in the form of practical templates.

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Read more about this announcement on Business Insider, Crunchbase, and Forbes.

I’m very proud and excited to announce that Process Street has raised a $12M Series A from Accel, Atlassian, Salesforce Ventures and other amazing investors.

The funds will go towards our vision of building the GitHub of no-code; where teams around the world can find and use checklists, workflows and automations to improve their productivity at work.

Our mission is to make recurring work fun, fast, and faultless for teams everywhere. Having experienced investors and leading SaaS partners will put us in a powerful position to achieve this mission.
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Checklists are becoming an increasingly important focus area for hospitals and other institutions in the medical field when it comes to treating patients more effectively, providing a safe and secure environment for recovery, and improving the overall patient experience.

Why?

Because numerous studies have proven that they work, and in an industry where human error can literally cause the death of a patient, it is absolutely critical for medical professionals to execute processes properly, in a timely fashion, and without missing a single step.

While you may initially think that hospital checklists would be a hindrance in a profession that requires fast, effective action, this is simply not the case if checklists are integrated and used properly.

There is no published data to date indicating that checklists may have contributed to adverse events, such as imposing a burden on the primary care providers, delays in treatment because of lengthy checklists, or errors of omission. Rather, they are largely considered important tools to condense large quantities of knowledge in a concise fashion, reduce the frequency of errors of omission, create reliable and reproducible evaluations and improve quality standards and use of best practices. – International Journal for Quality in Health Care

If you have been a long-time user of Process Street, you may well be aware of our admiration for the work of Atul Gawande, MD, author of The Checklist Manifesto published in 2009.

This book is what really kickstarted the adoption of checklists in healthcare, most notably, the World Health Organization (WHO) surgical safety checklist which WHO developed in conjunction with Dr. Gawande, supported by the compelling insight he provided in his book.

In the Keystone Initiative’s first eighteen months, the hospitals saved an estimated $175,000,000 in costs and more than 1,500 lives. The successes have been sustained for almost four years—all because of a stupid little checklist. – Atul Gawande, The Checklist

The checklist is currently supported by hundreds of organizations around the world.

If you are interested in reading more about Dr Gawande and his book, I have provided links to a number of resources at the end of the article.

Among 8 other free checklists we are about to present, we have adapted the WHO surgical safety checklist to fit the format of our software, so you can keep a digital footprint and ensure each and every surgery has been performed as it should be.

The other 8 checklists cover a range of important healthcare processes including cleaning a patient room, conducting a safety inspection, ensuring compliance with HIPAA regulations, and more.

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