StrataWorks : Empowering bodies corporate

StrataWorks is a body corporate management business in Far North Queensland that aims to assists body corporates in meeting their legal obligations and helping the committee manage the business in the way its members decide. Owner and qualified solicitor, Peter Clark shares how MRI Strata Master helps him and the team stay true to their philosophy of providing expert assistance to their clients.

Working in strata management since 1994, Peter understands the importance of giving owners and committees in bodies corporate the authority to manage their strata properties. Too often, body corporate managers takes all the control, resulting in owners and committees having little to no say in what happens in the body corporate.

This philosophy is what guided Peter when he set up StrataWorks in 2004. In the beginning, the company used a general bookkeeping software until it was time to look for a strata specific software to meet their growing needs.

“We looked at a couple of different software providers although it wasn’t until 2009 that we actually gave MRI Strata Master a shot.” says Peter.

Migrating to MRI Strata Master

Having had a bad experience with their previous strata software, Peter was quite surprised at the amount of planning MRI put in implementation. “We began a two stage implementation process and it was just a dream. It was a bit of hard work at the beginning, but the results were immediate. “During implementation the support provided by MRI was fantastic. We had technical support out of WA and the knowledge and standard of expertise that we received from both the tech support and account management was phenomenally good,” Peter said adding that implementation occurred at a time when his business partner was retiring and at the same time, there are two new staff members. “It was chaotic, but the support from MRI was marvellous.”

Quick access, better services

For Peter, having all the data and centralised in MRI Strata Master was a huge advantage. While the process of getting all the information took time, the rewards of an organised system and easier access to information was all worth it. “Once all information was centralised, the reports we were getting told us exactly what we were, which sounds simple but seeing as we’d had issues with confusing reporting with our previous software, the reports issued from MRI Strata Master were just a dream. “For example, we have have the plans and community management statements in there which is great. I can now sit at my desk with MRI Strata Master open and at the click of a button have all the information easily accessible if a client makes an enquiry on the phone.” Peter says.

Easier access also means that he and his team can meet their customers’ expectations without
all the fuss. Something that’s important for Peter as he believes their purpose is to do the dirty work and keep bodies corporate functioning smoothly. “Customers don’t really know what you’re going through to access their information, but internally we know we can access that information so much faster and easier when it’s all centralised and you don’t have to go into other programs and look for it. So in terms with our ability to deal with the volume of work, MRI Strata Master greatly enhanced that capacity.”

An easier way to pay creditors

One of the biggest difference that Peter and his team experienced with MRI Strata Master was the electronic processing of receipts and payments, making payment of creditors a breeze.
“Previously, we were manually processing payments. We would receive a bundle of cheques in the mail in the morning and the first thing you would have to do is process all the cheques.” Peter explains.

“Having MRI Strata Master in conjunction with Macquarie Bank, which enables people to use Bpay and all the other payment options and be able to process those payments with a downloaded file, is an enormous advantage.” Another plus for Peter is the auto reconciliation of bank accounts which saves him and his team so much time. “MRI Strata Master enables the bank accounts to reconcile every day, whereas previously we would have to reconcile manually which was a huge task.”