Set up your corporation

Registering a corporation takes about two minutes and creates the workspace everything else lives in. You become its first council administrator.

Start from your strata plan number

The form opens with Start with your strata plan number. For a BC corporation, type it and choose Look up, and ManageStrata checks the SearchStrata registry for your building. If it's there, you see it — the name, the lot count, the year it was built, the number of storeys and the address, whichever of those the registry holds — and the form below is filled in from it. You can change any of it before you register.

The plan number is on your Form B, and at the end of the corporation's legal name. Type it as it's printed; EPS3421, eps 3421 and The Owners, Strata Plan EPS3421 all find the same building.

When the building has more than four lots

The Free plan covers four lots, so when the registry counts more than four lots in your building, you get two buttons instead of Create corporation:

If you leave the checkout page without finishing, the corporation is still registered — you land on its dashboard on Free. If you do nothing at the end of the trial, the corporation returns to Free with its records intact. See plans and billing.

The lots created for you are numbered 1, 2, 3 and on — the way lots are numbered on the strata plan — with nothing else filled in. Rename them if your building calls them by suite number, and add each lot's unit entitlement; see add your units and lots.

When the building isn't found

"We couldn't find EPS3421 in the registry" isn't an error, and nothing is missing from your corporation because of it. Fill the form in yourself. The same goes if the lookup doesn't appear at all, or the registry doesn't know your lot count — type the number in.

The fields

Corporation name

Enter it exactly as it appears on your registered documents — in BC that usually reads The Owners, Strata Plan NW1234. This name is printed on statutory forms, financial statements, meeting notices, and owner emails, so getting it right now saves reprinting later. You can change it afterwards in corporation settings.

Province

This is the most consequential field on the form. Your province selects a rule set that determines:

• how many days of notice a meeting needs;
• what "majority vote", "3/4 vote", "80% vote" and "unanimous vote" mean when votes are counted;
• which reserve-fund report you owe and how often;
• which statutory forms you can generate;
• whether interest may be charged on overdue fees, and the statutory cap on it.

Number of lots

How many strata lots (units) the corporation contains. This is used immediately for two things:

1. Whether certain obligations apply at all. In BC, the depreciation-report requirement applies to corporations with 5 or more lots — enter 4 and the calendar will not nag you about it.
2. Your plan. Pricing is per lot. See plans and billing.

You do not have to register the individual lots yet — that is the next step. This number is just the count.

Strata plan number (optional)

Your registered plan number, e.g. EPS3421 or LMS987. Filled in for you if you used the lookup. It appears on Form B and Form F, so fill it in before you generate either.

Your name (optional)

Shown beside you on the council roster. Worth filling in — an owner reading a decision wants to see a name, not an email address.

What happens when you register

1. Your workspace is created

   An empty corporation, with your province's rule set attached and you as its first council administrator.

2. Your compliance calendar is generated

   Deadlines are calculated from the rule set and your lot count, immediately. In BC a corporation with 5+ lots will already show a depreciation-report item counting down. See the compliance calendar.

3. You land on the dashboard

   After the checkout page, if you started the trial. Mostly empty — that is expected, though a trial started from the lookup has its lots. The first week checklist is the fastest route to a useful workspace.

Settings you will want soon

These live under Settings and are worth doing in your first session:

Changing province later

You can change it, but do not do so casually. The rule set is what your existing compliance items, notice periods and vote thresholds were calculated against, and switching re-derives them. If your corporation genuinely moves jurisdiction — a rare thing — change it and then review every open item on the compliance calendar before trusting it.