NOTE: This topic also discusses Member imports.
“Do I need to use the HOA Start Households feature?” That’s a question you’ll need to answer while you’re setting up your community during the Onboarding Process.
When you reach that point, here’s how to simplify the decision.
- Do you want to allow everyone who lives in your community to sign up for their own individual website membership accounts, including multiple owners of an individual property?
- Do you also plan to invoice your dues through your website and enable your residents to pay online?
If you answered “Yes” to both of these questions, you definitely need to use the Households feature. Household billing enables the system to recognize when you’ve already received a dues payment for a specific property, and therefore to reject any additional attempts to pay those same dues. - Do you want to conduct online voting and polls, but only accept one vote from each set of property owners?
Again, if you answered “Yes,” you need Households. It enables you to limit votes to one per property. It also enables you to set up additional limits for people who are involved with your community but who are not property owners. - Does every property owner pay the same dues amount, or do you invoice different amounts depending on specific criteria?
This answer determines which Household data import templates you need. That’s because you’ll need to use Household Labels to identify who receives which invoice through Household billing—and you’ll need to import Household Labels via the Households import template. - If your community allows renters, do they ever pay dues or have the right to vote in community polls?
How you treat renters—and other non-owners—depends on how you set up your Household Access Types. Go to
Households > Households > Households Actions > Edit Types
to change how the system treats the five basic Household Access Types. Those are
Owner
Renter
Contractors
Prop Manager
Other
By default, only the “Owner” Household Access Type receives invoices and can vote in community polls. Use the “Other” category sparingly and consistently for people who do not fit into the other four categories. - Do all your property owners pay dues?
Some communities are not set up as traditional HOAs or COAs. For the residents of these communities, membership may be voluntary. Like (D) above, this situation uses Household Labels to ensure proper invoicing. Only the Households with the applicable Household Label will receive invoices. (If you prefer not to set up Households but need to accommodate this scenario, let your Onboarding Specialist know that you will need Member tags.)
Now, let’s figure out how you’re going to use Households, including how you’re going to import your Household data.
One more question:
The data import processes
The HOA Start Onboarding Process includes a Step that guides you through setup of the Households feature. You’ll notice that the Step devoted to setting up Member data immediately precedes the Households Step. There’s a really good reason for that sequence: You need your Member data in the system before you import Household data. (In fact, the entire Onboarding Process is sequenced so you always learn prerequisite information when you need to use it.)
Why do you need Member data in the system first? Because when you import Household Members, the system verifies that each individual in your import file already is present as a website Member.
The Households import process provides three separate import templates.
- Household Addresses
- Households
- Household Members
However—and this is very important—you typically only need one, or at most two, of these import files.
Almost no one needs to import Household Addresses separately from Households and/or Household Members. That’s because both the Households and the Household Members import templates also import Household Addresses. If you import Household Addresses first in a separate process, you run the risk of entering those Household Address data differently in your Households or Household Members import files—and if you do that, then the system will create additional unnecessary Household Address entries.
For example, if you include the address
123 Any Street
in your Household Addresses import file, and then list that address as
123 Any St
in your Households or Household Members import file, the system creates a new Household Address entry that duplicates the original address in a slightly different format.
So here’s how to determine which Household import files you actually need.
- If you need to use Household Labels
You will need both the Households import template and the Household Members import template. Import the Households data file first and the Household Members file second. The order is significant because the Households import file includes Household Labels. - If you do not need to use Household Labels
Import only the Household Members import file. It will set up all your Household data.
NOTE: It’s really important to share all your import files with your Onboarding Specialist. They’re trained to recognize proper setup—and if your files need adjustment before you import them, they’ll help you tidy up your data. Some import problems actually interfere with the importing process, but others create problems that may not be obvious. Please take advantage of your Onboarding Specialist’s knowledge and share those files with them!
How to set up your Member import file
Your first data import needs to set up your Member records. These records provide the foundation for many of your other data categories—including Households—and for your administrative processes.
To get started, go to
Membership > Members > Members Actions > Member Import > + Import Members > Download Import Template
and download your member import template file.
This step is very important. The import template is a special type of text file called a CSV file. You can edit CSV files in your favorite spreadsheet program. However, you must save each completed template file in the CSV file format, or the import filter will be unable to process it. You also must not change the order of the columns in the file, or delete or rename any columns. Even if a column contains no data, it must be present in the import file.
Likewise, do not add data columns to the import file. If you want to collect more information from your residents than the standard fields on the Member Form will elicit, go to
Membership > Member Form
and add custom fields to the form. If you plan to add custom fields to your Member Form, do so before you download the Member import file. That way, your custom fields will be present in your import file.
Remember that some of the default fields on the Member Form are required. In the list below, an asterisk after a field name indicates that the field is required for Member data import.
Email Address*
First Name*
Last Name*
Phone Number
Country*
Lot Number
Address Line 1*
Address Line 2
City*
State*
ZIP*
Tags
Remember also that the e-mail address provides the unique identifier for each and every member throughout our entire system, not just within your community. You will need a unique e-mail address for each Member record you wish to import.
Any records that lack values in required fields will not import. The system will identify an error for each record that does not include a value for all required fields, and will skip that record during the import process. Note that although you can create required custom fields on the Member Form, those fields are not required for data import.
How to set up your Household import files
First, verify whether you need both the Household template and the Household Members template, or just the Household Members template. Review the first section of this document for the applicable criteria.
To download these templates, go to
Households > Household Imports > Import Actions > Import Households > Download Import Template
for the Households template and
Households > Household Imports > Import Actions > Import Household Members > Download Import Template
for the Household Members template.
NOTE: If you need to use both templates, always start with the Household Members template.
Household Members
To set up your Household Members template file, first download your Member data at
Membership > Members > Members Actions > Download Member Data
If you’ve recently uploaded your Member data and wonder why you should download the data again, remember that Admins and logged-in Members may make updates right after you upload. You want the Member data you use to be as current as possible.
Once you’ve downloaded the Members CSV file, open it in your favorite spreadsheet program. Additionally, open the Household Members template file.
Now, copy and paste the relevant data from the Members CSV file into the Household Members template. If you plan to create Household Labels and use information from Member tags to do so, copy and paste the Tags column data into your Household Members template file in the first unused column of the file. (Ideally, do not paste in the Tags column header from the Members download.) Either edit the Tag data or enter Label data based on your applicable criteria.
Household Labels
Temporarily set up your Household Labels in the first unused column in the Household Members import template. You will need to transfer Label data to the Households template and remove them from Household Members before you import your Household Members data, but for many reasons, Household Labels are easier to create/set up in the Household Members template than in the Households template.
- All the fields in the Households template are present in the Household Members template except for Household Labels. If you create the Labels temporarily in the Household Members template, it’s easy to copy and paste them into the Households template.
- Many Household Labels are based on information about Members. The Households import template has no Member-related information in it.
- Multiple people with the same last name, but who own different properties
- People who own more than one property
-
Thus, it’s easier to create your Household Titles in the Household Members template and then transfer them to your Households template file. Many communities decide to use Member-related information as part of their Household Titles—and that information is not present in the Households template file.
Household Labels are set up the same way as Member Tags. If you need to add more than one Household Label to an individual record in the Household Members (and Households) import data, separate the values with a comma. Do not add a space after the comma. For example:
board-discount,phase-2
Household Access Types
To fill in the Household Access Type column, you’ll need to identify which of these Types applies to each entry in your import template.
Owner
Renter
Contractors
Prop Manager
Other
Most of your entries will use the “Owner” Household Access Type for obvious reasons, especially if your community’s covenants do not allow renters.
If you have lots that are under construction and remain the property of a contractor or developer until they are sold to a resident owner, then use the “Contractors” (note the “s”) Household Access Type for them.
If any of your residents have hired a property manager to pay their dues for them, use the “Prop Manager” Household Access Type for these entries.
As we’ve noted above, use the “Other” Household Access Type sparingly and consistently. Make a note of how you’ve used it, and be sure to share that note with anyone who works with Household data, either alongside you now or as your administrative replacement in the future.
Household Titles
Most communities define their Household Titles based on the property address, the owner’s last name, the lot number, or some combination of these pieces of data. However you set up your Household Titles, make sure that you establish a formula and apply it consistently.
Remember that it is possible to for multiple people to be involved with an individual property, and to use different Household Access Types for several of them. If a property has an “Owner” and a “Renter,” or some other combination of Household Access Types, then you will need to create a separate Household for each Household Access Type.
Let’s work through a hypothetical example.
Jane Doe owns 123 Any Street.
John Roe rents 123 Any Street from Jane.
Jane’s Household Access Type is “Owner.”
John’s Household Access Type is “Renter.”
If you decided to use property addresses as Household Titles, then you’d need to add more information to the address so you could create separate Households—at the same address—for Jane and for John.
So Jane’s Household Title could be 123-Any-Street-Owner.
and John’s Household Title could be 123-Any-Street-Renter.
You can build comparable Household Titles from surnames.
Doe-01 could be Jane’s (Owner) Household Title.
Roe-01 could be John’s (Renter) Household Title
In this format, the numbers at the ends of the Household Titles make it easy to accommodate either
If Jane also owned 543 Any Street, her Household Title for that property could be
Doe-02
or
543-Any-Street-Owner
So remember that one property address can have more than one Household associated with it, and a Household Member can be part of more than one Household. Only people with the same Household Access Type can be in the same Household.
Once you finish entering all your Household Titles and Household Access Types, copy and paste the data from your Household Members template into your Households template. Carefully paste the Household Labels into the appropriate column in the Households template—and don’t change or remove the “Labels” column header when you do so. Once you’ve added the Household Labels to your Households import template, completely delete that information from your Household Members template.
You’re ready to share your import files with your Onboarding Specialist!