Roles and permissions
Who can see what, why an owner's view is genuinely restricted rather than merely hidden, and how to handle people who wear more than one hat.
ManageStrata has three roles. Every person on your roster has one.
The three roles at a glance
| Owner | Council | Manager | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Their own balance and invoices | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pay online | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Report a repair | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Read published documents | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vote on resolutions | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| See announcements | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Corporation-wide finances | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Other owners' ledgers | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| The roster and contact details | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Create and run meetings | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Upload documents | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vendors and work-order assignment | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Compliance calendar entries | View | ✓ | ✓ |
| Generate Form B / Form F | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Corporation settings and billing | — | ✓ | ✓ |
Council and Manager have the same permissions. They are distinguished so the roster reads honestly — a hired strata agent is not a volunteer council member, and minutes and audit entries should say which one acted.
Why an owner's view is restricted
Enforced at the database, not in the menu
Hiding a link is presentation. ManageStrata also enforces the boundary in the database: every query is filtered by who is asking. An owner who types a council URL directly, or bookmarks one from a shared screen, gets an empty result — not a page they shouldn't see.
This matters because the alternative — one shared council login that everyone uses — destroys the audit trail. If four people share an account, "who approved this?" has no answer. Give each person their own login with the right role.
People who hold several roles
Most council members also own a lot. That is one person with one login, not two.
When your account holds more than one role, you get the most privileged one. A council member who owns lot 204 sees the full council dashboard, and lot 204 appears inside it as an ordinary lot with an ordinary ledger.
You can see your own arrears
Being on council means you can see every owner's ledger, including your own. That is unavoidable and normal. What keeps it honest is that every action is recorded in the audit trail against your name — cancelling your own invoice is possible, and permanently visible.
Property managers with several buildings
A manager account can belong to several corporations. Sign in once and switch between them; each corporation's data stays completely separate, and nothing crosses over. Portfolio-wide views are a Pro plan feature — see plans and billing.
Changing what someone can do
Access follows the seats a person holds, and a seat is added or ended rather than swapped. Someone can hold more than one: an owner elected to council keeps their owner seat and gains a council seat.
To give someone council access — Council & roster → their row → Edit → Add to council.
To take it away — their council row → Edit → End seat. Their owner seat is untouched, so they keep their own account and portal and lose everything else. It takes effect the next time they load a page.
Do this promptly when council changes at an AGM. An outgoing treasurer whose council seat is still active keeps the ability to move money. Ending a seat →
Nobody is deleted from the roster
An ended seat becomes a past seat — the row stays as the record of who held it, and stops counting as somebody who holds one. Their historical entries — votes cast, work orders raised, ledger entries — stay too, because removing them would falsify the record.
The last council or manager seat can't be ended: a corporation with nobody in either role has nobody who can put somebody back.
Who should be council?
Practical guidance rather than a rule:
- Every sitting council member should have the Council role. Meetings, approvals and votes are designed for several people.
- Your property manager or strata agent gets Manager.
- A bookkeeper who only enters transactions still needs Council or Manager — there is no finance-only role. Give it to someone you would trust with the chequebook, because that is the equivalent access.
- Everyone else is an Owner.
Still stuck? Open Support in the top bar of the app, ask the Assistant, or contact us.