What it's forSpending decisions follow the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 without anyone having to remember the rules: two independent quotes above the prescribed amount at large schemes, a general meeting when an item runs more than 10% over budget, committee votes with conflict declarations, and emergency work ratified afterwards. Every step is on the request's trail.
Who it's forStrata managers and portfolio managers (approve within their delegation), maintenance coordinators (run the quoting), committee liaison and auditors (read).
Before you start
- Trades have their licence, public liability and workers compensation expiry on file (Inbox & work › Trades).
- Optional: the scheme's budget lines (Finance › Budgets) and committee members in the scheme's contacts.
Step by step
- Step 1: Raise a requestInbox & work › Quotations › New quote request, or Request quotes from a work order, an incident (defect), an inspection finding marked Issue, or a capital works plan item. Enter the scheme, lot or common property area, category (its standard inclusions and exclusions fill in), scope (Draft with AI writes a first draft for you to edit), urgency, dates, budget line and estimate, and attach photos or reports.
- Step 2: Emergency workTick Emergency work and give the reason. It skips the quote and budget gates, you approve it straight away, and a ratification motion waits for the committee's next meeting (it's on the Compliance register until ratified).
- Step 3: Job splittingIf another request at the same scheme, category and location was raised within 90 days, a Possible job splitting warning appears and the amounts are added together when the thresholds are tested. Record why it's a separate job to override; overrides are on the Compliance register.
- Step 4: Invite contractorsContractors › Invite contractors lists your panel, the request's trade first, filterable by trade, service area and compliance. Anyone with an expired or missing licence or insurance is greyed out and can't be invited. Each invitee gets a secure link by email (and SMS if chosen) with the due date; reminders go 2 days before and when overdue. The dots at the top show how many quotes the rules need and how many you have.
- Step 5: Receive quotesContractors submit price ex GST, GST, total, inclusions, exclusions, validity, start date, duration and warranty from their link and can revise until the due date; every version is kept. For a quote that came by email or on paper, use Record or upload a quote: leave the total blank and StrataWorx reads the figures from the PDF for you to confirm. Record declines with the reason.
- Step 6: Compare and recommendCompare shows the quotes side by side with the budget variance, compliance, rating and past jobs at the scheme; Find scope gaps lists differences like one quote excluding scaffolding. Save a recommendation with the reason; choosing anything but the lowest compliant quote needs a written reason.
- Step 7: ApprovalThe route is worked out for you: within your delegation you press Approve; above it the committee votes (in the app or by emailed link, each member declaring any pecuniary interest first, declared members excluded, quorum per your rules); over budget or legal services above the limits go to a general meeting (add the motion to a meeting's agenda, then record the resolution). Record the outcome: approved, rejected, deferred or more quotes requested.
- Step 8: Award and completeAward creates or updates the work order with the scope, price and access, emails it to the contractor (who accepts it from their link), tells the others they weren't successful, and commits the amount against the budget line. Invoices on the work order are flagged when more than 5% above the approved quote. Record completion with the warranty start date and a rating.
Tips
- Comparison summary (PDF) is a one-page summary for committee or general meeting papers.
- The thresholds are Business rules › Quotations; a scheme can override its delegation, minimum quotes, quorum and large-scheme status on a request's Rules card.
- Reporting and the Compliance register are tabs on the Quotations page.
Common problems
“2 quotes from unconnected contractors needed”
Two quotes from contractors that share an ABN, a related ABN or a director count as one. Record related ABNs and directors on the trade, and invite another independent contractor.
“The selected quote expired”
An expired quote can't be approved or awarded: ask the contractor to reconfirm or revise it from their link (a new version).
A contractor can't be awarded
Their licence or insurance expires before the planned start date. Approve their current certificate on the trade's page first.
Previous and next follow the Inbox & work section.