Setting Up Billing — Fourplex Help

What are the two types of billing in Fourplex?

There are two separate billing concepts:

Fourplex subscription — the HOA's monthly or annual SaaS plan. This is what your HOA pays to use Fourplex. It's billed to a card, a US bank account, or Link on file and managed in Settings → Subscription. Sales tax can be added. Fourplex does not add a processing fee to this invoice. If Fourplex support has enabled submetering, support manages that add-on and any related billing-interval change. Switching between monthly and annual during your free trial keeps a one-time promotion for your first paid invoice.
HOA dues collection — collecting monthly dues from your unit owners through Stripe Connect. This requires connecting a bank account so Fourplex can deposit payments directly to the HOA. On HOA-local billing, each dues bill is issued 14 days before the autopay date your board picks, and automatic collection starts at 8:00 a.m. on the autopay date in the community's time zone. That is when payment is initiated, not when it settles. A new community uses this schedule when billing is first saved. An existing community keeps its current bills until the production cutover.

These are independent. You can manage your Fourplex subscription without setting up dues collection, and vice versa.

How do I connect a bank account to collect dues?

Only the President or Treasurer can do this.

Go to Billing in the sidebar.
Click Setup or Connect Bank Account.
You'll be redirected to Stripe's hosted onboarding flow.
Follow Stripe's prompts to enter your business information, bank account details, and identity verification info.
When complete, you'll be returned to Fourplex. The connection status will update to show your account is active.

Once the bank account is connected, you can configure dues amounts and enable online payments for members.

Dues bills wait until your bank is linked

Fourplex only posts a dues bill once your HOA's payments setup is finished and Stripe can accept payments. If setup isn't finished on the day a bill is due to post, nothing is sent to residents for that month. The bill is on hold, and your dues page shows it as Held, not owed or overdue.

Board members see a banner on every page: "Your first dues bill posts — link your bank to start collecting." Once a bill is on hold, it reads "Dues bills are on hold until payments setup is finished." We also email the person who started the Stripe setup (or the President, Treasurer, or Secretary if that isn't possible) 14, 7, and 1 day before your first dues bill, then weekly while bills are held. The email links back to your setup.

As soon as setup is finished, the held bill posts automatically, usually within a few minutes. Residents get a full 14 days to pay from the day it posts.

What information does Stripe ask for during onboarding?

Stripe collects the following to comply with financial regulations:

Business name and address — your HOA's legal name and mailing address
Tax ID — either an EIN (for HOAs with one) or the last 4 digits of the account holder's SSN
Bank account details — routing number and account number for the HOA's bank account

Fourplex does not store any of this information. It goes directly to Stripe and is managed through Stripe's platform.

How does bank account verification work?

After you enter your bank account details, Stripe may send two small micro-deposits (each under $1.00) to verify the account is real and accessible. This typically takes 1–3 business days.

Once the deposits appear in your bank account, return to Stripe's dashboard (linked from Billing → Setup) and confirm the amounts. After verification, Stripe enables payouts to your account.

Some bank accounts are verified instantly through Stripe's bank login flow and don't require micro-deposits.

What happens right after I click Submit?

Stripe will show "information submitted" inside the form, and Step 2 of the setup checklist will change from In progress to Verifying. You don't need to take any further action — the page automatically updates the moment Stripe enables payouts on your account.

If you refresh the page during verification, you'll continue to see the Verifying card; you won't be asked to re-enter the information you already submitted.

How do I configure dues amounts and the autopay date?

After Stripe Connect is set up:

Go to Dues → Settings.
Set the default monthly dues amount per unit.
Choose the Autopay date, from the 1st to the 28th. This is the bill's due date. Every dues bill is issued and emailed 14 days earlier, so for a date from the 1st to the 14th it is issued late in the previous month. For example, autopay on the 15th issues bills on the 1st; autopay on the 20th issues bills on the 6th; autopay on the 1st issues November's bill on October 18. Residents paying manually can pay any time from when the bill is issued until the due date. The settings screen previews the first affected bill's dates before you save. If a bill is issued late, only that bill's due date moves so residents still get 14 days.
Choose the first billing month. It can be the current month or a later one, not a past month. To collect dues for earlier months, create a one-time assessment under Dues → Assessments.
Optionally set a grace period — the number of days after the due date before a member is considered delinquent.

If individual units have different amounts (for example, different square footage), you can set a unit dues amount from the same screen. Each unit can have its own amount instead of the default. Amount changes apply to bills not yet issued and never add a credit or extra charge line to an issued bill.

Why 14 days between the bill and autopay?

Residents get an email when each bill is issued. If autopay is already on, the email shows the frozen processing fee, the total, and the autopay date. If autopay is off, it shows the principal only and a reminder to set up autopay. Turning autopay on after the bill is posted does not collect that bill. The 14 days give them time to review the bill, ask the board a question, or pay another way before anything is charged automatically.

Can I set different dues amounts for different units?

Yes. After configuring the default amount in Dues → Settings, you can set a per-unit override for any unit that should have a different amount. The override applies to that unit going forward. Units without an override use the default amount.

What payment methods can members use?

Members can pay dues using:

ACH bank transfer — lower processing fees, recommended for regular monthly payments
Credit or debit card — higher processing fees but immediately available

Members choose their payment method when paying or setting up autopay.

What are the transaction fees?

Residents pay a processing fee on online payments: standard ACH is 1.2% capped at $50, and domestic cards are 3.5% + $0.50. ACH costs less than card. Agreed rates and HOA absorption can change what applies, and cash or checks recorded manually have no processing fee. See Subscription and processing fees below and processing fees.

Do I have to set up dues collection right away?

No. Setting up the Stripe bank account connection is optional during initial onboarding. You can skip it and return to it later from Billing → Setup. Members won't see payment options until dues collection is enabled.

Until it's set up, dues bills are not sent, and board members will see the banner described above. The President, Treasurer, and Secretary will also see a reminder banner at the top of the Dues page with a Set up now link that jumps straight back into the onboarding step for setting up payments.

How do I lift trial limits early?

If your HOA is still on the free trial, the President or Treasurer can start paid billing before the 14-day trial ends. Live metering access starts only on an active paid plan; a trial does not include metering access.

Go to Settings → Organization.
In the Subscription section, click Upgrade now.
If no payment method is on file yet, add one first.
Review the confirmation dialog carefully. It shows your plan, billing cadence, the amount charged today, any active discount, and the next renewal date.
Confirm Start paid plan now.

Important:

Adding a payment method by itself does not start billing.
Paid billing starts only after the final confirmation step.
Trial limits lift immediately after the upgrade is confirmed.

Trial-limit banners in places like Inbox and Announcements link back to this same subscription section so you can complete the upgrade from one place.

My subscription was canceled — how do I restore it?

If your Fourplex subscription is canceled (for example, after a payment couldn't be collected), the Subscription section shows a "Your subscription is canceled" notice with a Reactivate subscription button. Your HOA's data is kept for 30 days after cancellation so you have time to restore access.

To reactivate, the President or Treasurer should:

Go to Settings → Organization (or Billing).
In the Subscription section, click Reactivate subscription.
Enter a payment method.
Confirm. This starts a new subscription at the current public price for your unit count and billing interval. A discount that is still valid on the canceled subscription is copied onto the new subscription. A card or Link charge starts when you confirm. A bank debit can take up to four business days to clear, and the invoice stays unpaid until it does.

Important:

A canceled subscription can't simply have its payment method updated — reactivating creates a fresh subscription.
If Stripe still needs to verify a new bank account with two small deposits, that bank account is not saved until you confirm the deposits. After you confirm them, open Update Payment Method again and Fourplex saves that bank account as the subscription default.
If the charge fails, Settings shows the failure and Update Payment Method (or Reactivate subscription) so you can try a different card, bank account, or Link. A returned bank debit is not described as a declined card.
Reactivating before the 30-day window ends restores full access and cancels the scheduled data removal.

Unit limits and your plan

Your plan includes a maximum number of active units. When you reach that limit, the "Add unit" button dims (it stays clickable) and clicking it shows a plan-limit screen with your current plan details and a link to contact support — there's no self-serve upgrade for unit count. See Adding units for details on what happens when you hit the cap and how archiving units can free up capacity.

Bill notices and the payment window

On a community using the new monthly schedule, dues are issued 14 days before your board's autopay date, and each month has one dues bill. With the usual autopay date of the 15th, November dues are issued November 1. If your board picked a date from the 1st to the 14th, the bill is issued late in the previous month: with autopay on November 1, November dues are issued October 18. Monthly water and trash bills are issued on the 1st and cover the previous service period: the bill issued December 1 is for November. You receive a notice showing the billing period, principal, applicable usage/allocation, processing fee, total and payment schedule. Your bill is due at least 14 calendar days after it is issued: a November 1 bill is due November 15; a delayed November 5 bill is due November 19. A water or trash charge or credit added after a bill is issued appears on the next bill as its own line. Your issued bill shows its actual date. Other community schedules and previously issued bills keep their dates.

Authorized autopay starts at 8 a.m. in your community's time zone on that date. This is when payment is initiated; bank processing can take several days. A bank payment stays Processing until confirmation. We send a payment-received email after the processor confirms success. If required advance notice is delayed, collection may be deferred without a late-fee penalty caused by that delay.

You may pay the same issued bill manually through its due date. A paid or processing manual payment prevents a second scheduled autopay for that balance. If you have not chosen a method, your notice shows principal and explains that the processing fee depends on your checkout method.

Future schedule changes are shown separately in settings. Current bills keep the payment date shown on the issued bill.

Subscription and processing fees

The Fourplex subscription is $29/month through 19 homes, plus $2/month for each additional home. Optional submetering is $5/month per home with a water meter, starting the month water billing starts. Common-area meters and a second meter in a home are free. Annual payment costs eleven times the total monthly subscription. Purchased capacity changes require Fourplex support and recorded customer approval; additions are prorated through the existing renewal, while reductions apply at renewal. Existing agreed subscription terms remain applicable.

Resident processing fees are separate from the subscription. Standard ACH is 1.2% capped at $50, and domestic cards are 3.5% + $0.50. Agreed rates and HOA absorption can change what applies. Cash and checks recorded manually have no processing fee. Review processing fees and the amount shown before payment.