Committee approval of invoices BEFORE the strata manager can pay them

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  • 24/07/2022 at 10:06 am #64254
    WoodWalker
    Flatchatter

    Over the last 5 or so years we have found 5 or 6 instances where the strata manager has paid for work that either:

    was not done
    was done to a lot owners private garden (3 times)
    was not authorised or requested

    We are using the My-community portal from Urbanise but the strata manager is resisting turning on the Invoice Approval option in the portal>

    Does anyone use this?

    Can you set it up so that only invoices more than $50 need to be approved and standard invoices (e,g, sm fees, electricity, water) don’t need to be approved, that 2 out of a 4 possible people can approve?

    Questioning the invoice before it is paid is ALOT easier than questioning it a year later at the AGM.
    Thanks for any assistance,

    Woodwalker

     

     

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  • 24/07/2022 at 10:09 am #64259
    Jimmy-T
    Keymaster

    Tell the strata manager that failure to turn on the invoice approval option will be seen as a breach of contract, which may lead to termination followed by a forensic examination of all previous payments.  That should do the trick.  The strata manager should do what the owners want, not the other way round.

    25/07/2022 at 12:44 am #64281
    WoodWalker
    Flatchatter
    Chat-starter

    Thanks Jimmy-T.
    Does anyone who uses my-community from Urbanise know if it can be set up so that only invoices more than $50 need to be approved and standard invoices (e,g, sm fees, electricity, water) don’t need to be approved, and that 2 out of a 4 possible people can approve?

    25/07/2022 at 11:36 pm #64298
    David Ng
    Flatchatter
    WoodWalker wrote:

    so that only invoices more than $50 need to be approved

    If you’re concerned re the integrity of your SM don’t let them pay any invoice without Committee approval. Otherwise you may well find that every invoice is for one dollar below your limit, i.e. $49 dollars.

    27/07/2022 at 8:30 am #64324
    sm_sydney
    Flatchatter

    Urbanise

    I am a strata manager & use Urbanise everyday. It can be set to allow authorisations on expense levels and number of committee member approvals. It doesn’t automatically allow approval of certain invoices (i.e. power, water etc)   I would recommend you as a committee member approve all invoices. It is a very simple one click process to approve invoices.

    03/08/2022 at 4:32 pm #64478
    WoodWalker
    Flatchatter
    Chat-starter

    Thanks sm-sydney

    We are pretty unhappy with out sm … and they certainly do not provide information allowing us to see and understand OUR financials e.g.

    In the urbanise GENERAL LEDGER I can see that certain invoices are paid on a given date and if I then look at the BALANCE SHEET around that date I can work out whether the payment was taken out of the GENERAL FUND or the SINKING FUND.

    Wouldn’t it be better if there was a column in the GENERAL LEDGER showing what fund the money was taken out of?

    Also I suspect that some invoices have been paid out of the GENERAL FUND (‘cos we were up to the line item in the SINKING FUND forecast) and then in preparation for the AGM they have been magically recategorized to come out of the SINKING FUND. Auuuugggh! This is not transparent financial management.

    Very frustrating!

    I better go for a walk now.

    03/08/2022 at 5:53 pm #64488
    newb
    Flatchatter

    @WoodWalker

    I feel ya.

    Our SM moved to Urbanise but never even mentioned the portal to us. The last thing they want is people being able to see the actual accounts. I asked them about it and …. crickets

    Will be rid of them soon.

    05/08/2022 at 11:31 am #64504
    Coniver2
    Flatchatter

    WoodWalker I hear you also

    Our SM has also switched to Urbanise

    During the last financial year the following has happened and unfortunately  Owners will never know

    Late Payment fees  twice for electricity & gas , the strata manager even tried to avoid paying the $12 fee on one invoice by paying only the usage sum

    Sydney Water Rate unpaid to 6 months and then  duplicated payment

    Sundry Expenses for over  $6K used for invoices related to other expense eg Fire Protection that  affects our Budget

    Admin invoices of over $20K applied to the Sinking fund  without committees approval

    I have noticed our strata manager is also cherry picking the recording of documents

    Hope to be rid of them soon also

     

     

     

    08/08/2022 at 1:30 pm #64536
    WoodWalker
    Flatchatter
    Chat-starter

    We are staggered by the level of performance of our SM. e.g. not informing the EC of a bad debtor (we only became aware of this at the AGM 1.5 years after it started).  And now they are going for a 34% increase in their management fee.  Tomorrow I will try the line that we pay the SM to collect OUR income and there is a 10% reduction in OUR income so perhaps they should take a 10% reduction in THEIR fee until they get the arears.

    In Canberra Strata Managers DO NOT need to have any training or qualification.  The company needs to be registered.

    Auuuugh!

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