What residents see vs. what admins see

A common question from residents: “Who can see this? Can my neighbors see what I owe? Can the board see my private message?” This article is the reference for answering all of those.

The general principle

HomeHerald separates community-wide information from per-property private information.

• Community-wide stuff (announcements, public board posts, amenity calendar) is visible to everyone
• Per-property private stuff (balances, requests you filed, transactions, messages) is visible only to:
  • The residents linked to that property
  • Board members and admins (in their admin view)

Other residents cannot see another property’s balances, requests, or transactions. Ever. Privacy here is a hard requirement.

Side-by-side: what each role sees

A resident’s view

What they see:

• Their property’s balance and ledger — every charge, payment, credit on their property
• Their own bookings — past and upcoming amenity reservations
• Their own requests — complaints they filed, ARC requests, maintenance requests
• Community announcements — anything the board posted
• Published board items — violations the board chose to publish (e.g., enforcement updates)
• Community amenity calendar — when the pool is reserved (without seeing who reserved it, optionally)
• Community directory — board members with titles, optionally other residents (configurable)
• Community documents — covenants, rules, meeting minutes the board uploaded
• HOA contact info

What they don’t see:

• Other residents’ balances or transactions
• Other residents’ requests or violations (unless published)
• The admin dashboard
• The unified email inbox
• Other properties’ details
• Internal board notes or discussions

A board member’s view

Everything a resident sees, plus the admin dashboard, which shows:

• All residents and their properties
• All transactions across the community
• All requests / violations across the community
• The pending-approvals queue
• The unified email inbox (incoming resident emails)
• Community-wide announcements composer
• All booking activity
• Community settings (read access; some edits)

A board member does not see:

• Billing or plan tier info (Admin-only)
• Stripe configuration / payment keys
• Integration toggles for paid agents

An admin’s view

Everything a board member sees, plus:

• Plan and billing details
• Stripe Connect status, capabilities, statement descriptor
• Payment method toggles
• Integration settings (Physical Mail, Pet Protect, Herald Shield, Herald Chat)
• AI knowledge base config
• The ability to promote / demote other users

Specific scenarios — who can see what?

”I filed a complaint about my neighbor. Can they see it?”

Not by default. Filed complaints are visible to:

• You (the filer)
• Board members and admins

The accused resident does not see the complaint unless the board chooses to act on it (e.g., issuing a violation notice). At that point, the violation is visible to the accused property’s residents — but not to the wider community unless the board explicitly publishes it.

”Can my neighbors see how much I owe?”

No. Balances are visible only to:

• Residents of the property
• Board members and admins

Other residents cannot see your balance. The directory shows names, not financial info.

”I’m a co-resident. Can I see the same things as my spouse (the primary resident)?”

Yes. Co-residents see the property’s full ledger, all bookings, all requests filed by anyone in the household. There’s no privacy distinction between primary and co-resident at the property level.

If you don’t want a co-resident to see, e.g., your transaction history, you’d need to remove them as a co-resident — see Linking residents to a property.

”Can my tenant see what the owner pays for dues?”

If the tenant is linked to the property as a co-resident, yes — they see the same ledger as the owner. Tenants and owners share visibility when they’re both linked to the same property.

If you want a tenant to have portal access without seeing dues, the cleanest option is: don’t link them to the property. Instead, have the owner’s portal handle anything financial, and use direct email for tenant communications. (This is a known limitation.)

”Can residents see the board’s internal discussions?”

No. Internal board notes (e.g., on a violation, on a property record, on a request thread) are visible only to board members and admins. Residents see only the public-facing parts of any record.

”If a resident sends a message, can other admins see it?”

Yes. Messages addressed to the board (or to the unified email inbox) are visible to all board members and admins. There’s no concept of a “private message to one admin” — community comms are board-wide.

If a resident wants to communicate with one specific board member privately, they should use that board member’s personal email, not HomeHerald.

”What about the audit log? Can residents see it?”

No. Audit logs (who changed what, when) are admin-only. Residents see their own action history (e.g., “you paid $200 on March 1”) but not the system’s internal audit log of admin actions.

”Can residents see who reserved an amenity?”

Generally yes — booking calendars typically display the reserver’s name as part of standard transparency. Specific behavior may vary by amenity configuration.

”Can other residents see my email address?”

Each resident controls visibility of their own contact info via their notification preferences — they can choose whether their phone or email is visible in the community directory.

Per-resident privacy controls

Privacy is largely controlled at the resident level, not the community level. Each resident’s profile has notification preferences including:

• Whether their phone number is visible in the community directory
• Whether their email is visible in the community directory
• Notification opt-ins (email, SMS, push)
• AI data consent

Residents control these themselves. Admins can see what each resident has chosen but generally don’t override.

Where to go next

• User roles explained — the role-by-role permission breakdown
• Approving pending residents — the front door to your community
• Linking residents to a property — for managing household visibility