Reference

Troubleshooting

The issues that come up most often - "the resident says they paid but it's not showing," "Stripe shows error," "I can't find this property" - with the steps to actually fix them.

Last updated September 25, 2026

When something goes wrong, this is the place to look first. Issues are organized by symptom - find what matches your situation, follow the steps. If nothing here helps, the last section covers how to get support.

Payments

”A resident says they paid but I don’t see the payment”

  1. Filter the ledger to the property. Look for any PAYMENT record in the last 14 days.
  2. Check the payment method:
    • Card, or Apple Pay in the iPhone app: should appear within seconds
    • ACH: takes 3-5 business days to clear
    • PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, or paper check: HomeHerald doesn’t see these - they need manual recording (you do this)
    • Direct bank transfer: requires manual recording
  3. If you don’t see it but the resident has a Stripe receipt: check the payments list in your HOA’s Stripe dashboard. If it’s there but not in HomeHerald, contact HomeHerald Support (or support@homeherald.ai) with the Stripe payment ID.
  4. If they paid outside Stripe: confirm the money actually arrived in your HOA’s account before recording.

”The resident says their card was charged twice”

  1. Check the ledger for two PAYMENT records on the same property within the same hour
  2. If you see duplicates, refund one of them - see Issuing refunds
  3. If only one record shows but the resident has two charges on their card, check Stripe Dashboard. Sometimes Stripe records both attempts but only one HomeHerald record is created.
  4. If unclear, refund both and ask the resident to retry.

”Stripe is showing ‘Payment failed’ to residents”

Common causes:

  • Card declined - resident’s card is expired, wrong, or has insufficient funds. They need to retry with a different card.
  • Stripe setup not finished - your HOA’s Stripe account still needs information before it can take payments. In Settings → Community Settings → Payment Methods, a Setup Incomplete badge means exactly this; click Resume Setup and finish what Stripe asks for.
  • 3DS challenge required - some EU residents need to complete a 3D Secure challenge. They should see a prompt; if they don’t, browser issue - try a different browser.

”Apple Pay isn’t showing up at checkout”

Apple Pay is offered only in the HomeHerald iPhone app, not in a web browser - so a resident paying on the website won’t see it, even in Safari. In the app it needs card payments to be live on your Stripe account. See Apple Pay setup.

Properties

”I can’t find a property in the list”

  1. Use the Properties search - it matches address, lot, or owner name
  2. Check how the address was entered (a unit number or “St” vs “Street” can hide it from a quick search)
  3. If the property was deleted (rare), it’s gone from the list - contact HomeHerald Support if you need it back; your Community Backups may hold it

”A property’s balance is wrong”

  1. Open the property’s ledger
  2. Look for any voided or recently-edited records (the Audit Log on Transactions shows every edit and delete, who made it, and what changed)
  3. Compare against your bank deposits to find missing payments
  4. Don’t try to “edit your way” to the right balance - find the wrong record and fix it. See How the ledger works.

”Bulk import created duplicates”

AI Import skips addresses already on file, so duplicates usually mean the same home was written two different ways (e.g. “12 Oak St” and “12 Oak Street”). To clean up:

  1. Identify the duplicates by sorting on address
  2. Decide which to keep (usually the older one with linked residents and ledger history)
  3. Delete the duplicate - only if no ledger records or residents are attached to it
  4. If many duplicates, contact HomeHerald Support for a bulk cleanup

Residents

”A resident says they can’t log in”

  1. Confirm their account exists - search Members in the admin sidebar by their name or address (the Residents & contacts tab also searches by email)
  2. Check status:
    • Pending - they’re in Pending Approvals and need admin approval (you)
    • Moved Out - they’re under Former Members; to come back, they rejoin with the join code
    • Banned - open their profile and use Unban Member if appropriate
    • Rejected - their sign-up was rejected; they can’t get into the community
  3. If status is Active but they still can’t get in, they may have forgotten their password - direct them to the forgot-password link on the sign-in screen
  4. If password reset doesn’t work either, contact HomeHerald Support

”Resident is showing up under the wrong property”

  1. Open the member under Members
  2. Change the linked property from their profile

If the property already has a resident, you choose whether to Add as additional resident or Move out current resident - nobody is demoted behind your back.

”A resident I removed is still seeing the property”

  1. Verify the user is actually unlinked - open the property, check linked residents list
  2. If unlinked but they still see it, have them refresh or reopen the app so it loads fresh data.
  3. If you also want to cut off their access to the community, use Move Out User or Ban from Community on their profile.

Bookings and amenities

”Two residents booked the same slot”

Any booking that isn’t cancelled, rejected, or completed - including one still waiting for approval - holds its slot, so a second booking for the same time is refused. If two landed anyway (a rare bug), contact HomeHerald Support.

”An amenity isn’t showing up for residents”

Check:

  • Active - is the amenity switched on?
  • Availability - is the resident trying a day or time the amenity isn’t open?
  • Booking window - are they booking further ahead than the maximum advance days, or with less notice than the minimum advance hours?
  • Consecutive days - are they asking for more days in a row than the amenity allows?

”I forfeited a deposit but the money didn’t come through”

The forfeit captures the held funds. Stripe processes it; the money should be in your account within 2-7 business days like any normal Stripe transaction.

If 7+ days have passed and you don’t see the deposit settlement, check Stripe Dashboard for the booking’s payment intent and confirm it’s marked “captured” not just “authorized.”

Communications

”Residents say they’re not getting our emails”

  1. Check their notification settings - a resident can turn email off for themselves; for something that must reach everyone, use Email Blast
  2. Check spam - ask a few residents to check their spam folder; if HomeHerald emails are there, your community’s email reputation may be hurting deliverability
  3. Whitelist - for residents with corporate email accounts, ask their IT to whitelist HomeHerald’s sending domain
  4. Verify their email is correct - go to their profile and confirm

”An email I sent has typos / wrong info”

You can:

  • Edit the in-app version (residents who haven’t opened it yet see the corrected version)
  • Send a corrective announcement: “Correction to yesterday’s announcement: [thing]”

Don’t try to delete the announcement and re-send - residents will already have the email in inbox.

”Herald Chat told a resident the wrong thing”

  1. Update the AI knowledge base source so the underlying info is accurate (the AI uses configured sources as truth - fix the source, fix the AI)
  2. Reach out to the resident directly with the correct info

See Herald Chat and AI knowledge base.

Integrations

”Stripe says ‘Authentication failed’”

Check the connection:

  1. Settings → Community Settings → Payment Methods
  2. If it shows Setup Incomplete, click Resume Setup and finish what Stripe asks for
  3. If the bank account needs to be replaced, Disconnect it and click Connect Bank Account to start again

If Stripe still refuses, the Stripe account itself may have been closed or restricted. Contact Stripe support, then HomeHerald Support.

”Physical Mail letters aren’t being sent”

Check:

  1. Configuration → Physical Mail - is Physical Mail turned on?
  2. Letter credits - the card shows how many credits remain; each letter uses one
  3. The send itself - look for it in Activity & Usage

If a letter still didn’t go out, contact HomeHerald Support with the recipient and the date.

Plan and billing

”Our card was declined for the HomeHerald subscription”

Update the payment method under My Herald Account → Billing. Stripe retries the charge automatically.

While the payment is unresolved, the app shows a payment banner. If billing isn’t brought current, the community eventually loses access until it is. Your data is preserved throughout - update the card and everything comes back.

”It says ‘Property limit reached’”

Your plan covers a set number of properties: 105, 205, or 400. Adding or importing past that is refused. Check the Properties meter under My Herald Account - every property counts, whatever its status. Delete any that shouldn’t be there, or move to a larger size with Manage Plan.

If you believe the count or a charge is wrong, contact HomeHerald Support with details.

When all else fails

Contact support

Board members and admins can click HomeHerald Support at the bottom of the admin sidebar (or Support in the Herald menu on a phone) and write to the team in a thread inside the app - see Contacting HomeHerald support. You can also email support@homeherald.ai. Either way, include:

  • Your community name
  • The issue (specific, with what you’ve already tried)
  • A screenshot if applicable
  • The relevant property, person, or transaction

Check the activity log

Activity & Usage (under Automate in the admin sidebar) shows what the automations did and when - Herald Shield, Dues Chaser, bookings, Email Integration, Community Pulse, Pet Protect, and Herald Welcome. Check this before reporting a bug - sometimes the answer is “the system did exactly what was configured, the config is the issue.”

Check the audit trail

For money, Transactions has an Audit Log showing every edit and delete of a ledger record, who made it, and what changed. Useful for:

  • “Did someone edit this and break it?”
  • “When did the change happen?”
  • “Who’s responsible for the change?”

Use the system admin

If your community has multiple admins, ping the others. They may have made a recent change that’s the cause.

For very obscure issues, replicating with another admin’s account often clarifies whether it’s an account-specific issue or a system-wide one.

Where to go next

  • Glossary - for terms that aren’t clicking
  • How HomeHerald is organized - when the mental model isn’t matching what you see
  • The relevant feature article - every issue category above links back to the deep dive on that topic