How do I set up my HOA community management software?

Beginning with a self-managed HOA platform should not require a developer. As soon as you create an account, a guided onboarding flow walks you through:

• Claiming your $50 free credit (no card needed, credit never expires)
• Adding your HOA’s website or uploading governing documents (CC&Rs, bylaws, rules, meeting minutes)
• Previewing how the AI agent will answer a resident question grounded in your actual text

This step ensures your HOA software setup is ready to train the agent in minutes, not days.

Every HOA has multiple properties, committees, or boards. Workspaces let you create separate, clean tenant environments—one for the main association, one for a sub-association, or one for the architectural review board. Inside each workspace:

• Invite board members or managers with role-based access (admin, agent, viewer)
• Keep training documents scoped to the right group (e.g., landscape guidelines only in the grounds committee workspace)
• Manage AI agents and conversation history without cross-contamination

This gives you a self-managed setup where each stakeholder sees only what they need.

The core of your HOA software is an AI agent that resolves resident questions automatically. After uploading your docs during onboarding, you can:

• Fine-tune the agent’s tone to match your community’s voice (friendly, formal, or informative)
• Add more sources—URLs, sitemaps, plain text—so the agent can answer about amenity reservations, trash pickup schedules, or dues deadlines
• Drop a single widget snippet on your HOA website; the agent appears instantly, ready to chat 24/7

Because the agent retrieves answers only from your content, it never guesses or makes up rules. That means fewer repetitive emails and a faster path to value.

Once residents start asking questions, conversation tags help you spot patterns. Auto-tagging (based on keywords like “pool,” “assessment,” “fence”) and manual tags let you:

• Categorize chats by topic or urgency
• Assign follow-ups to the right committee directly from the shared inbox
• Review which questions recur most often so you can update your docs and reduce future volume

Tags turn random chats into actionable insight—keeping your self-managed HOA running smoothly without extra tools.

After a day or two of real resident conversations, revisit your workspaces. Check the agent’s performance, add any missing documents you see in the tags, and adjust the primary brand color to match your HOA’s logo. Your setup is fully self-service: pay only for the coins you use ($1 buys around 100–500 answers), and pay nothing when chat is idle. No per‑month fees, no seats to buy—just a transparent, free‑to‑start HOA management solution that scales with your community.

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What are the steps to install HOA management software?

There is no traditional install. For Chatref’s self-managed platform:

1. Create an account and claim your $50 free credit.
2. Complete the guided onboarding—add your HOA’s website or upload PDFs of CC&Rs, bylaws, and rules.
3. Set up workspaces for each property or committee.
4. Configure the AI agent’s tone and drop the widget snippet onto your site.
5. Launch and begin answering resident questions. You can adjust documents anytime.

How do I configure user roles and permissions?

Within each workspace, invite team members as admin, agent, or viewer. Admins can manage documents and agents; agents can view and take over chats; viewers see only conversation summaries. This role-based model keeps board members, managers, and volunteers in their appropriate lanes—no per‑seat fees.

Can I import existing data into my HOA software?

Yes. During onboarding or later in any workspace, you can upload PDFs, past meeting minutes, Word documents, plain text, or point to URLs/sitemaps. The AI agent learns instantly from the content you provide, so all your community’s historical information becomes part of its knowledge base.

How do I set up automated reminders and notifications?

Chatref’s AI agent can answer questions about due dates, late fees, and reminders instantly, grounded in your documents. For automated email reminders (e.g., dues, event RSVPs), you typically connect your existing HOA accounting or mass-email tool. Ask our support team about webhook or Zapier options to bridge the two systems seamlessly.