Reply To: Looking to compare self-management and strata firms

Hello WoodWalker

If this questions is still important to you, my self-managed system is run from non-strata specific software:

• Email on my computer
• Spreadsheet and wordprocessing software (Excel, Word, Google Sheets etc)
• Personal Finance Software (e.g. Quicken, MoneyDance)
• Cloud data storage (e.g. Google drive, Dropbox, OneDrive)

It took many hours to set it up.  Now it is easy to send levy notices, create meeting agenda, minutes, financial reports.  If you want to go cost free self-management, you have to be very organised and experienced with the abovementioned software.

OurBodyCorp

In the beginning, I tried OurBodyCorp for one year.  I took the cheapest subscription (owner controlled).  I discontinued the service because the owners did not use it.

Pros:

1. Easy to use.  Not much technical support beyond the initial setting up.
2. All owners can login and see the state of the financial accounts.
3. Levy notices easy to send:  With the unit entitlement information, the system calculates the levies and sends invoices to all owners at the click of a button.
4. Financial reporting:  This system records every transaction.  You can attach documents (invoices) to a transaction.  There is a summary page showing how much is spent on each category.
5. Meeting agenda / minutes can be set up.  The minutes let me assign actions to people and check them off when they are done.
6. Noticeboard for communicating news to all members.
7. By-laws and other files could be saved.

Cons:

1. If an owner has paid their levies before the next quarter started, I could not adjust the levy notice easily.
2. I already had MoneyDance set up with the financial records.  I found myself entering the same transaction twice:  once for each system.  Personal finance software lets me find out “how much did we spend on xxx over the past five years?”
3. As a NSW owner, I need to have a ten year capital works plan and a “Key Financial Information Statement”.  I still needed to use a spreadsheet.
4. Printing the agenda / minutes.  There was a lot of grey background.  At the time, background printing could not be turned off on my printer.  It wastes a lot of toner.

Since I had to use my own spreadsheet / personal finance software anyway, OurBodyCorp was only useful for owners, who wanted to view the accounts.  Since none of them did, I ended the subscription.

STRATABOX

I trialled this product because it was advertised in FlatChat.  I did not pay for it.  The system was still in beta.

Pros

1. Easy to use
2. Geared for larger owners corporations.
3. Seemed to be geared for documenting communications between owners, residents, strata committee, strata manager, building manager.
4. Facility for logging an issue and keeping track of what is being done to resolve it.
5. by-laws could be saved.  Can’t remember if other documents could be saved.
6. Could set up meeting agenda / minutes

Cons

No financial information could be recorded.  It would be a deal breaker for me if I can’t send levy invoices and do the financial accounting.

In conclusion, the only system which met my needs was the one I created from a couple of spreadsheets, personal finance software and a word processor.  If anyone is interested in self management, I could open a thread to talk about how I did it.