Integrations

HomeHerald connects to a few external services for payments and communications. This article is the inventory - what each integration does, when to enable it, and where to manage it.

Where to manage integrations

There is no single integrations page. Each one lives where you use it:

• Stripe - My Herald Account → Receive Payments (connect, resume setup, or disconnect), plus Settings → Payment Methods
• Physical Mail - Configuration → Physical Mail (an on/off switch plus your Letter Credits)
• Email Integration - Configuration → Email Integration

The integrations

Stripe (payments)

Required for online payments.

What it does:

• Card and ACH payments, plus Apple Pay in the iPhone app
• Refunds
• Payout to your HOA’s bank account

Setup: see Enabling Stripe payments.

Disconnecting: residents lose the ability to pay online. Existing transactions and refunds still work. Only do this if you’re switching to a different payment processor or shutting down online payments.

PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App (payment instructions)

Not a connected integration.

These are payment methods whose instructions you publish in Settings → Payment Methods (your email or username plus a note). Residents pay you outside HomeHerald, and you record the payment. If you use Email Integration, its inbox scan can pick up PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle payment emails for you.

Setup: see Accepting PayPal, Venmo, and checks.

Physical Mail

Optional but valuable for formal notices.

What it does:

• Sends physical letters to residents by standard First-Class mail, paid with letter credits
• Syncs each letter’s mailing status automatically

Setup: see Physical Mail letters.

Turning it off: switch Physical Mail off in Configuration. You can no longer send letters via HomeHerald, so you’d need to print and mail letters manually.

Email Integration (Gmail or Google Workspace)

Useful if you want HomeHerald to work from the HOA’s own mailbox.

Connect the HOA’s Gmail or Google Workspace mailbox with a Google App Password. HomeHerald then:

• Sends notices and email blasts from that address
• Scans its inbox for payments, invoices, and inquiries

Microsoft and other providers are not supported. See The unified email inbox.

Integration security

A few things worth knowing:

Credentials stay out of sight

Your Email Integration App Password is stored server-side, and the app never shows it to anyone.

Stripe connects through Stripe

You never enter Stripe keys. You connect through Stripe’s own hosted onboarding (Stripe Connect), and you can disconnect from My Herald Account → Receive Payments.

Disconnect doesn’t delete history

When you disconnect an integration, past transactions / events stay in HomeHerald. Only the live connection is severed. Reconnecting in the future restores live functionality without re-entering historical data.

Common situations

”We connected Stripe but residents still can’t pay”

Likely causes:

• Stripe setup is incomplete - Receive Payments shows “Setup Incomplete” with a Resume Setup button
• Bank account isn’t verified

Check the Stripe dashboard for any flagged issues. Most blocking problems show as a yellow banner in Stripe.

”We turned off Physical Mail by accident - what happens to letters in flight?”

Letters already submitted complete their journey (printing, mailing, delivery). New letters can’t be sent until you switch it back on.

”Email Integration is showing ‘Connection failed’”

Usually the App Password was revoked or IMAP is turned off in Gmail. Fix that in Google, then reconnect in Configuration → Email Integration.

”We want to add a custom integration not in the list”

Email support@homeherald.ai about your specific need. The available integration list is fixed in the current product.

Where to go next

• Enabling Stripe payments - the most-used integration
• Physical Mail letters - formal mail
• The unified email inbox - where HOA email lands
• Plan and billing - for what’s available where