Auto-Update last ECM date

When finalising a Committee Meeting in the Meeting Wizard the ECM date displayed on the Executive tab will be updated with that meeting date.

Committee Meetings include the following meeting types:

• Executive Committee Meeting
• Committee Meeting
• Board Meeting
• Management Committee Meeting
• Paper Meeting

Email address validation

Additional emails

The extended email validation rules are now applied to additional email addresses recorded against all email levy notice recipient(s) used when distributing Debt Recovery notices.

The two quick reports which can be run to identify lots or contacts with invalid email addresses has also been updated to include the additional email addresses recorded.

Generic BPAY Stationery

Cosmetic changes

Cosmetic changes have been made to the remittance slip to display clearly the BSB, Account Number and EFT reference number required for payments being made by Bank Transfer.

Levy Refund

Clear payee details

Where details for a Levy Refund by Direct Entry are recorded on screen, when a new lot is selected the Account details and amount fields are cleared to ensure that refunds are made to the correct recipient.

ANZ Direct (NZ) Download

Process Interest and Withholding Tax

The download processing has been expanded to now include the automatic processing of bank interest received and withholding tax deducted from trust accounts.

During the processing of the statement file the following transactions will be automatically created:

Bank Interest

Where the description “GROSS INTEREST” is found a receipt will be created to the bank interest income code.

Withholding Tax

Where the description “WITHHOLDING TAX” is found a fee will be posted to the standard fund account for Income Tax.

NOTE: The Income Tax standard fund account must be setup in Utility > Set Standard Fund Accounts.

ANZ NZ – MTS Direct Transfer

Include new bank code

An MTS Direct Transfer file for ANZ in New Zealand can now be created where the agency BSB starts with 01, 11, or 06.

NOTE: Previously the MTS file required 01 or 11.

Process Downloaded Bank Statement

Automatically save reports

Upon processing downloads STRATA Master will now save a copy of the download report(s) in the \\strata\documents\bankingreports folder.

Where you have selected to display the Exception report this will also be automatically saved.  

The naming of the banking reports are Download Report for filename_systemdate.pdf.

For example Download Report for 20160430.txt_20160502.pdf where the file is called 20160430.txt and the system date is 2 May 2016.

This will ensure that you have complete records of your banking download reports.

NOTE: When you process your first download after upgrading the folder \\strata\documents\bankingreports  will be automatically created.

The download report(s) will always be saved in this folder, regardless of your Document Management configuration.

When completing a STRATA Master backup or restore through the File menu, this folder will be included.  Where the file already exists they will be replaced when reprocessing.

Opening Balance Entry 

Financial Reports Preview

A new option has been included in the process of entering and saving opening balances which will allow you to preview the financial statements for the plan prior to saving the records.

This will provide an opportunity for you to ensure that the financial reports are presented as expected.

Once you have previewed the data entry reports, when selecting Save on the Opening Balance Entry Screen a new message will be displayed:

Where the financial reports are not as expected you are able to change the opening balance data entered on screen prior to saving the transactions.

The reports displayed are:

Statement of Financial Position – Group

Statement of Financial Performance – Group

Note: This process can be repeated until such time as you are happy with the resulting financial statements and then you may continue and save the transactions.

Quick Pay

Clear Payee Details option

A new checkbox has been added to Quick Pay - Other payee by direct entry named Clear payee details.

When the screen is launched the option will be un-ticked by default. 

Once the option has been selected it will remain selected until the screen has been closed.

Where Clear payee details is selected, on processing the payment the following fields will be cleared:

• Name
• Address
• Account details
• Email remittance to

Quick Pay

Updated Message

The confirmation messages have been updated when processing one off direct entry payments to provide further instruction as to how to proceed to disburse the payment.

The message is displayed upon saving a One-off Direct Entry Payment or when saving a Levy Refund by Direct Entry.

The message reads as follows:

"If you wish to upload this payment immediately you should navigate to Accounting > Process Direct Entry Payments.  When you have successfully created the file you may then login to your Online Banking Portal and upload the Direct Entry Payments file."

Email address validation

Quick Reports

There are two quick reports which can be run to identify lots or contacts where an invalid email address is recorded for the primary email.

The following additional validation rules have been added to achieve more reliable email data entry.

The new validations are listed below:

• only one @
• the @ is not at one end of the string
• only alphanumeric, underscore, dash or dot are permitted
• a dot cannot be at the end of the email address
• the address must have at least one dot after the @
• The last part of email address must be 2 or 3 characters long
• Dot dot is not allowed

Email address validation

Debt Recovery Processing

Where any contact’s primary email addresses fail email validation rules the lot will be skipped and recorded in the debt recovery log file.

The debt recovery processing will continue to the completion of the lots in the debt recovery selection.

Where at least one lot was skipped due to email validation errors the following message will be displayed: 

"Debt recovery notices were not issued for all lots due to invalid email addresses.  A log file has been created in <\\strata\log> named <<name of file>>."

Once you have corrected the invalid email addresses you should reprocess the stage of debt recovery.

NOTE: The log file will display the following details: 

"Invalid email address for plan <<number>> lot <<number>>."

Generic BPAY Stationery

New levy slip notice type

A new levy notice type has been added to both Print and Email stationery configuration.

This notice is designed to be utilised by agencies which offer BPAY for levy payments, but cannot utilise the bank specific stationery available in STRATA Master.

There are five options which can be selected for inclusion on the notice:

• Print Paid by
• Print Due Date
• Print Amount Due
• Print Post To
• Print Bank Details

When setting up this stationery type it is important to ensure that biller codes are recorded for each bank account.

fileSMART Creditor Invoicing

Validation message

When invoices are validated on the fileSMART Creditor Invoicing Screen, where any of the selected invoices are detected as Invalid or Warning the following message will be displayed:

"Warning: Not all of the selected invoices are Valid.  Please check the preview report or the comments displayed on screen and screen and take any further action required."

An issue has also been resolved where an error was displayed if the invoices grid was selected after the preview report had been generated.

fileSMART Auto-archiving

Committee meetings to owners

and

Interim Report Portal Description

Committee Meetings

When Committee meeting documents are archived to fileSMART you have the ability to select both Executive and/or Owner for the purposes of publishing the document on the Owner & Executive Portals.

NOTE: This is valid only for users with publishing rights in fileSMART.

Interim Report Portal Descriptions

When archiving Interim reports to fileSMART the following default description will be shown in fileSMART: Interim Reports to Month YYYY.

Communications Wizard

Screen update

The messaging icon on the main toolbar launches the Communication Wizard.

A short description for each option has been added to the screen.

The three options available on the Communication Wizard are:

• Bulk SMS
• Email registered owners
• Send an internal message

Mail Merge

Screen update

Reports > Mail Merge launches the wizard where you can create mail merge documents from existing templates, or blank documents.

Once you have selected the template, or blank document (as appropriate) the next screen now displays information to help users determine which data source should be used to create the document.

A short description for each data source has been added to the screen to help you correctly determine which set of data the document should be selected.

Management Fee Invoicing

Backup prompt

A label has been added to the end of the Management Fee Invoicing screen to advise users of the last backup date, and location of that backup, along with a reminder to backup prior to invoicing.

Where no backup location is recorded in the database only the reminder label will be displayed.

Auto-update last EGM date

When the Association type is set to Neighbourhood Association, finalising a Special General Meeting in the Meeting Wizard will update the last EGM date on the Corp screen with the meeting date.

Receipting

Updated Message

• When cancelling a receipt, in either the current or previous financial year the message displayed on screen now provides a reminder as to how to re-create a replacement receipt.

• If you attempt to cancel allocation receipts in the wrong order additional information is provided in the message to assist you.

• A label has been added to the end of the receipting screen to serve as a reminder that cash and/or cheques must be closed off via the banking screen, and deposit slips may also be produced.

GST Reports

Message

When users create GST Reports for one or multiple plans and the GST Details checkbox is NOT selected the following message will be displayed:

"NOTE: You have not included the GST Details Report in your selection.  The GST Details Report provides a list of all items included in the totals displayed on the GST Report. Would you like to continue without including the GST Details Report?"

If you select Yes the reports will continue to be produced based on the existing selection criteria.

If you select No the screen is returned with all previous selections unchanged, which allows you to select the GST Detail Report as part of the selection criteria.

Invoice Description Reporting

When entering creditor invoice descriptions the entry field has been limited to 50 characters on all screens to ensure consistency across financial reporting.

Prior to this version some invoice screens allowed for longer descriptions which displayed truncated descriptions in the detailed reports. 

Lot Owner Selector

Where a selected lot is part of an unmanaged plan a label will now be displayed to advise you that the plan is unmanaged.

Upgrading STRATA Master

Where the logged in user has not selected Run as administrator when running the upgrade an error 1721 was presented

The need to Run as administrator is no longer required to ensure a successful upgrade on the server.

SQL 2016 Certification

We have completed extensive testing to verify that SQL 2016 operates at an optimal level when installed with STRATA Master.

Work Orders

The following issues have been resolved in regard to Work Orders:

Work Order Report

• When emailing a Work Order or Quotes where a local signature was setup in Outlook it was not being included on the email.

• The label ABN was being displayed as Association Type on the work order report and quote requests

• Where the work order comment (*.rtf) file size was too large it was not displayed on the work order report.

Non-Compliant Creditors

• Work Orders were able to be issued from the Quick Work Order screen where the creditor was not compliant.

Other Changes

The following issues have been resolved:

Budget screen

• An error was displayed if a new row was added to any of the expense or income grids but no account was selected.

Configuration Tool

• When the option was selected for the first time a RTE 9 - Subscript out of range error would be displayed.

Lot Owner Screen

• Where the Debt Recovery tab was selected before a lot owner was saved against the lot an error was displayed.
• Where more than 49 actions were recorded in the Debt Recovery grid on the Lot owner screen an error was displayed if the tab was selected.
• Where an agent is selected to receive notices, but no agent is saved against the lot an error was displayed.
• Where all lots are excluded from debt recovery at the plan level, when a new lot is added to the plan it did not have the "exclude" flag set for the lot.

Remove "Meeting Agenda Configuration" from the Activity List

• The Meeting agenda configuration option is no longer displayed on the Activity list as it is only accessible through the Association Types screen.

Reports

• The following three reports will now display the total registered lots in an owners corporation.

• Annual Management Fee Report
• Management Fee Statistics Report
• Quick Reports > Corporations - "Lots" column.  NOTE: The report had previously been displaying the total lots which includes any additional debtors.

• The Diary Report was been updated to ensure that the billing amount is displayed, where no time is recorded in the diary entry.
• The Lot Audit Trail Report was not correctly displayed where the debt recovery name was more than 50 characters.

Removing a default meeting motion

• An error was displayed if a motion from the template with additional resolutions was deleted in the meeting agenda screen.

Section 151 Certificate incorrect where multiple levy postings exist

• When more than one levy is due on the same date (e.g. where Group levies are posted) the total installment displayed will be a sum of all levies due on that date, not just the last levy due on that date.

Standard levy posting

• A standard levy posting would allow the total to be levied for ether fund to be posted with a negative value. Note: This was only occurring where Advanced levy posting is not selected.

• Where users change the Administrative or Sinking amounts to be raised users will now be forced to Preview the report again prior to be able to post the levies.

Trades Monitor Export/Import

• The file path was not displayed correctly where an owners corporation had been selected, prior to opening this screen.