If you’re on a strata committee, you’ve probably been handed a software proposal at some point — maybe from your building manager, maybe from your strata manager, maybe from another committee member who’s frustrated with how things are running. Someone wants the building to adopt management software, and the committee needs to decide whether to approve it.
This guide is written for you. Not for the building manager who’ll use it daily, and not for the strata manager who may have their own systems. This is for committee members who are being asked to spend levy money on software and want to make a good decision.
Why Strata Committees Are Involved in Software Decisions
In most Australian strata schemes, the owners corporation committee approves operational expenditure above a certain threshold. Building management software is a recurring cost paid from the administrative fund, which means it’s the committee’s decision — or at least requires committee approval.
This is appropriate. Committee members are volunteer owners spending other people’s money. They should understand what they’re paying for, what problem it solves, and whether the cost is justified.
The challenge is that committee members and building managers have different priorities. Your building manager cares about workflow efficiency, mobile access, and daily operations. You care about oversight, cost control, and whether residents are being well-served. Good software needs to satisfy both perspectives.
What Strata Committees Actually Need From Software
Most software demos are pitched to building managers. The features shown — maintenance workflows, contractor assignment, mobile app — are important, but they’re not what a committee member should be evaluating first.
Here’s what matters from a committee perspective:
Maintenance Visibility
The most common question at committee meetings is some variation of: “What maintenance has been done, what’s outstanding, and why is it taking so long?”
With the right software, you shouldn’t need to wait for the building manager to prepare a report. You should be able to see:
- Every open maintenance request and how long it’s been waiting
- Every completed request this quarter, with resolution details
- Recurring issues that keep coming back (a sign the root cause hasn’t been addressed)
- Photos attached to requests, so you can see what was reported and what was done
This visibility changes the dynamic at committee meetings. Instead of interrogating the building manager, you’re reviewing data together. It’s more productive and less adversarial.
Cost Transparency and Budget Tracking
Committees are responsible for managing levy funds. You need to understand what maintenance is costing and whether spending is tracking against the budget set at the AGM.
Look for software that records costs against maintenance requests and work orders. Even basic cost tracking — the amount on each work order — gives the committee a clear picture of quarterly and annual maintenance spend by category.
This matters at AGM time. When an owner asks “why did we spend $15,000 on plumbing this year?”, you should be able to answer with specifics, not estimates.
Document Storage and Access
Strata schemes generate significant paperwork: meeting minutes, by-laws, compliance certificates, insurance policies, contractor agreements, inspection reports. Under strata legislation in every Australian state, owners have rights to access certain records.
Software should provide a central, organised document repository that committee members can access directly. No more emailing the strata manager to request a copy of the last AGM minutes. No more wondering whether the fire safety certificate is current.
Documents to store and track include:
- AGM and committee meeting minutes
- By-laws and special resolutions
- Insurance certificates of currency
- Fire safety compliance certificates
- Lift registration and inspection reports
- Asbestos registers
- Annual financial statements
- Contractor insurance and licence documents
Resident Communication
A well-informed resident body makes committee life easier. When residents know what’s happening — planned maintenance, rule changes, amenity closures — they make fewer complaints and attend AGMs with better context.
Software with a built-in notice board and resident portal means announcements reach everyone without relying on paper notices in the lift lobby. Residents can also check their maintenance request status without contacting the building manager, which reduces complaints about communication.
Inspection Reports
Regular building inspections are a compliance obligation and a way to catch issues before they become expensive. As a committee member, you want to see inspection reports — not just hear that inspections were done.
Good software generates inspection reports with photos attached to each checklist item. You can see exactly what condition the car park, fire stairs, pool area, and common areas are in. When a maintenance request is created from an inspection finding, you can trace it back to the original photo and inspection date.
Contractor Oversight
Committees don’t manage contractors day-to-day — that’s the building manager’s job. But you should have visibility into who is working in the building, whether they’re properly insured, and what work they’ve completed.
Software that tracks contractor sign-ins, insurance expiry dates, and work order history gives the committee confidence that contractor management is being handled properly. If a contractor’s public liability insurance has lapsed, the system flags it before they’re assigned more work.
For buildings that take WHS compliance seriously, digital contractor inductions create a permanent record that every contractor was briefed on building safety requirements before starting work. That record protects the owners corporation if something goes wrong.
Questions Every Committee Should Ask Before Choosing Software
When evaluating a proposal, these are the questions that matter most from a committee perspective.
How is it priced?
This is the first question, and the answer tells you a lot about the vendor.
Per-unit pricing (e.g. $X per unit per quarter) is the most predictable model for strata. You know exactly what you’ll pay, and the cost scales with building size. Committee members change, building managers change, but the number of units stays the same. Per-unit pricing means no surprises when someone new needs access.
Per-user pricing is problematic for strata. Committees have 3-7 members who rotate. Building managers change. Strata managers may need access. If you’re paying per user, every personnel change affects the cost, and there’s pressure to limit who gets access.
Tiered or module-based pricing means the features you actually want often sit behind an upgrade. The base price looks attractive, but once you add contractor management, inspections, and document storage, you’re paying significantly more.
Ask for the all-in annual cost for your building, including every feature and every user who needs access. Then compare that number, not the headline rate.
Is there a lock-in contract?
Committee members should be cautious about multi-year commitments. Software that works well in a demo doesn’t always work well in practice. Ideally, you want month-to-month or quarterly billing with no minimum term beyond the first quarter.
If a vendor requires a 12-month or 24-month commitment, ask why. If the product is good, people stay voluntarily. Lock-in contracts exist to prevent churn, which usually means the vendor knows some customers would leave if they could.
What happens to our data if we leave?
This is a governance question, not just a technical one. The owners corporation’s maintenance history, documents, and records belong to the owners corporation. You should always be able to export your data in a standard format.
Ask specifically: “If we cancel, can we get a full export of all our data within 30 days?” Any hesitation on this question is a red flag.
Does it work for the building manager?
Here’s the practical reality: the committee chooses the software, but the building manager uses it every day. If the software is difficult to use, the building manager won’t use it properly, and you won’t get the data quality and visibility you’re paying for.
The best way to evaluate this is to ask your building manager to trial the software with real work for 2-4 weeks. If they find it intuitive and it saves them time, they’ll advocate for it. If they find it clunky, no amount of committee enthusiasm will make it work.
Key things building managers need:
- A mobile app that works offline (basements, car parks, and plant rooms have no signal)
- Quick maintenance request logging with photo capture
- Easy work order creation and contractor assignment
- Inspection templates they can complete on their phone during rounds
Is it Australian-built and hosted?
For Australian strata schemes, this matters for three reasons:
- Compliance — Australian strata legislation has specific requirements around record-keeping. Software built for the US or UK market won’t understand these.
- Privacy — Data hosted in Australia is subject to the Privacy Act 1988. Data hosted overseas may not have equivalent protections.
- Support — When you have a question, you want to speak to someone in your timezone who understands Australian strata.
The Hidden Cost of Not Having Software
Some committees resist the cost of software, preferring to keep things manual. This is understandable — you’re spending levy money and want to be careful. But there’s a cost to the status quo that’s easy to miss.
Building manager time is expensive. A building manager spending 5-8 hours per week on manual administration — compiling reports, chasing contractors by phone, responding to resident status enquiries, filing paper documents — is time not spent on actual building management. If your building manager is on a contract that charges by the hour, those admin hours are a direct cost.
Deferred maintenance costs more. When maintenance requests get lost in email inboxes or paper piles, small issues become expensive ones. A fast maintenance response prevents escalation. Software that ensures nothing falls through the cracks pays for itself in avoided damage.
Committee meetings run longer. Without good data, committee meetings become fact-finding exercises. The building manager spends time justifying what happened rather than discussing what needs to happen. With a clear maintenance dashboard, the committee can focus on decisions, not detective work.
AGM preparation is painful. Preparing annual reports for the AGM — maintenance summaries, spending breakdowns, compliance status — takes days when data is scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and paper files. With software, these reports take minutes.
For context, ComtyLink costs $2 per unit per quarter. That’s $400 per year for a 50-unit building, or $800 per year for a 100-unit building. All features included, no per-user fees. If the software saves your building manager even two hours per week, the return on investment is immediate.
What to Look for: A Checklist for Committee Members
When evaluating building management software, score each option against these criteria:
Transparency and Oversight
- Committee members can log in and view maintenance data directly
- Maintenance costs are recorded against each request or work order
- Reports can be generated on demand, not just at the building manager’s discretion
- Document storage is accessible to authorised committee members
- Contractor insurance and compliance status is visible
Resident Experience
- Residents can submit maintenance requests online — no app download required
- Residents receive automatic status updates on their requests
- A resident portal provides access to notices, documents, and amenity bookings
- Announcements can be published to all residents through the platform
Operational Capability
- Maintenance requests are tracked from submission to resolution
- Work orders can be created and assigned to contractors
- Building inspections can be completed digitally with photo evidence
- Key management tracks who has building keys and when they were returned
- Asset registers track equipment, service history, and compliance dates
Commercial Terms
- Pricing is per-unit, not per-user — so committee member changes don’t affect cost
- All features are included in the base price — no module add-ons
- No lock-in contract beyond a reasonable initial term
- Free trial available to test with real building data
- Free data migration from your current system
- Full data export available if you leave
How ComtyLink Fits
ComtyLink is built specifically for Australian strata and apartment buildings. Here’s how it addresses the committee concerns covered in this guide.
Pricing: $2 per unit per quarter, all features included. No per-user fees, no setup fees, no module charges. A 100-unit building pays $800 per year. Committee members, building managers, and strata managers all get access at no additional cost.
Maintenance visibility: Every maintenance request is tracked with full history, photos, status changes, and costs. Committee members can view the maintenance dashboard directly.
Document storage: Centralised document management for minutes, by-laws, compliance certificates, and building records.
Resident portal: Residents submit requests, check status, view notices, and book amenities through a dedicated portal with a custom building URL (e.g. discoverypoint.comtylink.com).
Inspection reports: Digital inspections with custom templates, photo documentation on each checklist item, and automatic PDF report generation for committee review.
Contractor oversight: Full contractor management including sign-in tracking, insurance expiry alerts, work order history, and digital inductions.
No lock-in: Monthly billing after the trial period. Cancel any time with full data export.
Free trial: 3 months free with every feature. No credit card required. We’ll migrate your data from your current system at no cost.
Making the Case to Your Committee
If you’re the committee member who’s done the research and wants to propose software adoption, here’s a practical approach:
1. Quantify the current cost. How many hours does the building manager spend on manual administration each week? What does that cost? Have any maintenance issues escalated due to poor tracking? What did those cost?
2. Get a trial quote. For ComtyLink, you can calculate the annual cost yourself: count your units, multiply by $2, multiply by 4 quarters. That’s the total. Check the pricing page for the calculator.
3. Propose a trial, not a commitment. A 3-month free trial costs the owners corporation nothing. Suggest the committee authorise a trial period where the building manager uses the software alongside existing processes. After 3 months, review the results and decide.
4. Define success criteria. Before the trial, agree on what would make it worthwhile: faster maintenance responses, better meeting reports, fewer resident complaints, reduced admin time. Measure against those criteria at the end of the trial.
5. Present to the committee with data. After the trial, show the committee what changed. How many requests were tracked? What reports were generated? Did the building manager find it useful? Let the data make the case.
Summary
Choosing building management software is a governance decision, not just an operational one. As a strata committee member, your job is to ensure the building is well-managed and levy funds are spent wisely. The right software gives you visibility into how the building is being run, while making the building manager’s job easier and the resident experience better.
Focus on: per-unit pricing that doesn’t penalise committee turnover, full data ownership, no lock-in contracts, and a free trial that lets you evaluate with real data before committing any levy money.
Ready to see how it works for your building? Start a free 3-month trial — no cost, no commitment, and we’ll help migrate your existing data.
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