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Keep Member Data Accurate for NAHB

Updated

What this does: Shows the habits and checks that keep the member data GrowthZone shares with NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) accurate.

Applies to: GrowthZone Builders Edition associations that share membership data with NAHB.

Before you start: Have access to Settings, Reports and your membership export.

Time needed: About 10 minutes to read. Error-list fixes take a few minutes per record.

Why this matters

GrowthZone shares your membership records with NAHB automatically. A few habits on your side keep that data accurate. They prevent almost every mismatch that would otherwise cost you hours of reconciling.

Fill in the five required fields

If any of these is missing, that member's record can't be shared with NAHB. Nothing is lost, but nothing arrives either, and you may not be told.

  • First and last name: both parts, on the contact. A company name on its own isn't enough.
  • Email address
  • Mailing address: the field most often missing. It's easy to overlook because the record otherwise looks complete.
  • Membership type
  • Member ID
Unpaid memberships: If membership type or member ID shows as a problem on a membership that hasn't been paid yet, leave it. It usually clears once you record the payment. Check again afterwards, and contact GrowthZone Support only if it's still there.

Complete Spike sponsor records

If you take part in the Spike program (NAHB's credit for members who recruit new members), the sponsor's record matters too. When a payment credits a Spike sponsor, NAHB has to be able to identify that sponsor. If it can't, the payment doesn't go through.

Make sure the sponsor's own contact record has:

  • First and last name: both parts, the same as for any other contact.
  • PIN/COID or an email address: either one is enough, and having both does no harm. With neither, NAHB can't match the credit to a person.
Check before the credit is applied: The paying member's record can be complete and the payment still fails, because the missing information is on the sponsor's record. Checking the sponsor first saves you tracing the wrong record afterwards.

Follow four habits that keep data accurate

Each habit prevents a specific kind of mismatch between your records and NAHB's.

Habit What to do What goes wrong otherwise
Bill close to the due date Create dues invoices no more than four months before they're due. An early invoice reaches NAHB long before it's paid. The payment can then be matched to the wrong item, so the member looks unpaid at NAHB.
Use Renew and Reactivate Renew a membership or bring back a lapsed member with the Renew or Reactivate option. Don't edit the dates on the record. Editing dates changes what you see, not what NAHB sees. Your records and theirs drift apart.
Record checks, cash and ACH as deposits Card payments post on their own. Enter every other payment as a deposit. The invoice stays open. If it's later settled another way, the payment can be counted twice.
Check before creating an invoice manually Look for an existing invoice for that period first. With two invoices for the same dues, the payment lands on one and the other stays open. NAHB shows a fully paid member as owing.

Check the error list first

GrowthZone logs every member record that couldn't be shared with NAHB, and why. Most fixes take a couple of minutes.

  1. Go to Settings, Advanced section, click Event Log.
  2. Set the minimum level filter to Error, so you see only records that failed.
  3. Hover over the Message column to read the full reason, because the text is cut off in the list. A record often fails for several reasons at once, so read them all before you fix anything.
  4. In the Actions column, click the wrench icon on that row to open the contact. Fix the problem there, such as a missing address or half a name.

Checkpoint: Once a record is corrected, GrowthZone sends it to NAHB on its own. Working through this list first also tells you whether you have one odd record or a habit worth changing.

Check dates before turning on payment plans

Wrong dates are the most common reason a membership stops sharing correctly, and payment plans multiply the effect. For an annual membership, check these columns in your membership export.

Column What it should say
Membership Last Activation Expiration Date One year after the Membership Expiration Date when a balance is owing. The same date when there isn't.
Membership Activation Type Renewal for an annual renewal with a balance. Upgrade, Downgrade and Adjustment all need fixing.
Next Bill Date Your billing lead time (most associations use 30, 60, 90 or 120 days), and within four months of the expiration date.
Why Next Bill Date matters: If it's more than four months before the expiration date, the renewal won't generate.

After a membership renews, open it and check that the expiration year moved forward. If it still shows the current year, correct the expiration date. That sends the renewal to NAHB.

Wrong membership type: Where you can, leave it until the next renewal and correct it then. A mid-cycle change means ending the membership, adding it back and taking payment again, which is more work than the mismatch causes.

Reconcile with NAHB regularly

Compare your GZ Pay Transfers Detail report against what landed in your bank. How often is up to you, but sooner is cheaper: a gap caught close to the time takes minutes, and the same gap found two quarters later takes days.

Run the NAHB Reconciliation report

You can run this report yourself. You don't need to ask GrowthZone Support for it.

  1. Go to Reports.
  2. Search for NAHB Reconciliation and open the report.
  3. The fields are already filled in. Change the dates if you need a different period.
  4. Export to Excel and compare it against NAHB's figures.
Known issue: Some payments on invoices created well in advance didn't reach NAHB. GrowthZone is correcting this. When the fix goes through, those older payments will be sent and may briefly look like duplicates at NAHB. If you've billed far ahead recently, check your next reconciliation and flag anything that appears twice.

Quick troubleshooting

What you're seeing Where to look first
A member never appears at NAHB A missing field on the contact, usually the mailing address
NAHB has no record of a payment you collected The invoice was created well ahead of time, or a check or ACH payment wasn't entered as a deposit
A member who paid in full still shows a balance Two invoices for the same dues, with the payment on one of them
NAHB shows a dropped member as active The membership was changed by editing dates instead of using Renew or Reactivate
A renewal went through but the year didn't move Correct the expiration date, which sends the renewal on
A renewal never generated The Next Bill Date is more than four months before the expiration date
A returning member got a new member number They were lapsed long enough that NAHB treated them as a new member
A payment that credits a Spike sponsor doesn't go through The sponsor's record is missing a first or last name, or has neither a PIN/COID nor an email address
Something appears twice at NAHB A payment that was also recorded manually, or the known issue above

When to contact GrowthZone Support

If the error list and the checks above don't explain the problem, contact GrowthZone Support with:

  • The member's name
  • Their membership number
  • The date the payment or change should have gone through

With these, Support can trace a single record end to end without back-and-forth.

Consultant pro-tip: Fix habits, not just records

When the same error shows up on several records, trace it back to the habit behind it, such as invoices created too early or payments not entered as deposits. Fixing the habit stops the next batch of errors.

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