User roles explained

Every user in HomeHerald has exactly one role. The role determines what they can see, what they can change, and what notifications they get. There are only three. Pick well - the wrong role at signup can be confusing for the user and a security issue for the community.

The three roles

Role	Who	What they see
Resident	Owners, tenants, household members	Their property. Their balance. Community announcements. Their own bookings and requests.
Board Member	Sitting board members	Everything residents see, plus the admin dashboard for the whole community
Admin	Treasurer, President, or whoever runs the HOA’s HomeHerald account	Everything Board Members see, plus control of who is on the board and what role each person has

Resident

The default role. About 95% of your users.

A resident can:

• See their property - address, balance, recent transactions
• Pay dues, fines, fees online
• Submit requests (complaints, ARC, maintenance)
• Book amenities (pool, gym, pavilion, etc.)
• Send messages to the board
• Read community announcements
• Download HOA documents (covenants, rules, meeting minutes)
• Update their own profile and notification preferences

A resident cannot:

• See other residents’ balances or transactions
• See pending or unresolved violations they didn’t file
• Approve other residents
• Edit properties (other than household-level changes their primary makes)
• Send announcements to the community
• Configure community settings

Board Member

A resident with extra access. Use this for everyone on your sitting board.

A board member can do everything a resident can do, plus:

• See the admin dashboard for the whole community
• View all properties and their balances
• View all transactions across the community
• Approve and reject pending residents
• Issue, escalate, and resolve violations
• Send announcements
• Manage requests across the whole community
• Trigger automations (Dues Chaser runs, Herald Shield review, etc.)
• See and reply to the unified email inbox
• Edit any property
• Move out or ban residents
• Work in My Herald Account and Settings - the plan, Stripe, payment methods, and integrations included
• Set their own Board Notifications - which board streams reach them and when, on a profile card only admins and board members have

A board member cannot:

• Change anyone’s role or board title, or add and remove people on the HOA Management Team
• Send a board member invite, or invite an outside management company
• Add properties or run Batch updates on Properties
• Ban another board member or admin
• Delete amenities, delete AI knowledge base documents, or see Herald’s chat logs

This is the right role for most board members - full operational access, while the question of who sits on the board stays with the admins.

Admin

The “owner” role. Use this for the Treasurer, the President, and ideally one other person as a backup.

Admins can do everything Board Members can do, plus:

• Promote and demote users between roles, and set board titles
• Manage the HOA Management Team in Settings - add, edit, and remove team members
• Invite new board members, and invite an outside management company
• Add properties and run Batch updates
• Ban another board member or admin
• Delete amenities and AI knowledge base documents, and read Herald’s chat logs

Nobody can change their own role, admins included - another admin has to do it. A safe rule: always have at least two admins. If your only admin gets locked out of email or steps off the board, you’ll be calling support to recover. Two is the minimum.

Picking the right role

A practical guide:

Person	Recommended role
Random resident who just signed up	Resident
Co-resident (spouse, family)	Resident
Tenant of an absentee owner	Resident
Newly-elected board member	Board Member
Treasurer	Admin
President	Admin
Secretary	Board Member
Member-at-Large	Board Member
Property manager (if your HOA hires one)	Don’t make them a member. Use Invite External Management in Settings, which gives the company only the areas you grant
HOA’s lawyer or accountant	Don’t give them HomeHerald access. Email them statements as needed.

Changing someone’s role

1. Members in the admin sidebar
2. Click the user
3. Under Actions, click Change Role (admins only)
4. Pick Resident, Board, or Admin (and a title for Board or Admin)
5. Save

You can also do this from the HOA Management Team card in Settings. The change applies on their next page load - they don’t have to log out and back in.

A note on demoting: when a board member’s term ends, demote them back to Resident. Don’t delete their account. They keep their property, their balance, and their history; they just lose admin access. Same goes for an admin stepping down.

Permission edge cases

A few things worth knowing about how roles interact:

Co-residents inherit visibility, not access

If a property has a primary resident who is a Board Member, and a co-resident who is a Resident, the co-resident is just a resident - they don’t get admin access through the household connection.

Role doesn’t override property linkage

A Board Member can see all properties’ balances, but if they live at Lot 14, they’re still the resident of Lot 14 in their own portal view. They have two contexts: “me as a board member looking at the community” and “me as a resident of my unit.”

Demote before you remove

Moving out or banning someone (see Removing or banning a user) doesn’t change their role, and a moved-out member who rejoins with the join code comes back with the role they had. If a board member or admin is leaving, set them back to Resident first.

Where to go next

• Approving pending residents - the resident sign-up review queue
• Assigning board titles - labeling board members for display
• Removing or banning a user - the right way to revoke access
• Inviting your board - the bulk-onboard flow for board members