Revising approved budget.

When we created our budget the end of October 2018 a $60k error was made. One of our utility bills had an increase the prior year, but the management company mistakenly thought of it as a onetime fee and the president agreed with this, but this was wrong.

In January 2019 we received the bill for that utility and this was when they realized their actual error. Now we have $60k too much going into the reserves and $60k too little budgeted for this utility bill.

My question is, even though we approved the budget in our December 2018 annual meeting, can we update it with this corrected info or do we just leave it as is and let the reserves show as under funded and that utility as way over?

In CA, we can't use reserves funds for operating expenses (e.g., utilities). So, if your owners are contributing, say, $5,000/mo for reserves, your Board needs to vote to reduce the monthly contribution to reserves by the amt./mo that you need to pay for utilities.

At least I think this is a way to straighten things out.

You may not at least in CA remove any funds form reserve except for what's listed in your reserves study.

The may leave your reserves less strong than they were, but "underfunded" may be the wrong word.

In Ohio, the board can't reduce the amount going into the reserves that easily. If the most recent reserve study called for a specific annual contribution, then the only way to reduce that is by approval from the membership (simple majority). Might be a good idea if the OP checked to see if Colorado has similar laws.