Getting Started for Leaders

Welcome to Communitrak! This guide walks through the recommended setup steps for Community Leaders who are preparing their HOA for launch.

You do not need to complete everything in one sitting. Most communities start by updating their basic preferences, adding a few pieces of content, testing the experience with board members, and then inviting residents when they are ready.

1. Create your community account

To get started, create a Communitrak account for your community.

When you create the account, you will automatically be assigned as a Community Admin. This is the highest level of access and gives you access to manage your community’s settings, members, content, payments, and all system modules.

2. Review your community preferences and branding

Community Preferences control how Communitrak works and appears for your HOA.

From this page, you can disable any modules your community doesn’t need, configure communication, payment, member, and other settings, upload your community logo, and choose a brand color.

Adding your logo and brand color helps Communitrak feel familiar and official to residents. Your brand color is used throughout the resident experience, including buttons, highlights, and other visual elements.

We recommend reviewing these settings early so Communitrak reflects how your community operates before residents are invited.

For more information about Community Preferences, see this article:

3. Prepare your community content

Before inviting residents, add the information they will expect to find when they log in.

Common items to add include:

• A welcome bulletin board post

• Upcoming community events

• Important files and documents

• Amenity details and reservation rules

• Helpful articles or community information

• Member groups for board members, committees, or neighborhoods

You do not need to build everything at once. Start with the most important information residents will need on day one.

4. Invite board members or committee members first

Many communities prefer to invite a small group of leaders before inviting all residents.

This gives your board or committee time to explore Communitrak, test common workflows, gather feedback, and get comfortable with the platform before the full community launch.

You can manually add members or work with Communitrak Support to import a list of board and committee members.

To manually invite members, click the button below or navigate to the Community Members page, and then click the + Invite Member button.

For more information on how to manually onboard members, view this support article:

5. Enable payment processing, if needed

If your community plans to accept dues, fees, or other payments through Communitrak, you will need to enable payment processing.

This step connects your community to Stripe, our secure payment processor. Stripe may ask for information about the HOA and a board representative in order to verify the account and deposit funds into the community’s bank account.

You can complete this step before launch or return to it later if you are not ready to accept payments yet.

6. Add a subscription payment method

Before your trial ends, add a payment method for your Communitrak subscription.

This keeps your community account active after the trial period and prevents any interruption in access.

If you need additional time to try Communitrak, just let us know! We are happy to extend the trial period.

7. Add properties, households, and residents

When you are ready to build your member directory, you can add residents in one of two ways.

Add residents manually
Create each property, add a household under that property, and then invite members to join the household. This is best for the initial onboarding of board members or for resident turnover. Residents will receive an email invitation as part of this flow.

Import residents from a spreadsheet [RECOMMENDED]
If you have an Excel or CSV file with resident information, Communitrak Support can import properties, households, and members for you. The file should include any available details, such as names, property addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. Email invitations can be sent during the import if you’re ready, but we usually recommend waiting until after you’ve had a chance to review the imported data and confirm everything looks correct.

For more information on how to manually invite members, see this article:

8. Onboard residents

If residents were imported, you can send email invitations when you’re ready to begin onboarding residents.

If you want residents to activate their accounts before the community is fully ready, you can enable the Black Curtain in Community Preferences. This lets you send invitations and allows residents to create their accounts while temporarily preventing them from logging in until you’re ready to launch.

You’re ready to launch!
Once these steps are complete, your community will be ready to begin using Communitrak for communication, resident management, files, payments, requests, violations, amenities, and more.

Need help along the way? Use the chat bubble in Communitrak to contact Support. We’re happy to help with setup, imports, configuration, and launch planning.