The unified email inbox

When a resident emails the HOA — support@yourhoa.com, board@yourhoa.com, whatever your contact address is — that email lands in HomeHerald’s unified inbox. Every admin and board member sees it. They can reply, archive, label, or convert it to a ticket. This is one of the higher-impact features for boards that previously did email-by-Gmail-CC chaos.

Where it lives

Email Inbox in the admin sidebar (mobile: “Email”; page header: “Agent Inbox”)

You’ll see a list of incoming emails — sender, subject, date, AI-suggested category, and status (Unread / Read / Replied / Archived).

Setup — pointing email to the inbox

For incoming emails to actually arrive, your HOA’s contact email needs to forward to HomeHerald. Two ways:

Option A — use HomeHerald’s email address

Easiest. HomeHerald can provision an address for your community like hello@yourhoa.homeherald.email. You just tell residents to use that.

Pros: zero setup Cons: not your custom domain

Option B — forward your existing address

If you already have board@yourhoa.com set up, configure auto-forwarding from your email host (Google Workspace, Microsoft, your domain registrar) to HomeHerald’s incoming address.

1. Open the Email Inbox / Email Integration setup
2. Copy your community’s incoming address
3. Set up forwarding from your existing address to that
4. Send a test email to confirm

Pros: keep your branded address Cons: one-time setup involving your email host

Reading and replying

When a new email arrives:

1. It shows up in the inbox marked Unread
2. The system auto-categorizes it (more on this below)
3. Admins can open it, read the full thread, and reply

Replies go out from your community’s outbound email address (typically the same address residents emailed). Threading is preserved — the resident sees a normal email reply with the full history.

Replying:

1. Open the email
2. Click Reply
3. Type your response
4. Optional: attach files, add a board signature
5. Click Send

The reply is logged in the thread. All other admins see it the next time they open the inbox.

AI categorization

When emails arrive, an AI assigns a category based on content:

Category	Examples
Payment	Resident sending payment notification or asking about payments
Invoice	Vendor invoices and bills
Inquiry	Resident questions (“when is dues due?”, “what are pool hours?”)
Complaint	Resident reporting issues or violations
Other	Everything else

The AI is right most of the time but not always. You can re-categorize manually if needed.

Filtering and views

Default view: all unread, newest first.

Filter options:

• Status: Unread / Read / Replied / Archived
• Category: Dues / Violations / etc.
• Sender: specific resident or property
• Date range: custom

Most admins set up a saved view like “Unread + not assigned to me” so they only see what needs attention.

Assignment

If your board has multiple people checking the inbox, assign threads to specific admins:

1. Open a thread
2. Click Assign
3. Pick a board member
4. They get notified; the thread shows up in their queue

Useful when:

• The Treasurer should handle billing emails
• The Architectural Chair should handle ARC emails
• Specific board member is the contact for a specific issue

Unassigned threads stay visible to everyone. The first admin who picks it up implicitly assigns it to themselves by replying.

Archiving

When you’re done with a thread:

1. Click Archive
2. Thread disappears from the active inbox

Archived threads remain searchable. To find a specific past email:

• Search by sender name, email, or keyword
• Filter by date range
• Browse archived threads under View archived

Don’t delete unless it’s truly trash (spam, garbage). Archive preserves history.

Converting an email to a request

Sometimes a resident emails about something that should be a formal request (a complaint, an ARC, a maintenance issue). Rather than re-keying it as a ticket, convert it:

1. Open the email
2. Click Create request from this email
3. Pick the request type (Complaint, ARC, Maintenance, General)
4. The system pre-fills the request from the email content
5. Adjust as needed and save

The original email is now linked to the request. Future communication on the request can happen via email reply or in the request thread; they stay synced.

See Email-to-ticket for the full conversion flow.

What residents see

Residents don’t see the inbox itself. From their side, it’s just normal email:

• They send to your HOA’s contact address
• They get a reply from your HOA’s contact address
• Threading works as expected

They don’t know whether they’re interacting with one board member or a shared inbox. Good for them — feels professional. Good for you — no need to maintain personal-email forwarding.

Common situations

”I replied from my personal Gmail and it didn’t show up in the inbox”

If you reply outside HomeHerald, the reply goes from your personal email and isn’t tracked. Always reply from the inbox itself so the thread stays consolidated. If you accidentally replied externally, paste the message into the thread as a note.

”Two admins replied to the same email at the same time”

Possible. The thread shows both replies. The resident sees both — usually a non-issue (“Thanks, the Secretary already answered, but here’s an additional thought from the Treasurer”). For consistency, assign threads as soon as they arrive.

”A resident keeps emailing the same question repeatedly”

If they don’t realize they’re being heard:

• Send a clear reply with what action is being taken
• Pin the thread (so it’s visible to other admins)
• Consider whether their question would be better as a community-wide announcement or FAQ

If they’re being abusive:

• Reply once with policy (“Please consolidate questions into one email per week”)
• Apply a label like “High-friction”
• Escalate per your community’s complaint policy

”We’re getting a lot of spam”

Auto-filter rules + AI categorization handle most. For persistent spammers:

• If spam is generic (not targeted), the AI’s spam filter should already be catching it

”Can residents see other residents’ emails to the board?”

No. The inbox is admin-only. Each thread is private between the board and the sender.

”Can we forward to a personal address?”

You can configure email notifications to your personal address (“New email in inbox: [subject]”). But the actual reply still happens in HomeHerald — the notification is just a heads-up.

Where to go next

• Email-to-ticket — converting emails to formal requests
• Announcements — outbound community-wide messaging
• Herald Chat — AI bot that answers common resident questions before they hit the inbox