Question 1

Can we send out bulk invoices or do I have to do them one-by-one?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can send an invoice to the entire community with just a few clicks. You can also use our tags feature to create groups for invoicing purposes. Our goal with invoicing is to make it as simple as possible to send and track invoices.

Question 2

How much does it cost for owners to pay online?

Accepted Answer

Our online processing fees are $1.95 for echeck (ACH) or 3.25% + $.50 for card payments. These fees can be offloaded to the payor or absorbed by the association.

Question 3

Can we add automatic late fees to invoices?

Accepted Answer

Yes! If you can dream it up as far as late fees go, you can do it on our system. You can add automatic one-time late fees, recurring late fees, simple interest, compounding interest, etc.

Question 4

Can we mail invoices through PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Save yourself the paper, printer ink and trips to the post office, and send your mail from the comfort of your home or office. The invoices go out USPS First Class mail, and include a perforated statement and a return envelope.

Question 5

Can people still pay by check?

Accepted Answer

Yes! If an owner wants to pay locally by check or cash, you will not have to turn them away. You’ll just record a payment on their account to update their and your records.

Question 6

Does PayHOA offer a lockbox service?

Accepted Answer

PayHOA does offer a lockbox service. You can avoid paper checks entirely by having your owners return their payments to a secure lockbox. We’ll deposit the money into the appropriate account and record the payments for you as well. Easy peasy.

Question 7

How long does it take to process online payments?

Accepted Answer

Card payments take 2-3 business days and ACH payments take 5-7 business days.

Question 8

Do we need to get a different bank account to accept online payments?

Accepted Answer

No! You will not have to switch banks to accept payments online. We can deposit money into any US bank account.

Question 9

Can a person who owns more than one unit pay for all of them at the same time?

Accepted Answer

Yes! An owner of multiple units will have one login where they can view and pay for all units from the same checkout page.

Question 10

Do homeowners have a portal to see their account history?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Homeowners will love the beautiful design of their homeowner portal where they can see their charges and payments. They will also have access to many other useful tools like requests and documents.

Question 11

What accounting reports does PayHOA offer?

Accepted Answer

PayHOA offers over 30 accounting reports. Some of the go-to reports include: general ledger, budget, balance sheet, budget vs actual, profit and loss, aging of accounts, delinquent accounts, bank reconciliation, expenses by vendor and many more. You can create professional-looking, custom report packets to fit your needs as well.

Question 12

Can we do a bank reconciliation on PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Bank reconciliation is an important part of any bookkeeping process and that can be done on PayHOA.

Question 13

Does PayHOA offer a balance sheet?

Accepted Answer

Yes! This is one of our go-to reports for bookkeeping.

Question 14

Can the system be used for both cash and accrual based accounting?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You have the ability to set your account up based on your preferences.

Question 15

Can I customize my chart of accounts?

Accepted Answer

Yes! We give you a basic set to get started, but you will want to add, edit and delete account categories to make it make sense for your association.

Question 16

Can I add codes to my chart of accounts?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can customize your chart of accounts in any way you prefer. This includes adding in accounting/coding numbers for each line item.

Question 17

Can I import my bank transactions into PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! This can be done automatically through a bank sync or you can import a .csv file bank statement at any time.

Question 18

Does PayHOA have options for filing 1099s for vendors?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can electronically transmit and file your 1099s directly to the IRS through your PayHOA account. They system will even prepopulate the required data into the form for you, simplifying the entire process.

Question 19

Does PayHOA offer report packets for board meetings?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can pick the reports you need and actually use to create a professional, branded report packet for your HOA. You’ll save time by not having to mush a bunch of reports together and you’ll look like a pro with a nice, clean accounting packet for your meetings.

Question 20

Will PayHOA sync with my bank to automatically pull the transactions ledger?

Accepted Answer

Yes! PayHOA uses the Plaid system to connect your bank account to your PayHOA portal to automatically pull in your bank feed. The result is an elegant, accurate transaction ledger where you can easily code transactions to the correct chart of account bucket.

Question 21

Can we split transactions into multiple chart of account categories?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can easily divide up a transaction into multiple accounts with a few clicks.

Question 22

Is PayHOA a viable option for replacing my Quickbooks account?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Associations make the move from Quickbooks to PayHOA everyday. Quickbooks is a great product, but it’s not built for HOAs, specifically. PayHOA exists to fulfill the needs of HOAs and any community associations.

Question 23

Will we need to use an external software to do full accounting or will PayHOA work as a standalone accounting solution?

Accepted Answer

PayHOA has been a standalone accounting software solution since the beginning. Your association should not need to do any bookkeeping outside of your PayHOA account.

Question 24

Can we do a journal entry on PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Journal entries are a vital accounting tool. They can be used for a variety of reasons including monthly adjustments, year-end entries and more.

Question 25

Will we be able to produce end of the year reports on PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can produce reports based on any time period. Commonly used reports are monthly, quarterly and annual.

Question 26

Can we give my bookkeeper or CPA access to my PayHOA account?

Accepted Answer

Yes! This is a common practice on PayHOA. You can give them full access, limited access and/or temporary  access to your account so they can help you get the job done right.

Question 27

My fiscal year is July-June, can I update that in PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can set your own fiscal year start and end for your association, and pull reports based on that fiscal year. You’ll also be able to pull calendar year reports at any time if your FY is different.

Question 28

Can we track the association credit card or other liabilities in PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can add in liabilities and track them with journal entries and reporting.

Question 29

Can assets outside of bank accounts be added and tracked in PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can add as many assets as needed and those can be tracked with transactions, journal entries, and reports.

Question 30

We don’t have anyone on our Board trained in accounting. Does PayHOA offer a service that can help us?

Accepted Answer

Yes! PayHOA offers a bookkeeping service for an extra monthly fee. The service features trained Bookkeepers that can keep the association books on track through the year.

Question 31

What accounting reports does PayHOA offer?

Accepted Answer

PayHOA offers over 30 accounting reports. Some of the go-to reports include: general ledger, budget, balance sheet, budget vs actual, profit and loss, aging of accounts, delinquent accounts, bank reconciliation, expenses by vendor and many more. You can create custom report packets to fit your needs as well.

Question 32

Can we track a budget on PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Budgets are foundational to any association. Ours are easy to use, exportable and you can copy them year to year.

Question 33

Does PayHOA produce a budget vs actual report?

Accepted Answer

Yes! This is a go-to report for our customers. You can pull and export this report at any time, from anywhere.

Question 34

Can we give read-only access to certain owners and board members?

Accepted Answer

Yes! PayHOA offers customized permissions for owners and board members. Depending on a person’s role in the community you can add read-only access to their portal. You can also allow them to make edits if desired.

Question 35

Can we share the budget and reports with the entire HOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can store these reports in a public folder in your document storage, email them to the association and/or mail them directly to their home. You can also create professional-looking report packets to share with your owners.

Question 36

Can we add our own chart of accounts?

Accepted Answer

Yes! We give you a basic set to get started, but you will want to add, edit and delete account categories to make your chart of accounts make sense for your association.

Question 37

Does the budget have filters for different time periods like month, quarter, year, etc?

Accepted Answer

Yes! All of our reports are able to be filtered by month, year, quarter and any custom date range.

Question 38

Can we create a membership directory?

Accepted Answer

Yes! This is in the reports section of the software. You can also create a custom report to pull any piece of contact information stored in PayHOA including tags, notes and custom fields.

Question 39

Do we have to recreate my budget every year?

Accepted Answer

No! You can copy your budget into the next year, so you do not have to start from scratch each time you need to create a budget.

Question 40

Can we mass communicate with the units/owners?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can send mass emails, phone calls and text messages through PayHOA to the entire community and/or to groups of people within the association.

Question 41

Do we get a custom email address?

Accepted Answer

No! PayHOA does not provide a custom email address to our associations. We are not in the business of owning your association’s email addresses because, if you wanted to leave, that puts us both in an awkward situation. Most associations create an email address on one of the free providers like Gmail.

Question 42

What kinds of mass communication does PayHOA offer?

Accepted Answer

Through PayHOA you’ll have access to mass emails, phone calls and text messages. We also have other mass communication tools like message boards and shared calendars.

Question 43

How much does it cost to send phone calls, text messages and emails?

Accepted Answer

Free! We do not charge an additional fee to send mass communication through the portal.

Question 44

Is there a limit on how many emails, calls and texts we can send?

Accepted Answer

No! We have never set a limit on how much you can communicate with your association. Use these tools as much as you’d like without worrying about hitting the next fee threshold.

Question 45

Can we schedule mass communication to happen automatically in the future?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can schedule the delivery of messages through PayHOA, so you are not scrambling to send something out.

Question 46

What is a good example of when we might want to send a mass text message and/or phone call?

Accepted Answer

Many of our associations use these tools for meeting reminders. They can also be used for pool closings, snow removal, maintenance projects, office closings, and so much more.

Question 47

Can we see if the homeowners open an email?

Accepted Answer

Yes! PayHOA tracks the status of each communication sent to each owner on the portal. You will be able to see those statuses. In the case of emails, you can even see if they have opened the email.

Question 48

Does PayHOA keep a log of all communications sent through the system?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Each owner and home will have an associated communication log where you can see every piece of communication sent to them. This includes emails, phone calls, texts, violations and mailings. You will have a solid paper trail on each owner and home for tracking purposes.

Question 49

Can we send a message out to a group of people (not the entire community)?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can use the “tags” function to filter by groups and send targeted messages to those groups.

Question 50

How does the mailroom at PayHOA work?

Accepted Answer

Through your PayHOA portal, you can send mass or individual mailings directly to your homeowners. You will not have to worry about keeping printer ink and paper around. From the “Mailroom” you can send invoices, violations, billpay checks to vendors or any type of letter or packet to homeowners.

Question 51

How much does it cost to send a letter?

Accepted Answer

The mail pricing starts at $.85 for standard class mail (includes postage, printing and paper. A full outline of these costs can be found in the “Mailroom” section of your PayHOA account.)

Question 52

Can we mail violation letters through PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can mail violation letters directly to homeowners as you create the violations or at a later date. You can also store templates for violations to make the process more efficient.

Question 53

Does PayHOA track the status of a piece of mail that has gone out?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You will be able to see the USPS indicated status for each piece of mail that you send through PayHOA. No more guessing about whether or not an invoice or letter was actually delivered.

Question 54

What kinds of documents can we mail out through PayHOA?

Accepted Answer

You can mail invoices to homeowners, billpay checks, violation letters and any other document you’ve converted to PDF.

Question 55

Is a copy of each mailing stored on a homeowner’s account/portal?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You will be able to see and track each piece of mail by home and homeowner.

Question 56

What if the owner has a different mailing address?

Accepted Answer

This is often the case in PayHOA. You can store the second mailing address and select that mailing address at the time you send out the mail.

Question 57

Is there an additional fee to use the message boards?

Accepted Answer

No! Message boards are included in your subscription price.

Question 58

Can we have more than one message board?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can have as many message boards as you want to cover all of the groups, topics and needs of the association.

Question 59

Does PayHOA have an online bulletin board?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can set up a bulletin board as a message board that is an announcement only board.

Question 60

Can we limit who can participate on certain message boards?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can restrict access to certain message boards to keep the communication efficient and appropriate. A good example of this would be a “Board Member Only” board.

Question 61

Can our clubs use this to communicate with each other and schedule events?

Accepted Answer

Yes, they can! Your tennis club can use a message board to talk about all things tennis and schedule matches and tournaments.

Question 62

What are some common examples of how HOAs use the message boards?

Accepted Answer

Some of the more-commonly-used message boards include: bulletin boards, board member only boards, clubs, yard sales, events and committees.

Question 63

Do we have to use the website builder?

Accepted Answer

No! The website builder is an optional, add-on feature. We find that many HOAs can thrive without a front-facing website with the use of PayHOA.

Question 64

Is there an additional fee for the website builder?

Accepted Answer

There is. Our website builder costs $25/month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Invoicing and Payments

Can we send out bulk invoices or do I have to do them one-by-one?

How much does it cost for owners to pay online?

Can we add automatic late fees to invoices?

Can we mail invoices through PayHOA?

Can people still pay by check?

Does PayHOA offer a lockbox service?

How long does it take to process online payments?

Do we need to get a different bank account to accept online payments?

Can a person who owns more than one unit pay for all of them at the same time?

Do homeowners have a portal to see their account history?

Accounting

What accounting reports does PayHOA offer?

Can we do a bank reconciliation on PayHOA?

Does PayHOA offer a balance sheet?

Can the system be used for both cash and accrual based accounting?

Can I customize my chart of accounts?

Can I add codes to my chart of accounts?

Can I import my bank transactions into PayHOA?

Does PayHOA have options for filing 1099s for vendors?

Does PayHOA offer report packets for board meetings?

Will PayHOA sync with my bank to automatically pull the transactions ledger?

Can we split transactions into multiple chart of account categories?

Is PayHOA a viable option for replacing my Quickbooks account?

Will we need to use an external software to do full accounting or will PayHOA work as a standalone accounting solution?

Can we do a journal entry on PayHOA?

Will we be able to produce end of the year reports on PayHOA?

Can we give my bookkeeper or CPA access to my PayHOA account?

My fiscal year is July-June, can I update that in PayHOA?

Can we track the association credit card or other liabilities in PayHOA?

Can assets outside of bank accounts be added and tracked in PayHOA?

We don’t have anyone on our Board trained in accounting. Does PayHOA offer a service that can help us?

Budgets and Reports

What accounting reports does PayHOA offer?

Can we track a budget on PayHOA?

Does PayHOA produce a budget vs actual report?

Can we give read-only access to certain owners and board members?

Can we share the budget and reports with the entire HOA?

Can we add our own chart of accounts?

Does the budget have filters for different time periods like month, quarter, year, etc?

Can we create a membership directory?

Do we have to recreate my budget every year?

Bank Integrations

Is my bank data secure?

How often will my bank data be pulled into PayHOA?

Can I reconcile offline payments to deposits from the bank feed?

Will my bank pull both credits and debits?

Will I be able to manually upload my bank statements?

How does the bank sync actually work?

Can I create rules to automatically code payments to vendors and categories?

We have more than one bank account. Can I add them all to PayHOA?

Payables and Vendors

Can we pay my vendors online through PayHOA?

Does PayHOA have a workflow for invoice approvals?

How does PayHOA’s vendor billpay work?

Can we print a check locally to pay an invoice/vendor?

Does PayHOA track expenses by vendor for tax purposes?

Can we store documents like proposals and contracts on vendors?

Does PayHOA have reports for payments to vendors?

Mass Communication

Can we mass communicate with the units/owners?

Do we get a custom email address?

What kinds of mass communication does PayHOA offer?

How much does it cost to send phone calls, text messages and emails?

Is there a limit on how many emails, calls and texts we can send?

Can we schedule mass communication to happen automatically in the future?

What is a good example of when we might want to send a mass text message and/or phone call?

Can we see if the homeowners open an email?

Does PayHOA keep a log of all communications sent through the system?

Can we send a message out to a group of people (not the entire community)?

Mailroom

How does the mailroom at PayHOA work?

How much does it cost to send a letter?

Can we mail violation letters through PayHOA?

Does PayHOA track the status of a piece of mail that has gone out?

What kinds of documents can we mail out through PayHOA?

Is a copy of each mailing stored on a homeowner’s account/portal?

What if the owner has a different mailing address?

Message Boards