GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Billing Townhome HOAs for Garage Door Work: Many Units, One Monthly Statement

A townhome community can be a steady source of garage door work: rows of single-bay and double-bay garages, often installed around the same time, often wearing out around the same time. When the HOA handles garage doors for its members, you are billing one association for work spread across many units. Get the billing right and you become their go-to garage door company. Get it wrong and every statement turns into a board-meeting discussion.

How HOAs Differ From Property Managers

Property manager billing is covered in Monthly Statements for Property Managers: One Garage Door Bill Covering Every Address. HOAs work much the same way in the software, with a few practical differences.

An HOA is often run by a management company or a volunteer board with a treasurer. The person approving payment may never have met your tech. The people living in the units are owners, not tenants, and they may also call you directly for work the HOA does not cover. Clear records of which unit got what, and who is paying for it, matter more than usual.

Each Unit Is an Address

In GarageDoorBossPro, one client can have many addresses. The HOA is the client, and each townhome unit is an address under it. Each unit keeps its own equipment record: the door, opener, springs, keypad and remotes, with brand, model, size, material and year installed, plus the bay, such as single or double. Access notes can hold things like “gate code for the community entrance” or “contact the owner before arriving.”

When a unit needs work, the office books it on that unit's address. The tech sees that unit's door and opener on the job card, and the work is recorded against that unit.

One Monthly Statement

Set the HOA account to Monthly, and GarageDoorBossPro sends one statement each month covering every address, with each line labeled with the address. A month of work might look like:

• Unit 12, 400 Lakeview Ct — Torsion spring replacement
• Unit 18, 400 Lakeview Ct — Opener repair, safety sensors
• Unit 3, 410 Lakeview Ct — Bottom seal and weatherstripping

The treasurer or management company sees every charge by unit on one page. That makes it easy to approve, easy to file and easy to explain at the next board meeting.

Community-Wide Work and Maintenance Visits

Some HOAs schedule regular door maintenance across the community instead of waiting for calls. Recurring work in GarageDoorBossPro is set by minimum days between visits, yearly for tune-ups or a shorter cycle if the HOA wants it. Each unit's visit comes due on the Waiting List, and the office can schedule a whole row of units on the same day using auto-route. How recurring visits get billed is covered in Billing Yearly Garage Door Tune-Up Plans: Charging the Visit When It Comes Due.

During each visit, the tech can run the door safety inspection checklist and record the condition and recommendations for that unit. The office can print a Garage Door Safety Inspection report per unit, which gives the board a clear picture of which doors need attention and which are fine.

Who Pays for What

HOA responsibilities vary. In some communities the association pays for all garage door work. In others it covers only certain items and owners pay for the rest. Your software follows whatever arrangement you have; the important thing is to put the work on the right account. Work the HOA covers goes on the HOA's address for that unit and rolls into the monthly statement. Work an owner pays for personally can go on that owner as their own client, billed per job with their own card on file or online payment.

Agree on the arrangement with the board up front and write it in the access notes or on the account, so whoever books the call knows which account to use.

Estimates for Board Approval

Larger HOA projects, such as replacing several doors or openers at once, usually need board approval. Build the estimate from your service list, with equipment details like door size and material filled in, and send it for approval online. Once approved, it becomes scheduled jobs, and the work bills onto the monthly statement as it is completed. Deposits, if you take them, can be billed as their own invoice or line item.

Easy Statements Keep the Contract

HOA boards change, but they all remember which vendors were easy to deal with. A clear monthly statement with every unit labeled is the easiest way to be one. For the rest of the billing system, visit the garage door invoicing software page.