Onboarding communities is a collaborative effort between you, the client, and Community Archives.  The client's transition POC is responsible for starting the process, while Community Archives will finalize and publish the Community to the Marketplace for shopping.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section 1: Community Service Tier 

This step MUST be completed by the Client.  


The community cannot be staged for the Marketplace until this step is completed!
  1. Navigate to the Subscription page (under Account Management). This page will show you the selected service tier for all of your company's communities. OR, If you are already on the Community Dashboard, hover over the Community Archives logo on the top right corner to jump to the subscriptions page.
  2. Find the community in the list, change the Service Tier to one that allows Marketplace access (see list below), then click "Save"


The service tier determines which communities have Marketplace access AND who is responsible for handling document review, questionnaire review, order preparation, collections, etc.


Service Tier Breakdown

Basic

  • Full-featured community document & information management

Standard (Basic PLUS)

  • Marketplace access
  • Self-service order management, billing & collections, and closing management

Premium (Basic PLUS)

  • Marketplace access
  • Managed (by Community Archives) document review 
  • Managed Questionnaire review
  • Managed Order Fulfillment
  • Managed Shopper Support
  • Managed Billing & Collections

Enterprise (Basic PLUS)

  • Marketplace access
  • Managed (by Community Archives) document review 
  • Managed Questionnaire review
  • Managed Order Fulfillment
  • Managed Shopper Support
  • Managed Billing & Collections
  • Additional services upon request

Section 2: Community Dashboard (onboarding checklist)

After setting the community's service tier, return to the community's dashboard page. You should see a checklist of items that need to be completed prior to staging:


You'll need to complete all checklist items before you'll be able to Stage the community. The sections below outline steps for completing each checklist item, and you can always return to this page to see where you are with the process.


IMPORTANT Communities set to Enterprise can be staged at any time, and many of the steps below are completed by Community Archives for these communities.

If you're unsure which steps you need to complete, please send an email to [email protected] and we'll be happy to confirm.


Step 1: Community Settings

The community settings page will allow you to complete the "Details" including servicing office and tax ID, "Add Closing Fees" and "Add Assessments" checklist items. Below are the criteria for completing each checklist item. 


"Add Closings Fees" - At least one closing fee must be added, but communities will automatically be created with your company default fees. 
"Add Assessments" - Regular Assessments, at minimum, must be specified for the community.


Follow the steps below to enter closing fees and assessments for the community:

  1. Click "Add Closing Fees" to navigate to the community settings page.
  2. On the Community Settings page, click the "Settings" section to view the available sale types for the community. "Resale" is always enabled, but if there are still new sales or presales expected for the community, these will need to be enabled. Click "Edit" to make those changes:
  3. Next, click the "Closing Fees" section to expand:
  4. You'll see any company default fees you've specified here, to begin with. If you need to customize the Closing Fees due to management OR need to specify closing fees due to the community, click the pencil icon to the right of the fee:
    1. You can edit the fee name and/or the amount for different sale types. Once you're done, click "Save"
  5. After saving, you'll see an orange "C" icon next to anything you edited. This icon means that the name and/or value is customized for the community, and you can hover over any orange "C" icon to view the company default value:
  6. Next, expand the "Assessments" section and click "Add" to add the regular assessments:
  7. Fill in the appropriate fields and click "Update." Keep the following in mind:
    1. Assessment Frequency: This means "Assessments are due every n months," where n is your selection, i.e. choose "1" for monthly or "3" for quarterly.
    2. Due Month: This is only available for non-monthly assessments and should represent the first calendar month of the year that assessments are due, i.e. choose "1" if assessments are first due in January.
    3. Late Month: Also only available for non-monthly assessments and should represent the first calendar month of the year that assessments are late, i.e. choose "2" if assessments are first late in February.
  8. You can also add special assessments (if applicable) by clicking "Add" next to special assessments. Fill in the appropriate fields and click "Submit"


Once you're finished, navigate back to the community dashboard page and you'll see the first two checklist items are complete:


Step 2: Community Products

The community products page will allow you to complete the "Activate products" checklist item. 


You must activate at least one product to complete this item.


Follow the steps below to activate and/or customize products for the community:

  1. Click "Activate products" or click "Products" to navigate to the community products page:
  2. Click on any product to navigate to the product details page:
  3. Hover over the hamburger menu and click "Activate Product" to activate the product.
  4. After the page loads. you'll see "Active" for the product status. You can also click "Edit Product" or "Edit Preparation Instructions" to customize the product for the community:
    1. Please see the following solution article for more information on customizing products:
      CustomizingProductsSolutionArticle


Once you've activated and/or customized your community products, navigate back to the dashboard page and you'll see a count of community products you've activated.



Step 3: Community Documents

The community documents page will allow you to complete the "Upload Documents" checklist item. 


You must upload all required documents to complete this item. Required documents are based on the products you activated in Step 2: Community Products.


IMPORTANT Note that this step is usually optional for Enterprise tier communities. Community Archives will attempt to upload any community documents they have access to during the onboarding process.

Follow the steps below to upload documents for the community:

  1. Click "Upload Documents" or click "Documents" to navigate to the community documents page:
  2. The "Missing Documents" list at the top of the page will show you the documents you need to upload for the products you activated for the community:
  3. To upload a new community document, click "Add New Document" and fill in the appropriate fields. Then click "Create." Keep the following in mind: 
    1. Effective Date: This should be the effective date for the document, NOT today's date. See examples below:
      1. The effective date for governing documents should be the date they were originally recorded with the county OR the date of the latest amendment. 
      2. The effective date for "Annual Financials" should be the first month the financials are effective.
      3. The effective date for "Regular Meeting Minutes" should be the date of the meeting itself. 
    2. Update Frequency: This determines when an uploaded document of that type expires for this community. See below for a list of the most common documents and their corresponding frequencies.
      • Budget: Every Year
      • Balance Sheet: Every Two Months
      • Insurance Certificate: Every Year
      • Reserve Study: Every Year
  4. If you have made an error to either the Effective date or Update Frequency, those can be edited.  See our solution article Community Documents for instructions on editing.
  5. After creating, the page will refresh and you'll see the document you just created. From here you can either add the remaining documents or upload additional versions. Click the document type name to view more details, or click the "Upload" buttons to upload new versions:
    1. Feel free to upload all versions of a document as needed, and/or any document types NOT included in your products. 
    2. The latest approved version of documents is included in orders by default, but you can always choose older versions when needed. 


Once you've uploaded all required community documents, navigate back to the dashboard page and you'll see a count of community documents you've uploaded.


Step 4: Community Questionnaire

The community questionnaire page will allow you answer questions about the community that are used in dynamic documents for marketplace products. 


You must answer at least one question for the community to complete this item, but we STRONGLY recommend answering as much of the questionnaire as possible.

Any questions not answered now will need to be answered within the order due date when orders come in prior to completion.

Follow the steps below to answer the questionnaire for the community:

  1. Click "Answer questions" or click "Questionnaire" to navigate to the community questionnaire page:
  2. From this page, click "Edit" to edit the questionnaire directly.
    1. Note: you can also download an Excel version of the questionnaire.
  3. Provide any answers you like. When you're ready to save, click "Save"


Once you're satisfied, navigate back to the dashboard page and you'll see a count of answers you've provided.


Step 5: Community Units

The community units page will allow you add units from the community that shoppers will choose when placing orders in the Marketplace. 


You must add at least one unit for the community to complete this item, but we STRONGLY recommend adding all of the units that are available.

If you need assistance with bulk uploading units, please contact client support and we'll be happy to assist with that.


Follow the steps below to add units for the community:

  1. Click "Add units" or click "Units" to navigate to the community units page:
  2. Click "+ Add Unit" to add a new unit:
  3. In the "Add New Unit" modal you can add a unit in 3 different ways. Once you're finished, click "Add Unit"
    1. Address Search: You can search a list of valid USPS addresses and select from the list.
    2. Address Entry: Click "Manually enter..." to enter all address fields manually:
    3. Legal Description: Click "Legal Description" and specify Parcel, Block/Section, and Lot to create a unit with only a legal description. State and County will be pre-populated from the community.

Once you've completed adding units, navigate back to the dashboard page and you'll see a count of units you've provided.


Step 6: Community Notifications

The Notifications page will allow you add or remove user notifications for all communities. 


You must, at minimum, assign the "Preparer" notification to a user for the community to complete this item.


IMPORTANT For Premium/Enterprise tier communities, a "Preparer" should not be specified, but we STRONGLY recommend assigning Contributor and/or Inspector notifications to users as applicable.

We will reach out to you if a Contributor (and an Inspector if you offer inspections for the community) is not specified. These notifications will go to all listed Admins if the notification is not assigned to a user.


Follow the steps below to assign notifications to users for the community:

  1. Click "Setup user notifications" to navigate to the Company Notifications page:
  2. From this page, click "Assign" and choose a user, responsibility, and community to assign the notification:


Once you've completed assigning notifications, navigate back to the dashboard page and you'll a list of notifications you've assigned.



Section 3: Staging the Community

The final step is staging the community. Follow the steps below to assign notifications to users for the community:

  1. Hover over "Actions and click "Stage for Marketplace" to Stage the community:
  2. You'll see a confirmation message describing next steps. Click "Stage Community"


If you are not able to stage the Community, double check that all items in the checklist have been satisfied.  Review and update any missing information.


At this point, your portion of onboarding a Community is complete!  Community Archives will be notified that your community is ready to be reviewed and published to the Marketplace.  Community Archives will reach out to you if there are any issues identified.


*If you need the Community Archives team to expedite review of the information provided, please reach out to [email protected].*