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How do I know if I need to use households?

Member data imports and households

How to Decide If You Need to Use Households — and Optimize Your Data Imports (Including Members)

Note: This article also covers Member data imports, since Member data must be set up before Household data.

"Do I need to use the HOA Start Households feature?" This is a question you'll need to answer while setting up your community during the Onboarding Process.

 Quick Summary: Do You Need Households?

You likely need the Households feature if you answer "Yes" to any of the following:

  • You want everyone living in your community to have their own individual website membership account, including multiple owners of a single property, and you plan to invoice dues and accept online payment.
  • You want to run online votes/polls that accept only one vote per property.
  • You need Household Labels to bill different amounts to different sets of owners, or to control which Households receive invoices (e.g., voluntary-membership communities).
  • Your community includes non-owners (renters, contractors, property managers) who need different billing or voting rights than owners.

 Decision Checklist

A. Do you want everyone in the community to have their own login, including multiple owners of one property?

B. Do you also plan to invoice dues through your website and accept online payment?

  • If you answered Yes to both A and B, you need Households. Household billing lets the system recognize when a property's dues have already been paid, and reject duplicate payment attempts.

C. Do you want online voting/polls limited to one vote per property?

  • If Yes, you need Households. It limits votes to one per property and lets you set additional limits for non-owners.

D. Does every property owner pay the same dues, or do amounts vary by criteria?

  • This determines which Household import templates you need, because varying amounts typically require Household Labels — which are imported via the Households import template.

E. Do renters ever pay dues or vote in polls?

  • This is controlled by Household Access Types (see below).

F. Do all your property owners pay dues?

  • Some communities have voluntary membership. Like item D, this uses Household Labels so only labeled Households receive invoices. (If you don't want to set up Households but need this scenario, tell your Onboarding Specialist you need Member Tags instead.)

 Household Access Types

Go to Households > Households > Households Actions > Edit Types to manage these five types:

  • Owner — by default, the only type that receives invoices and can vote in polls
  • Renter
  • Contractors
  • Property Manager
  • Other — use sparingly and consistently for anyone who doesn't fit the other categories
 

The Data Import Process

 Why Member Data Comes First

The Onboarding Process sets up Member data immediately before Households on purpose: when you import Household Members, the system checks that each person already exists as a website Member. You need Member data in the system first.

 Setting Up the Member Import File

  1. Go to Membership > Members > Members Actions > Member Import > + Import Members > Download Import Template.
  2. The template is a CSV file — edit it in any spreadsheet program, but save it back as CSV or the import will fail.
  3. Do not reorder, delete, or rename columns. Even empty columns must remain in the file.
  4. If you need to collect additional information, add custom fields to the Member Form (Membership > Member Form) *before* downloading the import template, so the new fields appear in the file.

Required fields for Member import (marked with an asterisk in the template):

  • Email Address*
  • First Name*
  • Last Name*
  • Country*
  • Address Line 1*
  • City*
  • State*
  • ZIP*
  • (Not required: Phone Number, Lot Number, Address Line 2, Tags)

Important: The email address is the unique identifier for each Member across the entire system, not just your community — each Member record needs a unique email address. Any record missing a required field will be skipped during import (though required *custom* fields are not enforced during import).

Which Household Import Templates Do You Actually Need?

There are three possible import templates: Household Addresses, Households, and Household Members. Most communities only need one or two of them.

  • Almost no one needs to import Household Addresses separately — both the Households and Household Members templates already include address data. Importing addresses separately risks formatting mismatches (e.g., "123 Any Street" vs. "123 Any St"), which creates duplicate address entries.

Decision guide:

  • If you need Household Labels: Use both the Households template and the Household Members template. Import Households first, then Household Members — order matters, since Household Labels live in the Households file.
  • If you do NOT need Household Labels: Import only the Household Members file — it sets up all your Household data.
  • If your Household Form has custom fields: You'll need both templates, since custom Household-Form fields only appear in the Households template. Import Households first, then Household Members.

Tip: Always share your import files with your Onboarding Specialist before importing. They can catch problems that might not be obvious to you, some of which can silently interfere with the import.

Building the Household Members File

  1. Download current Member data: Membership > Members > Members Actions > Download Member Data.
    • Do this even if you recently uploaded Member data — Admins and Members may have made updates since then.
  2. Open both the Members CSV and the Household Members template in your spreadsheet program.
  3. Copy the relevant Member data into the Household Members template.
  4. If you plan to build Household Labels from Member Tags, paste the Tags column data into the first unused column of the Household Members template (skip pasting the column header).

Setting Up Household Labels

  • Household Labels work the same way as Member Tags.
  • To assign more than one Label to a record, separate values with a comma and no space — for example: `board-discount,phase-2`
  • Tip: Build Household Labels in the Household Members template first (even though Labels ultimately belong in the Households template), because many Labels are based on Member information that only exists in the Household Members file. Once built, copy the Labels into the Households template, then delete them from the Household Members file before importing.

 Setting Up Household Titles

Most communities base Household Titles on the property address, owner's last name, lot number, or a combination — whatever formula you choose, apply it consistently.

Key rule: Only people with the *same* Household Access Type can share a Household. If one property has both an Owner and a Renter, you need a separate Household for each.

Example:

  • Jane Doe owns 123 Any Street (Access Type: Owner)
  • John Roe rents 123 Any Street from Jane (Access Type: Renter)

Possible Household Titles:

  • Address-based: `123-Any-Street-Owner` and `123-Any-Street-Renter`
  • Surname-based: `Doe-01` (Jane) and `Roe-01` (John) — numeric suffixes make it easy to handle multiple people sharing a surname, or one person owning multiple properties (e.g., Jane's second property could be `Doe-02` or `543-Any-Street-Owner`)

Final Steps

  1. Once Household Titles and Access Types are complete, copy the data from your Household Members template into your Households template.
  2. Carefully paste Household Labels into the "Labels" column of the Households template — don't rename or remove that column header.
  3. Delete the Label data from the Household Members template once it's been moved.
  4. Share your finished import files with your Onboarding Specialist.