CPA Audit Portal

CommunityPay provides CPA firms with direct, read-only access to HOA financial data through a token-gated audit portal. No login is required. The CPA receives a secure link, clicks it, and navigates the same ledger data that governs day-to-day financial operations.

This page describes how the portal works, what the CPA can see, and how access is controlled.

Why a CPA Portal

The standard audit workflow for HOAs involves weeks of back-and-forth: the CPA requests a trial balance, the board emails a PDF, the CPA asks for the journal register, the board emails another PDF, the CPA needs AR aging, and so on. Each exchange introduces delay, version confusion, and the risk of stale data.

The CPA Audit Portal eliminates this cycle. The HOA grants time-limited access to the system of record. The CPA pulls what they need, when they need it, from the same ledger that produces enforcement decisions, integrity scans, and institutional packets. There is no secondary reporting layer.

Creating an Engagement

An HOA administrator creates an engagement from the Vault.

Steps

1. Navigate to Vault in the accounting navigation
2. Click the Audit Portal tab
3. Click Create Engagement (top-right)
4. Fill in the engagement details:

1. Click Create Engagement

The system generates a unique access token, emails the secure link to the CPA, and displays a confirmation. The raw token is shown once and never stored — only its SHA-256 hash is persisted.

Token Security

The access token follows the same security pattern as CARI API keys:

If the token is lost, the engagement must be revoked and a new one created. There is no token recovery mechanism. This is deliberate — a recoverable token is a weaker token.

What the CPA Sees

The portal presents a professional, read-only interface with a sticky header bar showing the HOA name, firm name, engagement type, period, and days remaining. A gold "Read-only access" banner is always visible.

The left sidebar provides navigation to 12 sections:

Portal Sections

Every section is scoped to the engagement's HOA and period window. The CPA cannot see data outside the granted time range.

CSV Exports

Six sections support CSV export. The CPA clicks the export link and receives a file named with the HOA name and period end date. Every export is logged as a separate event with resource_type set to export_trial_balance, export_journal_register, etc.

Export formats follow standard accounting conventions:

Scope Manifest

Engagements can be restricted to specific portal sections using the scope manifest — a JSON list of allowed section keys stored on the engagement record.

If the scope manifest is empty (the default), all 12 sections plus integrity detail and enforcement detail are accessible. If populated, only the listed sections are permitted. A CPA attempting to access a restricted section sees a clear error message.

Available section keys:

overview, trial_balance, fund_reconciliation, integrity, integrity_detail, journal_register, chart_of_accounts, artifacts, ar_aging, ap_aging, enforcement, close_packages, fund_statements

This allows an HOA to grant a tax preparer access to only the trial balance and journal register, while a full audit engagement gets all sections.

Engagement Types

The engagement type is informational — it appears in the portal header and event log but does not affect which sections are accessible. Scope restriction is controlled separately via the scope manifest.

Access Logging

Every portal interaction creates an immutable AuditEngagementEvent record. Events cannot be modified or deleted after creation — the save() method rejects updates via the _state.adding check.

Each event records:

The HOA can see aggregated access data on the Vault engagement list: total access count, first accessed date, and last accessed date. The full event log is available through the admin interface.

Managing Engagements

The Vault's Audit Portal tab shows all engagements for the HOA with status badges:

Auto-Expiry

When a CPA accesses the portal after the expiration date, the system automatically transitions the engagement to EXPIRED status and logs an expiration event. No manual intervention is required.

Revocation

An HOA administrator can revoke an active engagement at any time from the Vault. Revocation is immediate — the CPA's next request will see an error message. The revocation is logged with the revoking user's identity.

Creating a New Engagement

If an engagement expires or is revoked and the CPA still needs access, create a new engagement. Each engagement has its own token, expiration, and event log. There is no mechanism to extend or reactivate an expired engagement. This is deliberate — each engagement is a discrete, auditable grant of access.

Data Mode

Engagements support two data modes:

The default is LIVE mode. All queries are scoped by the engagement's period start and end dates, ensuring the CPA sees only data within the granted window while still reflecting the most current posted state of that data.