How to Choose Strata Management Software in Australia (2026 Buyer's Guide)
A practical 2026 guide to choosing strata software in Australia: must-have features, vendor checks, state law, data residency, pricing and migration.
Choosing strata management software in Australia comes down to matching seven core capabilities — trust accounting and levies, maintenance and work orders, compliance registers, communications and a resident portal, meetings and AGM tools, document management, and reporting — to your portfolio's size, the states you operate in, and your data-residency obligations. The right tool reduces manual handling, keeps you compliant with state strata legislation, and gives owners visibility. This guide covers the must-have features, how to evaluate vendors, the Australia-specific considerations, and a buyer's checklist.
What is strata management software?
Strata management software is a platform that helps strata managers, owners corporations, and building managers run the administration and finances of a strata-titled property. It digitises the levy collection, trust accounting, maintenance, compliance, communications, and meeting obligations of managing a scheme of multiple lots and shared common property.
Depending on the state, the legal entity is called an owners corporation (NSW, VIC, ACT), a body corporate (QLD), or a strata company (WA). The software serves strata management businesses running many schemes, self-managed buildings whose committees have no external manager, building and facilities managers handling on-site operations, and owners and residents who get a portal for levies, requests, and documents. Modern platforms increasingly add automation and AI, but the foundation is always accurate financials and compliant records.
What features must strata management software have?
The non-negotiables are trust accounting and levies, maintenance and work orders, compliance registers, communications with a resident portal, meeting and AGM tools, document management, and reporting. The rest is optional.
Trust accounting and levy management
This is the heart of the system and what regulators care most about. Look for separate administrative fund and capital works fund (formerly sinking fund) accounting kept distinct as the legislation requires; automated levy issuance, arrears tracking, interest on overdue levies, and reconciliation; trust-account audit trails with bank reconciliation so every transaction is traceable; support for special and interim levies; and audit-ready owner statements and year-end financials. Trust-money is regulated, so the software must enforce — not just enable — good practice.
Maintenance and work orders
Common property maintenance is a major source of manual work. The software should capture requests in one place; raise work orders, assign contractors, track quotes, and record completion; hold a contractor register with insurance and licence details; and keep a works history per asset.
This is where AI is starting to add value: some platforms triage incoming work orders automatically — Orveya, for instance, uses an assistant called Theo to draft the triage — but insist that AI only ever acts under human approval.
Compliance and essential services registers
Strata buildings carry real obligations: fire safety and essential services, WHS duties on common property, asbestos registers in older buildings, and insurance valuations. Good software provides a compliance register with reminders for inspections and certifications, essential-services scheduling (e.g. annual fire safety statements in NSW), contractor WHS records, and insurance tracking.
Communications and a resident portal
Owners and residents expect self-service. Look for a portal or app where they can view levies, pay online, lodge maintenance requests, read notices, and access documents — cutting inbound phone and email load. Branded apps (often a PWA, so no app-store friction) feel professional and building-specific.
Meetings, AGMs and voting
The software should support the full meeting lifecycle: notices and agendas, motions, proxies, quorum tracking, electronic and in-person voting, and minutes. AGMs and EGMs have notice-period and procedural requirements that differ by state, so the tool should make compliant meetings simple.
Document management and reporting
A central, permissioned document store — by-laws, plans, contracts, insurance certificates, minutes — saves time at audit. Reporting should cover financials, arrears, maintenance, and committee summaries, exportable.
How do you evaluate strata software vendors?
Evaluate vendors on functional fit, compliance rigour, support quality, data ownership, integration, and total cost — not just demo polish. Score each against the same criteria. Key questions:
- Compliance: Does it handle trust accounting to your state's requirements and produce audit-ready records?
- Australian fit: Is it built for AU strata law, or adapted from an overseas product?
- Support: What are the support hours, channels, and response times, and is onboarding included?
- Data ownership: Do you own your data, and can you export it in full if you leave?
- Integrations: Does it connect to your banking, accounting, and comms tools?
- Stability and security: Is the vendor actively developing the product, how long have they operated in Australia, and what encryption, access controls, and backups are in place?
- References: Can you speak to managers running similar portfolios?
Always run a structured trial with your own data before committing. A polished demo shows what the software does on a perfect day; a pilot shows how it behaves with your real records.
What Australia-specific factors should you consider?
Three things matter most: data residency, differences in state strata law, and whether the product is genuinely built for the local market. These are easy to overlook and expensive to get wrong.
Data residency and hosting
Strata data includes owners' personal and financial information, so it falls under the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. Prefer software hosted in Australia that can tell you clearly where your data lives, who can access it, and how it's backed up — which usually also means a vendor that understands local obligations.
State law differences (NSW, VIC, QLD and others)
Strata is governed at the state and territory level, and terminology and rules differ:
- NSW — *Strata Schemes Management Act 2015*; an owners corporation run by a strata committee; annual fire safety statements are a notable obligation.
- VIC — *Owners Corporations Act 2006*; an owners corporation, with tiered obligations based on the number of lots.
- QLD — *Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997*; a body corporate with a committee, run under one of several regulation modules.
- WA, SA, ACT, TAS, NT each have their own acts and terminology (e.g. strata company in WA).
If you operate across states — or might — confirm the software supports each jurisdiction's funds, levy rules, notice periods, and reporting. Features like the admin / capital works fund split, interest on unpaid levies, and AGM procedures are specific to Australian strata; locally built software handles them natively where overseas tools often don't.
How is strata software priced — per lot or per seat?
Strata software is typically priced either per lot (per unit under management) or per seat (per user licence), and the model has a big effect on total cost and on who you let into the system.
- Per lot — you pay based on the number of lots managed, so costs scale with your portfolio and you can usually add unlimited users without extra charges. This favours collaboration — committees, building managers, and contractors can all have access — and is often quoted from a small per-lot, per-month figure inclusive of GST.
- Per seat — you pay per user. This can suit very small operations but discourages giving committees and contractors access, and costs rise as your team grows.
As one example of the per-lot model, Orveya prices from $1.35 per lot per month including GST, with every user seat free. Whatever the model, calculate the total annual cost across your portfolio and team, and check for setup, transaction, and support fees.
How do you migrate to new strata software?
Migration is the riskiest part of switching, so plan it deliberately: audit your data, agree a cutover, run a parallel period, and confirm the vendor exports cleanly.
A sensible sequence:
- Audit and clean current data — owner records, balances, arrears, documents — before they move.
- Confirm what transfers and map the data — trust balances, levy history, contractor lists, documents, and meeting records, mapping old fields to new.
- Run a pilot — migrate one or two schemes first and reconcile every balance.
- Reconcile financials — opening balances in the new system must match closing balances in the old one exactly.
- Parallel run — where practical, keep both systems briefly to catch discrepancies.
- Train the team — including committees and on-site staff using the portal.
Ask vendors directly about migration support — whether they do the heavy lifting, how long it takes, and what it costs — and confirm you can export your full data later.
A practical evaluation checklist
Use this in every demo and pilot to keep vendors comparable.
- [ ] Trust accounting with separate admin and capital works funds, audit-ready
- [ ] Automated levies, arrears, interest, and reconciliation
- [ ] Maintenance and work orders with a contractor register
- [ ] Compliance and essential-services registers with reminders
- [ ] Resident/owner portal for payments, requests, and documents
- [ ] Meeting and AGM/EGM tools with electronic voting and minutes
- [ ] Permissioned document management and exportable reporting
- [ ] Australian-hosted, with support for the states you operate in
- [ ] Clear pricing model (per lot vs per seat) and full annual cost
- [ ] You own your data and can export it in full
- [ ] Security: encryption, access controls, backups
- [ ] Migration support and a tested cutover plan
- [ ] If AI features exist, they act only under human approval
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the administrative fund and the capital works fund?
The administrative fund (or general fund) covers day-to-day running costs like insurance, cleaning, and routine maintenance. The capital works fund — historically the sinking fund — saves for major, less frequent expenses such as repainting, roof replacement, or lift upgrades. Strata legislation requires these to be kept separately, so your software must support both as distinct funds.
Does strata management software handle different state laws?
Good Australian software does, but not all of it. Strata is regulated state by state — the *Strata Schemes Management Act 2015* (NSW), the *Owners Corporations Act 2006* (VIC), and the *Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997* (QLD), among others. If you manage schemes in more than one state, confirm the platform handles each jurisdiction's funds, levy rules, and meeting requirements before committing.
Is per-lot or per-seat pricing better for strata software?
It depends on your operation. Per-lot pricing scales with the portfolio you manage and usually allows unlimited users, suiting managers who want committees and contractors involved at no extra cost. Per-seat can suit very small teams but discourages broad access and gets pricier as you grow. Either way, calculate the total annual cost across your actual lots and users.
Why does Australian data hosting matter for strata software?
Strata records contain owners' personal and financial data, covered by the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. Australian hosting makes it easier to know where your data lives and who can access it, and signals a vendor that understands local obligations.
How long does it take to switch strata management software?
For a small portfolio a well-run migration usually takes a few weeks; larger portfolios take longer. The work is auditing and cleaning data, mapping fields, reconciling trust balances exactly, piloting one scheme, and training the team. Ask each vendor how much they handle, and allow time for a parallel run before going fully live.