--- title: "Managing Community Preferences" description: "Turn modules on or off, set member defaults, choose Financial and Requests options, set your timezone, Black Curtain, AI, and contact details, and brand Communitrak from the Preferences page." url: https://support.communitrak.com/en/articles/4-managing-community-preferences collection: "Community Settings for Leaders" updated: 2026-11-12 language: en --- # Managing Community Preferences Turn modules on or off, set member defaults, choose Financial and Requests options, set your timezone, Black Curtain, AI, and contact details, and brand Communitrak from the Preferences page. The Preferences page controls how Communitrak works for your whole community. You can turn modules on or off, choose what new members start with, set Financial and Requests options, set your timezone and contact details, and brand Communitrak with your logo and colors. This article walks through every card on the page in the order you'll see it. ## **Who can do this** - Opening the Preferences page requires the **View Community Preferences** permission. - Changing a setting on it requires the **Update Community Preferences** permission. Without it, you can see every setting but the controls are grayed out. - Turning a module on or off requires the **Turn Modules On/Off** permission. It's separate so you can let someone adjust settings without letting them switch a feature on or off for everyone. - Changing the **Default Member Role** requires the **Update Role Permissions** permission, because it decides what every new member can do. - Custom fields have their own permissions. Opening the list requires **View Custom Fields**, and adding, renaming, or deleting fields requires **Manage Custom Fields**. - Turning Access Control on or off is done by Communitrak, not from your account. Some options may be unavailable or appear differently depending on your level of account access. ## **Open the Preferences page** 1. Log in to Communitrak at [https://app.communitrak.com](https://app.communitrak.com). 2. In the main navigation menu, expand **Community** and click **Preferences**. The page opens on the **Preferences** tab of **My Community**. The left column holds a card for each module, and the right column holds **General Settings**, **AI**, **Communication Preferences**, and **Appearance & Branding**. ![](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/ghelparticle/pMGQ1gLcJYHl51eNmLBmAXQiykSVS5mFxZoxLvl2f8MQMywAR0AV68OXlg1h0aKVxoto8qXB1KO.png) ## **Turn modules on or off** Each module card has a switch in its top-right corner. Click it to turn the module on or off. A message confirms the change, and it takes effect for everyone in the community right away. The switches need the **Turn Modules On/Off** permission; without it they're grayed out. The switches, in the order they appear, are **Bulletin Board**, **Calendar**, **Articles**, **Amenities**, **Alerts**, **Messages**, **Files**, **Financial**, **Forms**, **Parking**, **Pets**, **Classifieds**, **Elections**, **Requests**, and **Violations**. Every module starts on except Pets, Classifieds, and Elections, which you turn on when you're ready to use them. When a module is off, it disappears from the main navigation menu for leaders and residents alike, and a saved link to one of its pages takes you to the Dashboard instead. > **Info:** **Note:** Turning a module off doesn't delete anything. Turn it back on and its posts, files, charges, and other content are still there. Some module cards have extra settings that appear only while the module is on. They're covered below. ## **Members** The **Members** card sits between Articles and Amenities and holds the defaults for new and existing members. ### **Default Member Role** Choose the role a new member gets when they're invited, imported, or added to a household, or when they join the community on their own. If a different role is picked for a member at that moment, that choice wins. Each role in the list is tagged **System** or **Custom**, and roles with leader access are also tagged **Leader**. Most communities leave this set to **Resident**. Changing it requires the **Update Role Permissions** permission. Community Admin, and any role with an admin-only permission (**Manage Communitrak Billing**, **Manage AI Usage**, or **Download Community Data**), can't be the Default Member Role, so they aren't offered here. A role that is the Default Member Role also can't be given those permissions. > **Warning:** **Heads up:** Leader roles appear in this list too. Choosing one gives every new member leader access. ### **Default members list view** This sets how the Members list looks the first time each person opens it. Anyone can still change their own columns from that page, and it never shows someone contact details they couldn't already see. - **Columns**: choose which optional columns appear: **Role**, **Title**, **Email**, and **Phone**. Use **Select All** at the top of the list to check or clear them all. Your choice saves when you close the list. If you clear them all, the list shows each member's name and address only. Out of the box, Role, Title, and Email are on. - **Sort by**: choose **First Name**, **Last Name**, **Address**, **Role**, **Title**, **Email**, or **Phone**. The default is Last Name. ### **Custom Fields** Custom fields store extra information about your members beyond the standard profile, such as a gate remote number or a parking space. Values are entered on each member's profile, in the custom fields card. With **Manage Custom Fields**, the button next to Custom Fields reads **Configure**. With only **View Custom Fields**, it reads **View** and opens the list with the editing controls grayed out. 1. Click **Configure** next to Custom Fields. 2. In the **Member Custom Fields** dialog, click **New Field**, type the field name, and press Enter or click the checkmark. 3. To rename a field, click its pencil icon, change the name, and press Enter or click the checkmark. Press Esc to cancel. 4. To delete a field, click its trash icon, then click **Delete**. 5. Click **Close** when you're done. > **Warning:** **Heads up:** A deleted custom field can't be recovered. ![](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/ghelparticle/PmGRhxkjsGVx1TZ3SB80Fq48pNEEzm1paIUC9Ia0UBV0CtKJv3ww7Idbs3pAvoWFr0z8EeKyaoG.png) ### **Default contact visibility for new residents** These checkboxes decide which contact details are shown in the directory for newly invited or imported residents: **Email**, **Phone**, **Mailing Address**, **Additional Contacts**, and **Property Address**. All five start on. Existing residents aren't changed, and every resident can still adjust their own visibility in their account. To control which roles can see contact information at all, edit role permissions on the **Roles** tab. ## **Messages** While Messages is on, the card shows **Shared HOA Inbox staff**. By default, the HOA's shared inbox is read and answered by people whose role has HOA inbox access, and you don't need to change anything. You can also choose a member group, such as your board, whose members can read and answer it too. Communitrak asks you to confirm before it saves. Access follows the group as people join and leave it. See "Using the HOA Shared Inbox" for details. ## **Financial** While Financial is on, the card shows three settings. If it's off, the card reads "Enable the Financial module to configure its preferences." ### **Who is responsible for payment processing fees?** Choose your community's name to have the community absorb processing fees, or **Members** to add the fee to the amount residents pay. Your community's card and ACH rates are listed below the dropdown. Either way, the community always covers the processing fees on amenity reservation fees and deposits. If any households use Auto Pay and you switch from the community to Members, Communitrak first asks you to confirm, because those residents agreed to pay only the charge amount. Clicking **Change fee responsibility** ends their Auto Pay enrollments and emails each one to re-enroll. Until they do, their charges aren't paid automatically. Switching back to the community doesn't affect Auto Pay. See "Enabling Payments" for more. ### **How many days before a new charge is due?** The number of days after a charge is created that it's due, from 1 to 365. The default is 30. It fills in the due date when you create a charge, and you can still change the date on each charge. The value saves when you click out of the field. ### **How many days after the due date is a charge past due?** The number of days after the due date before a charge counts as past due, from 1 to 365. The default is 30. It saves when you click out of the field. ## **Pets** While Pets is on, the card lets you list the records every household must keep on file for its pets, such as a rabies vaccination or a pet license, and choose when owners are reminded before a record expires. Click **Save Pet Settings** after making changes. See "Setting Up Pets and Required Pet Records" for details. ## **Classifieds** Classifieds has no settings on this page beyond its switch. Once it's on, residents can add and review local vendors. Sponsored listings, reports, and categories are managed from **Manage** on the Classifieds page. See "Setting Up Classifieds and Sponsored Listings" for details. ## **Elections** Elections has no settings on this page beyond its switch. Once it's on, people with election permissions can run secret-ballot elections from **Elections** in the main navigation menu, and the **Elections** permissions appear in the role editor. See "Running an Election" for details. ## **Requests** While Requests is on, the card shows a checkbox for each request category: **General Requests**, **Maintenance Requests**, and **Architectural Requests**. Uncheck a category to stop offering it. Review rules for each category, such as committee voting, are set up from the Requests module. See "Architectural Review & Committee Voting" for details. The **Forms & Polls Banner** checkbox shows a banner on the Requests page directing residents to submit new requests through a form, which is useful when you want to collect specific information up front. See "Collecting Requests Through a Form" for details. **Violations** has its own card and switch directly below Requests. ## **Access Control** Access Control is a paid add-on, so its card has no switch for your community. While it's off, the card describes the feature, and **Get started with Access Control** opens a chat with Communitrak Support. If your community used Access Control before and its bridge is still registered, the card offers **Contact us to reactivate** instead. While it's on, the card shows: - **Bridge Status**: **Connection** (Connected, Stale, or Disconnected), **Last Heartbeat**, whether **UniFi Access** is Reachable or Unreachable, and the **Bridge Version**. - **System Summary**: how many **Doors**, **NFC Cards**, and **Synced Members** you have. See "Setting Up Access Control" for managing doors, schedules, and credentials. ## **General Settings** ### **Timezone** Choose Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Hawaii, or Alaska time. The default is Eastern. Communitrak uses it for times across your community, such as amenity hours and reservations, scheduled messages and posts, and the times shown in emails. ### **Black Curtain** When checked, residents can still be invited and create their accounts, but they can't sign in or see anything until you uncheck it. Use it to set up and review your community before launch. Residents who try to sign in see a message that your community leaders are preparing for launch. Communitrak doesn't notify anyone when you lift the curtain, so let residents know yourself. Only people whose role has the **Black Curtain Access Override** permission can sign in while the curtain is up. Anyone else who is already signed in is signed out within a few minutes. Communitrak asks you to confirm either way: - Checking the box opens **Turn on Black Curtain?**, which explains who will be signed out. Click **Turn on Black Curtain** to save it. - If your own role doesn't have Black Curtain Access Override, the dialog reads **Turn on Black Curtain and sign yourself out?** and warns that you won't be able to sign back in until someone whose role has it turns Black Curtain off. The button reads **Turn on and sign me out**. - Unchecking the box opens **Turn off Black Curtain?**. Click **Turn off Black Curtain** and everyone can sign in right away. Click **Cancel** to leave the setting as it was. ### **Beta Program** Check this to give your community early access to features in the final stages of development. Beta features are provided as-is and may change or contain issues, and your feedback helps shape them before they're released to everyone. ## **AI** The switch in the top-right corner of the **AI** card turns AI on or off for the whole community. AI is on unless you turn it off. Turn it off and every AI feature is off, and no community content is sent to an AI service. While AI is on, the card shows a checkbox for each feature, so you can keep the writing tools and turn off the assistant, for example. Every feature starts on. A note at the top of the card explains that AI follows the same permissions as the rest of Communitrak. - **AI assistant**: the assistant chat, including reading your community's documents. - **Today card**: the AI summary on the Dashboard. - **Writing tools**: the sparkle button in the editor, suggested subjects and titles, condensing alerts, and reply drafts. - **Summaries**: **Summarize** on message threads, requests, and violations. - **Pet photo tools**: pet photo auto-fill and **Found a Pet?** Changes reach everyone who is signed in within a few minutes, without them signing out. See "Using AI Features as a Community Leader" for what each tool does and what it costs. ### **AI Instructions** Standing instructions the AI assistant and the Today card follow for everyone who uses them. Use them for what to call things, the tone to write in, or steps you want taken first, for example: _Call homes "lots," not "units." Before suggesting a fine, check whether the household has an open request about the same issue._ 1. Type your instructions in the **AI Instructions** box, up to 2,000 characters. 2. Click **Save AI Instructions**. They apply from the next question anyone asks the assistant, and to the Today card from its next summary. To remove them, clear the box and save. Instructions can't change what anyone is allowed to see or do, and the assistant still asks for approval before every change. The box is grayed out while AI features are off. ## **Communication Preferences** - **Community Email Address**: if a member replies to an email or message sent by Communitrak, the reply may be routed to this address. - **Community Phone Number**: residents may be directed to call this number with questions. - **SMS Display Name**: a short name shown at the start of text message alerts, as in "Sunset Ridge: The pool will be closed today." Up to 30 characters. Leave it blank to use your full community name. A shorter name leaves more room for your message in a single text. Unlike the rest of the page, this card doesn't save as you type. Make your changes, then click **Save Communication Preferences** or press Enter in any field. The button stays grayed out until something has changed. ## **Appearance & Branding** This card sets what appears in the top-left corner of Communitrak and your community's brand color. - **Logo**: choose **Communitrak Logo** (the default, with your community name below it), **Community Name** (your name in a **Brand Font** you pick), or **Custom Logo** (an image you upload with **Upload Custom Logo**: JPEG, PNG, or GIF, up to 10 MB). - **Brand Color**: pick a color with the swatch or type a hex code. It colors the sidebar, buttons, links, and highlights in Communitrak, and the accents on your public community website. Click **Clear** to go back to the default neutral theme. See "Customizing Your Logo and Brand Color" for step-by-step instructions and tips. ![](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/ghelparticle/JW38Em9ft6d5LAUSNUMXNqR08pflvWdd89pR6uDD97Nd6QMh6kHd07RbHJ7f7HmTqDfUkqM66hM.png) ## **Things to know** - Almost everything on this page saves the moment you change it, and a message confirms each save. The exceptions are the two Financial day fields (save when you click out of them), the Members list **Columns** (saves when you close the list), Pets (**Save Pet Settings**), AI Instructions (**Save AI Instructions**), and Communication Preferences (**Save Communication Preferences**). - Default contact visibility and Default Member Role apply only to members added after you change them. Existing members keep what they have. - Branding changes show for you right away. Everyone else sees them the next time they open or reload Communitrak. - If your Communitrak subscription is in read-only status, every control on this page, including the module switches, is grayed out until billing is resolved. If you have questions or need help, chat with Communitrak Support from any page using the messenger icon in the bottom-right corner.