GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Commercial Doors

Townhome and HOA Communities: Managing Dozens of Garage Doors Under One Account

A townhome community can have dozens of garage doors that were all installed around the same time, by the same builder, in the same style. When one starts acting up, others often aren't far behind. An HOA or community manager that trusts a door company can keep a van busy for days at a time. The work is residential in nature, but it is run like a commercial account.

Who Pays and Who Lives There

Property manager accounts in general are covered in Property Manager Garage Door Accounts: One Manager, Many Properties, One Record. HOA and townhome communities add a question that has to be answered before any work starts: who is responsible for the garage doors?

In some communities the association handles doors and bills them to the HOA. In others the homeowners pay for their own, and the association just wants a door company it can recommend. Some split it — the association pays for a community-wide door replacement project, homeowners pay for their own opener repairs. GarageDoorBossPro handles any of these, but the office needs to know which it is.

Setting Up the Community

When the association pays, the HOA or management company is one client, and every unit address is listed under it. Each address keeps its own door list, access notes and job history, and each one shows on the map. A community manager can send you a list of unit addresses, and CSV import brings them in, with each address placed on the map automatically. The import is covered in Importing a Property List by CSV: Getting a Manager's Addresses Into Your System.

When homeowners pay for their own doors, each homeowner is their own client. Tags make it easy to group them: tag every client in the community with the community name, and filter by that tag when you want to see who is there or plan a day of work in the neighborhood.

Matching Door Records

Builder-installed communities often have the same door and opener on every unit. That makes the first round of records quick: the tech records the garage door with brand, model #, size, material and year installed, the opener with its HP and drive type, and moves on to the next unit, where the details are often the same. Any unit that has had its door or opener replaced stands out right away.

Matching records are useful when the association starts talking about replacing doors across the community. An estimate can be built from your service list with the door details filled in, and the association sees one clear picture of what is out there.

Gates, Codes and Neighborhood Notes

Townhome communities are often gated or have rules about vendor parking and hours. Access notes saved on each address show on the job card:

• “Community gate: vendor code from the HOA office.”
• “Park in guest spaces only, not in front of other garages.”
• “Work hours set by the HOA, no noise before 8am.”
• “Unit is on the back row, door faces the shared drive.”

The tech app sits behind a company login and a personal PIN, so codes are seen only by the techs working the jobs. When the HOA changes the gate code, the office updates the notes.

Working a Community in One Day

The Waiting List is a live map of every visit that has come due plus new requests. When several units in the same community need service, their pins cluster together on the map, and the office can put them on the same van on the same day. Auto-route sets the order, Closest First or Furthest First from the shop, and the tech walks from unit to unit.

If the association wants a regular check on every door, set up recurring work by minimum days between visits. Automatic “night before” and “on the way” alerts let each resident know when the tech is coming, so they can move a car out of the garage.

Billing the Association

When the association pays, set the client to Monthly. Every job at every unit lands on one statement each month, with each line labeled with the unit's address. The board and the management company see exactly which units had work and what it cost.

When homeowners pay, each one gets their own invoice when the tech taps Complete, with a card on file charged right away or online payment from the customer app.

Why Communities Are Worth It

A community account brings a cluster of doors in one place, a manager who sends repeat work, and residents who become residential customers and refer neighbors. For how HOAs fit with property managers, warehouses and the rest of your commercial work, go back to the commercial garage door software page.