Stack.

Heritage Village runs on a hub-and-spoke model. Microsoft Dataverse is the hub. WordPress, MaintainX, Constant Contact, WebTrac, and libib are spokes. Power Automate is the traffic cop between them. Teams and SharePoint handle staff surfaces. SendGrid or Mailgun carries transactional email.

WordPress (custom theme)

The public website and gated resident portal. A custom theme built from vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Staff edit content through a stripped-down admin. The theme disables Gutenberg on locked pages and enables it on the editorial blog.

Role

Frontend presentation, editorial content, form capture, resident auth surface.

Cost

WordPress core is free; hosting runs separately (see Operations).

Owner

Heritage Village IT — theme code, plugin roster, release cycle.

Data store

Local MySQL tuned for speed; holds WP users, CPT content, ACF fields, form submissions in transit.

Advanced Custom Fields Pro

Strict form fields replace the open text editor. Staff see labeled inputs for headline, date, committee, PDF, and meeting video. The layout stays locked.

Role

Backend form rail, user-profile extensions, repeater fields for multi-unit owners.

Cost

$49 per year per site.

Owner

Heritage Village IT.

Note

Gemini suggested the free tier with CPT workarounds. For 3,600 residents, snowbird addresses, multi-unit owners, vehicles, and emergency contacts, Pro is the correct call.

Microsoft Dataverse

The master database. Holds the resident roster, unit ownership, approved vehicles, variance records, work-order history mirrored from MaintainX, and every form submission. One brain. One source of truth for operational data.

Role

Enterprise hub; canonical resident, unit, and request records.

Cost

Included in Power Apps Premium or per-user Dataverse licensing (~$20/user/month for builders).

Owner

Nate (Procurement and Data Manager) plus a small premium-licensed circle.

Power Automate

The middleware between every spoke. Triggers on webhooks, database events, and schedules. Translates payloads. Prevents infinite loops by checking the service-account author on every sync.

Role

Webhook receiver, scheduled batch runner, Teams card dispatcher, Constant Contact writer.

Cost

Basic connectors included with M365; premium connectors need per-user or per-flow licensing.

Owner

Nate; flow library maintained by the premium-licensed team.

MaintainX

Work orders for trades and office staff. Already in heavy daily use. Stays in place.

Role

Trades system of record; resident-submitted work requests land here.

Cost

Existing license (confirm tier before launch).

Owner

Operations team.

Integration

REST API through a WordPress server-side proxy. Never embed as an iframe. MaintainX sets headers that block framing.

WebTrac

Calendar, class sign-ups, and space bookings. Already in place. Residents click through; the portal does not wrap it.

Role

Events, registrations, facility reservations.

Cost

Existing license.

Owner

Activities staff.

Integration

Link-out on /living-here/activities; the homepage pulls a lightweight event feed where the vendor supports it.

Constant Contact

The e-Bulletin newsletter provider. Sends to opted-in residents.

Role

Mass email, subscriber list.

Cost

Existing license.

Owner

Communications staff.

Integration

Power Automate writes new opt-ins after Sarah approves them.

libib

Library catalog for the community library.

Role

Book, film, and item catalog.

Cost

Existing plan.

Owner

Library volunteers.

Integration

Link-out from /living-here/facilities/library.

Transactional email

Delivers magic-link emails, form confirmations, and staff notifications. Pairs with WP Mail SMTP. SendGrid or Mailgun both fit.

Role

Deliverable transactional mail.

Cost

SendGrid free tier covers 100/day; paid tier starts near $20/month; Mailgun similar.

Owner

Heritage Village IT.

Note

Magic-link auth fails if mail lands in spam. This service is not optional.

Microsoft Teams

Every staff member lives here. Premium licenses go to builders. Standard licenses get Adaptive Cards.

Role

Staff triage, approval cards, channel routing.

Cost

Bundled with M365 licenses.

Owner

Heritage Village IT.

SharePoint and Excel

The reporting tier for tier-3 staff. Power Automate writes nightly upserts to Excel files on SharePoint. Staff open the files through their standard M365 license.

Role

Read-only dashboards for staff without Power licenses.

Cost

Bundled with M365.

Owner

Heritage Village IT.

Entra ID

Single sign-on for staff. Binds to Dataverse and Power Apps.

Role

Staff identity, license assignment, SSO for internal tools.

Cost

Bundled with M365.

Owner

Heritage Village IT.

• Tier 1 (Premium). Power Apps Premium plus Dataverse. Nate plus a small circle of builders. They design flows, build apps, and edit Dataverse schema.
• Tier 2 (Standard M365). Staff liaisons like Carol and Sarah. They approve requests through Teams Adaptive Cards. They do not log into Power Apps.
• Tier 3 (Standard M365). Broader staff. They open Excel files on SharePoint for read-only snapshots.

See Auth for the full role table.

Layer	Component	Cost / year	Owner
Frontend	WordPress custom theme	$0 core	HV IT
Forms	ACF Pro	$49	HV IT
Hub DB	Microsoft Dataverse	license-based	Nate
Middleware	Power Automate	license-based	Nate
Trades	MaintainX	existing	Ops
Events	WebTrac	existing	Activities
Newsletter	Constant Contact	existing	Comms
Library	libib	existing	Volunteers
Email	SendGrid or Mailgun	~$240	HV IT
Staff chat	Teams	M365	HV IT
Reporting	SharePoint + Excel	M365	HV IT
Identity	Entra ID	M365	HV IT

Hosting platform choice lives in Operations. The plugin list beyond ACF Pro lives in Auth. The design system (typography, palette) is locked in the design-system folder.