Add-ons and feature switches
A housing authority has two tiers of switches, the same shape CivicPort uses for a community.
| Tier | Who sets it | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Add-ons | CivicPort staff, when they are sold | The Features dialog on CivicPort's Authorities page |
| Choices | The authority's own administrators | Settings › Features |
An authority cannot flip an add-on: it is told what it has, and a page behind an add-on that is off is refused by the API as well as hidden from the sidebar, so a bookmark gets the same answer the sidebar gives. A choice that leans on an add-on the authority does not have is refused with the reason, rather than stored and quietly ignored.
These add-ons are not the building add-ons, such as internet or parking, that a property charges for. Those are under Add-on names.
What CivicPort turns on
CivicPort staff open an authority on Authorities and press Features. The dialog, Features for {authority}, has a switch for each add-on and Save. Only a super admin can save it; every change is written to the audit log.
| Add-on | Starts | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Finance | Off | Tenant ledgers, purchases, payment runs, reconciliation, month close, FDS and VMS. Turning it on asks for the Cutover month, the first month the ledger is the record, which cannot move once anything has posted. See Finance |
| Housing Choice Vouchers | On | Issuing vouchers, tenancy approval, HAP contracts and payments, owners and portability |
| Owner portal | Off | Landlords sign in for statements, inspection results, 1099 copies and direct deposit. Needs Vouchers; turning Vouchers off turns it off |
| Work orders | Off | Repair requests and unit turnover tracked in Housing. The dialog warns when the authority runs a CivicPort community, where its residents already report repairs |
| Text messages | Off | Notices by SMS as well as email, billed per message |
Vouchers starts on because every authority could see the Vouchers group before there was a switch. Nothing changes for an authority nobody has touched.
What the authority chooses
Settings › Features is in four cards. Each switch saves as soon as it is flipped.
What this authority runs
| Switch | Starts | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Family Self-Sufficiency program | Off | Recorded. Nothing reads it yet: there is no enrolment, contract or escrow page behind it |
| Offer flat rent | On | Off, a public housing household's choice of flat rent is ignored: admission and every recertification work the rent out income-based, whatever the household picked. For state programs that have no flat rent |
| Community service requirement | On | Off, new annual and interim packages are seeded without the community service section and certification. Packages that already exist keep what they ask |
How your add-ons work
| Choice | Needs | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Repairs | In CivicPort Issues, as today or In Housing, with work orders and unit turnover | |
| Work orders | The Housing option is recorded. Nothing reads it yet: there is no work orders page, and residents still report in CivicPort | |
| Send notices by text as well | Text messages | Recorded. Nothing sends a text yet |
| Let owners sign in | Owner portal | Opens the owner portal to the authority's landlords and shows Invite on the Owners page |
A choice whose add-on is off is greyed with the chip Not on for you, and the card ends: "Not on for you" means CivicPort has not turned it on for this authority. Ask us and it appears here.
Languages
The languages the authority offers, as tick boxes: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Russian and Polish. English is always on and cannot be unticked.
Today the list does one thing: with Spanish ticked, every letter in the mail queue ends with a line in Spanish saying the letter is available in Spanish on request. No page, email or letter is translated.
Always part of Housing
The last card lists what has no switch at all, so an authority can see what it has without looking for a toggle: hearings and appeals, lease terminations, VAWA, reasonable accommodation, waitlist updates, and the HUD 50058. The CivicPort dialog says the same. They are the law for every assisted authority.
What each switch does today
| Switch | Pages behind it | Read by |
|---|---|---|
| Finance | The Finance group, the Finance tab in Settings, the Balance column of the rent roll, the money on Home | Every Finance route |
| Housing Choice Vouchers | The Vouchers group: Vouchers, Owners, HAP payments, and the voucher card on an application | Off, those routes answer that Vouchers is not turned on, the group is hidden, and Home drops the HAP line |
| Owner portal and Let owners sign in | The owner portal on the applicant app, Invite on Owners | Every portal request checks both |
| Offer flat rent | None of its own | Admission and recertification, when working out rent |
| Community service requirement | None of its own | Seeding a new package |
| Languages | None | The letter footer |
| Family Self-Sufficiency program | None | Nothing |
| Work orders, and Repairs in Housing | None | Nothing |
| Text messages, and Send notices by text as well | None | Nothing |
The last three rows are the honest state of things: the switches exist so the sale and the choice are on record, and the pages come later. Turning one on changes nothing a resident, an owner or the office can see.