Community Ally Knowledge Base

Use the search bar to the right to find help articles.

• How To Whitelist us as an Email Sender
  We try our best to make it to your inbox, but sometimes there’s nothing we can do and emails go to your junk/spam folder instead. Here are instructions for how to tell your email client that our emails should not go to spam, based on your email host. Gmail Open the email in your spam… Read more: How To Whitelist us as an Email Sender
• Condo Ally vs HOA Ally: How do they differ?
  Both Condo Ally and HOA Ally use the same underlying system, the difference is simply how your community is structured. Good news: you can customize either one to behave similarly, so you don’t need to worry about making a “wrong” choice. Not sure? Here’s a quick guide: Townhome communities are the most common gray area:… Read more: Condo Ally vs HOA Ally: How do they differ?
• E-forms
  E‑forms provide a way for associations to replace paper processes with online workflows. An administrator can design a template with one or more steps, assign each step to specific roles and collect information via various field types. Accessing the E‑Form Template Editor To manage templates, log into your Community Ally site as a site admin.… Read more: E-forms
• Installing Community Ally like an App
  If you prefer an app-like experience where you have an icon on your device’s home screen and it launches without all the bells and whistles of a browser, you’re in luck! We built the Community Ally web app to work well like an app which means you can get the best of both worlds. To… Read more: Installing Community Ally like an App
• Getting Started with Condo Ally and HOA Ally
  LOGGING-IN You will receive an e-mail containing login information for your association’s HOA Ally site. If you do not receive an e-mail, reach out to one of your board members and ask for access as well as confirm that they have the correct e-mail address on file. USING THE SITE As a resident, you can’t… Read more: Getting Started with Condo Ally and HOA Ally
• The History of Community Ally
  In 2010, my wife and I bought a condo. After closing, we walked into our new home—and right inside the front door was a lone filing cabinet. The rest of the unit was empty. As luck would have it, our new neighbor across the hall was just heading out. We introduced ourselves and asked if… Read more: The History of Community Ally
• Reservable Amenities
  You can track when your community amenities/resources are in use. For example, say your association has a clubhouse, pickleball court, or community room. You can use the reservable amenity feature to track when residents want to reserve those venues for private use. To start, scroll to the bottom of your calendar page, and click “Add… Read more: Reservable Amenities
• How do you pronounce “Ally”?
  We never thought this would be an issue until we started hearing folks say it the “wrong” way. We started the company to help neighbors… To be their ALLY (al-i, /ˈaˌlī,əˈlī/) like World War 2 allies. Allies in a war against apathy. But we started in Chicago and just about every condo building had an… Read more: How do you pronounce “Ally”?
• Receiving Too Many Emails?
  Getting a bit tired of all the emails coming from your association? That’s too bad, but know that you’re in full control! Go to My Profile to see your settings: Discussions If you’re getting too many emails from your group’s discussion group, you have a few options. You can open the discussion thread on your… Read more: Receiving Too Many Emails?
• Email Delivery/Open Tracking
  Groups on our premium plan are able see who has received a group email and, when supported, who has opened the email. Sending tracked emails embeds an invisible pixel into your emails that allows us to record information when the email is viewed. For every email you send and for each recipient you send to,… Read more: Email Delivery/Open Tracking
• Email Attachment Size Limit
  Our email service provider (who does a great job making sure your association emails get passed your spam folder) has a 10MB attachment limit. This may seem low, but it’s a safe limit since most of the big providers have varying limits of their own. This way, we can be sure your attachment will make… Read more: Email Attachment Size Limit
• The Maintenance Tool
  The maintenance tool (Click Documents & Info, then Maintenance) is a simple page to track improvement projects to your building or community. Many associations have recurring maintenance on a fixed or variable scheduled. For example, many condo associations in Chicago need to clean the building grease trap on a regular basis. Occasionally pipes back up… Read more: The Maintenance Tool
• The Budget Tool
  We knew most small, self-managed associations use Excel/Google Sheets, which are very powerful and flexible. For our budget tool we didn’t want to compete with them so we focused on simplicity and consistency with the transactions page. Line Items The line items for the budget tool are controlled by the financial categories: To add new… Read more: The Budget Tool
• The Stripe Dashboard
  The Stripe dashboard is almost too powerful. You can get yourself into some trouble if you start clicking around and adding and editing users and adding editing payments. It’s your account and you can use it how you please, but our suggestion is that you should really only go into the Stripe Dashboard to add… Read more: The Stripe Dashboard
• Resident Sign-up with Stripe to Make Payments
  Thankfully, signing-up to make payments to your association via Stripe is pretty straightforward. If your group has enabled online payments, you’ll see a blue button on your home page to start the account connection process. Search for your bank and, if it’s listed, selected it, then follow Stripe’s sign-up instructions. If you can’t find your… Read more: Resident Sign-up with Stripe to Make Payments
• Association Stripe Sign-up Guide
  The Stripe sign-up process for the association is a bit complicated, so we provide this guide to help walk you through it. Stripe periodically updates their sign-up process, so if you notice something out of date, please let us know via your site’s help page or the tech support chat widget. The first step is… Read more: Association Stripe Sign-up Guide
• Using Custom Group Email Addresses
  One of the most powerful features of Community Ally’s tools is the private group email addresses. We offer the ability for you to define your own custom group email addresses that will forward to any members you select. You can define and modify custom group email addresses at the bottom of your directory page. Creating… Read more: Using Custom Group Email Addresses
• Backing Up Your Site Data
  It’s easy to backup your site data. Visit each of these locations to choose what you want to back up:
• Why Can’t I Use Multiple Group Email Addresses or Cc/Bcc?
  Did you get the “we cannot send to group addresses in the CC field” or the “cannot send to multiple group addresses” auto-reply to one of your emails? Well, we’re sorry because it’s probably irritating, but there’s good reason, so please forgive us. One more the most complicated features of Community Ally’s software is the… Read more: Why Can’t I Use Multiple Group Email Addresses or Cc/Bcc?
• Undeliverable Email Addresses
  Sometimes you’ll notice a resident’s email address is red in the Manage -> Residents grid. If you click on that resident you can see the reason for the error. Here is a description of the error codes. All but SpamReport can be reactivated quickly and easily, just reach out to support via the chat box… Read more: Undeliverable Email Addresses
• Custom Pages
  The “Custom Pages” features is used to create pages containing whatever content you’d like. These pages can be accessed by both residents and the general public, unlike the rest of your site which requires users be registered and logged-in. A good use of custom pages is to provide a nicer welcome experience to your site… Read more: Custom Pages
• Board Role Basics
  Need a quick overview of board role responsibilities? Here you go! These can obviously vary from organization to organization. Find what’s required by law where you live and choose what works best for your association. All Positions ● Enforcement of rules defined in the bylaws President Acts as Chief Executive Officer of the organization Presides… Read more: Board Role Basics
• Sharing Owner Financial Transactions
  There is a setting at the bottom of the financial transactions page (Mange -> Financials -> Transactions) that allows you to toggle if owners can see their financial transactions. When enabled, owners will be able to see the financial transactions. This means when you associate a transaction with a home, the owner will be able… Read more: Sharing Owner Financial Transactions
• Dwolla Identity Documentation Guidance
  During Dwolla sign-up you might be asked to upload an image of a document proving your identity. Tips when using a driver’s license or government-issued ID: Tips when using a passport: We hope this guidance from Dwolla helps. Unfortunately, we’ve found even when uploading a properly captured image, Dwolla may still not accept the file.… Read more: Dwolla Identity Documentation Guidance
• User Permissions
  We did our best to avoid the deep hole that is configurable permissions and we think we’ve done a great job. There are only two roles: site admin and non-site admin. You control who is an admin in Manage -> Residents and click on a resident to view their details. Site admin can edit and… Read more: User Permissions
• Why Go Premium?
  October 2026: We may be removing our free plan completely or switching to almost free. We’ll know in the next 6 months. We’ve done our best to make the “almost free” versions of Community Ally’s tools as powerful as possible to help people improve their community. Unsurprisingly, there are costs associated with providing these amazing… Read more: Why Go Premium?
• Quick Reference PDF
  We were asked once to create a physical piece of reference that could be handed out at an association meeting. Hope this helps. Reach out any time if you have suggestions on how to improve it. http://help.communityally.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/HOA-Ally-quick-reference.pdf Or you have have a version that fills up an 8.5″x11″ sheet of paper: http://help.communityally.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/HOA-ALLY-quick-reference-full-sheet.pdf
• How to Add or Edit Homes
  The fastest and easiest way to add or remove homes from your site is to reach out to us at support. We’re happy to make changes for you as frequently as you need. If you prefer to make changes yourself you can do so with the advanced home editor tool, which is not accessible from… Read more: How to Add or Edit Homes
• How to Make an Online Payment
  How to Make an Online Payment with Stripe View our new article here: https://help.communityally.org/sign-up-with-stripe-to-make-payments/ How to Make an Online Payment with Dwolla (Old/Deprecated) Community Ally has partnered with Dwolla to process online payments in a very secure and easy manner. Note, Dwolla only supports eCheck/ACH payments, not credit/debit card payments. We investigated just about every… Read more: How to Make an Online Payment