HOAdesk documentation

HOAdesk turns the WordPress site a homeowners or condo association already has into its resident portal: units, owners and residents, a documents library by audience, announcements, a calendar, meeting notices and minutes, maintenance requests and architectural requests with decision letters. HOAdesk Pro adds dues, card and ACH payments into the association’s own Stripe account, violations, ARC voting, reservations, elections, vendors, resale packages and reports. This guide gets the portal open to members in an afternoon.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.6 or newer, PHP 8.1 or newer. An SMTP plugin is recommended so notices and invitations land in inboxes.
• For online payments (Pro): a Stripe account in the association’s legal name. Cheques and cash can be recorded by hand without one.

Install

1. Download the free plugin from the HOAdesk product page, or install it from the WordPress plugin directory once listed. Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the zip, install and activate. A Resident Portal page holding the portal block is created for you; add it to your menu.
2. Under HOAdesk → Settings enter the association’s name and email address, and press the test button under Settings → Emails to confirm mail is going out.

Quick start

1. HOAdesk → Units: add each lot or unit with its address, building, assessment share and votes, or import a CSV of units and owners.
2. HOAdesk → People: add owners and residents, then press Invite. An account is created with the right role (Resident, Owner, Board Member or Manager) and they set their own password. Board members get the board role; whoever changes settings gets Manager.
3. HOAdesk → Documents: upload the bylaws, CC&Rs, rules, budgets and insurance, choosing an audience for each (everyone, residents and owners, owners only, board only). Files are stored outside the public uploads folder.
4. HOAdesk → Calendar and Meetings: add events and the next board meeting with its agenda; the notice is emailed automatically the set number of days before. After the meeting, upload the minutes as a document linked to it.
5. HOAdesk → Announcements: publish to the portal and email all owners, all residents, the board or one building. Large sends go out through a queue.
6. Members now report maintenance problems with photos from a phone and submit architectural requests from the portal. Work them under Maintenance and ARC; each status change emails the submitter, and an ARC decision generates the decision letter PDF.

Want to see it full first? wp hoadesk seed --reset loads the Maple Ridge demo community with 24 units, owners and tenants, documents, requests in every status, announcements and meetings.

HOAdesk Pro: activation and updates

1. Buy a plan on the HOAdesk product page: Pro for one community, Agency for unlimited communities (one activation covers a WordPress network). The Lemon Squeezy receipt has your key and hoadesk-pro.zip.
2. Upload and activate the Pro plugin next to the free one.
3. Paste the key under HOAdesk → License and press Activate. Updates arrive through Dashboard → Updates from hexcorp.io. To move a license, deactivate it on the old site first.

If a subscription lapses, Pro features and updates pause seven days later. Nothing is deleted: ledgers, violations, ballots and reservations stay readable and the free plugin keeps running the portal.

Setting up the Pro features

1. Payments: create a Stripe account in the association’s name (not a board member’s), turn on ACH Direct Debit if owners should pay from a bank account, and create a restricted API key with write access to Checkout Sessions, Customers, Payment Intents, Setup Intents, Payment Methods, Refunds and Webhook Endpoints. Paste it with the publishable key under HOAdesk → Settings → Payments. HOAdesk registers its own webhook; nothing to do in the Stripe dashboard.
2. Dues: add a schedule (monthly, quarterly or annual) or a special assessment, split equally or by share, with the grace period and late fee. Charges post themselves; owners pay from the portal or enrol in autopay. Record cheques and cash on the ledger by hand.
3. Violations: set the notice templates for each step of the ladder (courtesy, warning, fine, hearing). Log a violation from a phone with photos; fines post to the owner’s ledger and owners respond or appeal from the portal.
4. ARC voting: under Settings → ARC voting choose who votes, the quorum and the deadline. Decision buttons wait for the ballot; a manager can override.
5. Reservations: add each amenity with hours, rules, fee, deposit and whether the board approves bookings.
6. Voting: create an election or motion with one ballot per unit, weights if your documents say so, proxies with the signed form attached and a quorum. Owners get a receipt code; certify and export the audit trail when it closes.
7. Vendors and Resale packages: add contractors with licence and COI expiry dates for alerts; build a resale or estoppel package for a title company with the fee collected first and an expiring download link.

WP-CLI

wp hoadesk seed --reset     # Maple Ridge demo community

Privacy and accessibility

Units, people, documents, requests, ledgers and ballots live in your own database and are covered by the WordPress export and erasure tools. Private files are served only after checking who is asking. Card and bank details stay with Stripe; HOAdesk stores only Stripe’s customer and payment references. Member and admin screens are tested for WCAG 2.1 AA with axe-core.

Getting help

Email hello@hexcorp.io with your site URL and what you expected to happen. Pro and Agency customers get priority replies.