Lot's Unallocated Funds Not Entered in Opening Balances in Strata Master

Sometimes it happens that Opening Balances are entered for a new Plan, only to have the previous Management contact you to inform you, or confirm, that a Lot should have had an unallocated amount (or a credit amount) on the ledger.

Note that this article assumes a familiarity with processes within Strata Master, so there is less step by step guidance.  This is due to Opening Balances being a function requiring knowledge of Strata Master and a training session with MRI Education Section.

How Unallocated Funds Affect Your Bank Reconciliation

Unallocated monies are prepaid funds that have been paid to the Strata Manager, therefore at take-on you should have received these funds. 

As any unallocated funds entry would increase your cash,  then the bank reconciliation will be unbalanced if you simply apply an unallocated receipt to the Lot.

If your bank reconciliation is unbalanced there is the possibility that the Cash was not balanced when the Opening Balances were entered.

The Initial Checking of Facts

Your investigation will include -

1. Checking opening balance entry reports to see if the cash was not balanced and is contributing to an unbalanced bank reconciliation. In this case the Ledger side (Strata Master) total would be less than the total on the Bank side.
2. Finding out from the previous manager how the unallocated funds are to be accounted for eg are they forwarding more cash.
3. Has the previous manager informed you that Lot x needs a credit as they paid for a purchase on behalf of the Strata Plan.
4. Checking the Lot ledger and opening balance reports to see if the unallocated funds were in fact entered correctly and no further entry needs to be made.

Resolutions for the Above Scenario's

1.  If the Bank reconciliation does not balance and your balancing efforts indicate that the cause is the unallocated amount yet  to be entered, your can receipt the funds to the Lot. Link to article - https://kb.rockend.com/help/receipt-to-unallocated-funds
2. If the previous manager is to forward more cash to the trust account, then the receipt can be processed when the funds are received.
3. In this case you can apply a Credit Lot to the Lot Ledger. The Credit Lot does not introduce new cash to the Plan, but reimburses the Lot Owner from Owners Corporation funds already received. Link to article - https://kb.rockend.com/help/how-to-credit-a-lot-in-strata-master or https://kb.rockend.com/help/credit-a-lot-with-no-levy-due-in-strata-master
4. In this case there is no action to be taken in Strata Master.

Summary and Important Note

The important point to note is that you can't receipt funds to an owner ledger as unallocated funds if you haven't received the funds. You have to either receive funds or use a Credit Lot.

Logging a Support Case

If you have a scenario that is not similar to those above, then log a case with Strata Master Support, letting Support know that you have perused this article and found it does not cover your situation. Also have your Opening Balance reports ready.