If you manage a strata portfolio, the to-do list rarely gets shorter. There are meetings to prepare for, contractors to follow up, records to maintain, owners to respond to and compliance matters that cannot be missed. Much of this work is essential, but not every step needs to sit with the strata manager.
Across Australia, strata, body corporate, owners corporation and community title businesses work under different state and territory laws. The terminology varies, but the day-to-day pressure is familiar: managers are expected to keep properties running, guide committees, oversee finances, deal with difficult matters and keep up with changing requirements.

This makes one question worth asking: how much of a manager’s week is spent using their experience and judgement, and how much is taken up by repeatable administration?

Create space without giving up control
Creating capacity does not mean handing over responsibility. The manager still makes the decisions, deals with sensitive matters and remains accountable for the outcome. The opportunity is to separate those responsibilities from the preparation and follow-up around them.
A trained support team member can gather information, prepare documents, update systems, follow an agreed process and flag anything that needs the manager’s attention. The manager keeps control while gaining more time for owners, committees and complex issues.

A quick test for choosing the right tasks
Before assigning a task to a support team member, ask:
• Is it repeated regularly?
• Can the steps be documented clearly?
• Does it take a meaningful amount of a manager’s time?
• Can quality be checked before the work is released or approved?
• Can it be completed without the support person making the final professional decision?
If the answer is yes to most of these questions, the task may be suitable for support. Work involving legal advice, conflict, discretion, committee strategy or final approval should stay with the manager or another authorised Australian team member.

Where a support team can help
The examples below are a useful starting point. What can be assigned will depend on your systems, management agreements, internal controls, privacy requirements and the laws that apply in your state or territory.

Meetings and committees
• Prepare agenda templates and meeting packs
• Collate reports and supporting papers
• Format draft minutes from manager notes
• Maintain action registers and routine follow-up

Contractors and maintenance
• Request quotes using an approved brief
• Track quote due dates and responses
• Maintain contractor and licence records
• Log requests and follow up completion documents

Finance and records
• Enter approved invoices for processing
• Match invoices to work orders
• Prepare arrears or levy reports for review
• Maintain document registers and filing

Compliance and insurance
• Maintain compliance calendars and checklists
• Track certificate and policy expiry dates
• Collect documents for audits or reviews
• Prepare renewal information for manager review

Owners and correspondence
• Acknowledge routine enquiries
• Prepare standard correspondence for approval
• Update contact and lot-owner details
• Record communications and escalate sensitive matters

Portfolio administration
• Maintain property profiles
• Prepare portfolio activity and exception reports
• Monitor shared inboxes using agreed rules

What should stay with the manager
• Final decisions, approvals and instructions to committees or owners
• Interpretation of legislation, contracts or professional obligations
• Complex complaints, disputes and difficult conversations
• Sensitive financial, legal or insurance matters
• Major works strategy and high-risk contractor decisions
• Any task that the law, contract or internal delegation requires the manager to perform

How to put support in place
1. Look at where the time goes. For one or two weeks, note where managers spend their time. Look for repeated work, delays and tasks that regularly interrupt more important matters.
2. Start with five to ten tasks. Choose stable processes with low ambiguity. Avoid transferring an entire role at once.
3. Write down the process. Record what starts the task, the information required, each step, the templates to use, the expected timeframe, the approval point and when to escalate.
4. Train and check the work. Use real examples, explain common exceptions and review work before it is released. Provide only the system access needed for the role and keep privacy controls in place.
5. Check whether it is working. Review accuracy, turnaround times, exceptions and the time returned to managers. Update the process when requirements or systems change.

Keep the basics in place
Each task should have a written process, a clear owner, an approval point and simple escalation rules. Limit system access to what the role needs, check accuracy and turnaround, and review the arrangement when systems or requirements change.

Start small and learn from the first month
Choose one portfolio or one recurring process and test the arrangement for four weeks. Keep the manager’s approval points in place, review questions and errors each week, and ask at the end: did this give the manager more time for owners, committees, compliance and complex decisions?
If it did, improve the process and add more work gradually. If it did not, adjust the task, instructions or training before expanding the role. The aim is not simply to move administration to someone else. It is to give managers useful time back while keeping the right checks in place.

The aim is simple: keep responsibility and judgement with the manager, while giving routine, process-based work to a trained support team with clear checks and escalation points.
Important: This guide provides general information only. Check the laws, agreements, privacy requirements and professional standards that apply to your business and each property’s location.