If you work in community association management, you know the feeling: your to-do list never ends, your inbox is always overflowing, and true time off feels like a fantasy.
Burnout affects your ability to do your job well, retain great staff, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. But what if the solution wasn’t working harder, but working smarter?
Let’s talk about how technology—specifically, automation solutions like what we’ve created at AvidXchange—can help community association managers reclaim their time and reduce stress without sacrificing performance.
The Overwhelming Reality of Community Management
Community association managers are the backbone of thriving residential communities. The workload can be intense: from managing multiple properties, juggling vendor relationships, and ensuring that invoices are processed and paid on time.
One of the biggest challenges is that the job doesn’t stop, even when you do.
“We live in a society where vacation is hard,” said Maegan Woytek, Senior Account Executive at Vantaca, on a recent podcast with AvidXchange. “If you’ve got the right technology in place, your systems and processes can be more automated so that people can truly check out for a little bit and not have to always be plugged in.”
Too often, community association managers are expected to be available 24/7. When they finally do get away from their desks, they return to hundreds of unread emails and unfinished tasks. That constant cycle of catching up leads to fatigue, errors, and eventually burnout.
Why “Just Hire More Help” Isn’t the Answer
It might seem like hiring more staff is the obvious solution, but that’s not always right for every company. Especially with tight budgets and a competitive labor market. The top challenges for community association managers in 2023 were recruiting talent (50%) and mitigating staff burnout and employee retention (47%), according to our survey with CAI.
Plus, more people don’t always equal greater efficiency. Without the right processes in place, the work simply piles higher.
Rather than throwing more people at the problem, why not use automation to take care of repetitive, time-consuming tasks?
From Burnout to Balance: AvidXchange Supports Community Managers Behind the Scenes
AvidXchange offers community association management companies an automated solution for invoice and payment processing. Our invoicing and payment solution for accounts payable and eliminates the bottlenecks that weigh teams down.
“It allows their team to actually be able to step out of the office, go on vacation and not have to worry about, ‘Oh, is somebody going to be entering in all the invoices?’ or, ‘Is somebody going to make sure that all those images are uploaded?’” said Jarret Tran, senior account executive with AvidXchange.
That peace of mind changes everything for community managers who feel tied to their desks. With automation in place, they can:
- Ensure timely payments to vendors without manual intervention
- Eliminate paper, from snail-mail checks to file storage
- Improve accuracy and reduce manual errors in invoice handling
- Access real-time insights and reporting from anywhere
And as Maegan Woytek added, “You can still pay the bills. You don’t have to be at your desk. The bills will still get paid.”
It’s not just about work-life balance. When you remove repetitive, time-consuming tasks, you and your team can redirect that energy toward what really matters: building vendor relationships, solving real problems, and planning for your community association’s future.
Is Automation Right for Every Community Association Manager?
Of course, automation has its drawbacks. Some organizations feel hesitant about adopting new technology. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
New software takes time to implement and learn. For community association managers who have been doing things the same way for decades, it doesn’t feel worth it.
However, for those who want to effectively scale their business, automation is essential. What got you here won’t get you where you want to go.
And the industry is changing: 64% of accounting teams are already utilizing automation technology, and another 17% intend to adopt such tools in 2025. That means community association managers should start adopting automation now or risk falling behind.
Final Thoughts on Why Community Association Managers Feel Burned Out
Community association managers are essential, but they shouldn’t have to run themselves into the ground to get the job done. With the right automation tools in place, they can step away without everything falling apart. And when they are at their desks, they can refocus their energy on growing the business instead of wasting time on manual tasks.
With AvidXchange, community association managers get the breathing room they need while ensuring vendors get paid, records stay organized, and nothing slips through the cracks.
Now that you understand why community association managers need the right technology to combat burnout, the next step is to learn why you should invest in accounts payable automation.
