The document library

Every strata corporation has a document problem. The bylaws are on the outgoing president's laptop, the 2019 minutes are in someone's inbox, and the insurance policy is in a filing cabinet nobody has a key to.

Documents fixes that, and it's the step that unlocks the most elsewhere.

Uploading

Upload a file and it's stored immediately. Before it becomes useful, it's processed: read, indexed, and prepared so it can be quoted with page numbers. The document shows a status until that's done — usually quick, longer for a large scanned report.

Documents are also classified automatically — bylaws, minutes, financial statement, insurance, depreciation report — so a large upload doesn't need filing by hand.

Finding things

The library is filed into the folders a strata corporation actually keeps: Governance, Meetings & minutes, Financials, Reports & studies, Insurance, Forms & certificates, Correspondence, and Unfiled for anything not categorised yet. A folder is a view over the document's type, so filing something is just setting its category.

Alongside the folders: search, a date filter (a preset period, or a year the corporation has documents in), sort by date or title, and — for the council — a status filter for anything still processing, failed, or needing review. Everything is in the URL, so "the 2019 minutes" is a link you can send someone.

On a phone

Most owners read this on a phone — they're not at a desk, they're checking whether the minutes say what somebody claimed they say. Below tablet width the folder rail becomes a single list you pick from, counts included, rather than a horizontal scroller showing two of nine folders with nothing to say the other seven exist.

The row changes too: the title is the link, with a hit area across the whole row, which is what a thumb aims at in a list. Download is a proper button; delete keeps its target but loses its border, and sits at the far edge — distance is a better guard than weight on the action you least want pressed by accident. Titles wrap to two lines rather than truncating, because a strata document is dated and prefixed and "2021-08-25 - BCS40 - Face Masks Required" cut off at one line throws away the subject and keeps the filing code.

What to upload

In rough order of value:

1. Bylaws and rules

   The registered bylaws and every amendment. The single most-asked-about document in any strata.

2. Minutes — the last three years

   AGM, SGM and council. This is where your corporation's decisions actually live, and it's what makes "what did we decide about the parkade?" answerable.

3. Financial statements

   The last two to three years.

4. Insurance

   The current policy and certificate. Also add the renewal date as a tracked duty.

5. The depreciation report

   Then record it so it clears the compliance item and seeds your component list.

6. The strata plan

   Including the schedule of unit entitlement — you'll want it when checking lots or allocating a levy.

7. Contracts and warranties

   Elevator, landscaping, management, and any roofing or envelope warranty. A warranty nobody can find is a warranty nobody claims on.

Naming

The library is searchable, but a human still has to scan the list. Be consistent:

• 2026 AGM Minutes — not minutes final FINAL v3.pdf
• Council Minutes 2026-03-14
• Bylaws — consolidated 2024
• Insurance Certificate 2026-2027
• Depreciation Report 2026 — Acme Consulting

Lead with the year on anything annual and the list sorts itself usefully.

What owners can see

Every document in the library, through the same page you use. Owners get the folders, the search, the date filter and the sort — the same controls, because it's the same shelf and the same questions asked of it. What their role withholds is what they can do to it: no uploading, no deleting, no changing a document's category, and none of the indexing states — "still processing", "failed to index", "AI suggests" — which describe the pipeline rather than the document. Ask the documents and Red flags are council tools, so an owner isn't offered those tabs.

What the library powers

Keeping it current

Supersede rather than replace. When bylaws are amended, upload the new consolidated version and keep the old one. Which version applied at the time is exactly the question a dispute turns on.

Upload minutes as they're approved. ManageStrata does this for you when you distribute minutes from a meeting.

Do a yearly tidy. New council members inherit whatever's here. Half an hour once a year, usually just after the AGM, keeps it worth inheriting.

Retention

Documents follow your corporation's retention settings. Your legislation sets minimums for certain records — often several years, longer for anything touching major work or the reserve. Set retention to meet your statutory obligation and keep minutes and financial statements indefinitely; they're small, and they answer questions nothing else can.