Ascend News

 

This article outlines the recent StrataMax changes affecting creditor account adjustments occuring at year end and Ascend's temporary workaround while Stratamax (hopefully) works towards a permanent solution.

Recent updates to StrataMax have introduced a limitation that affects how strata managers can handle creditor accounts, particularly when managing financials for the old year.  These changes have prompted questions from some of our clients, as they impact the usual workflows for handling creditor invoices and adjustments for AGM financials.

 

The Issue: Changes to Creditor Account Journal Entries

The recent update from StrataMax now prevents journals to creditor accounts in the current financial year, and it also blocks the entry of credit notes dated in the prior year.  This has created a clearly unintended consequence when dealing with adjustments to creditor invoices from the previous year.  In particular, buildings that need to remove or correct creditor invoices before finalising and distributing financial reports have run into a problem.

Ordinarily, we would resolve these issues by entering a credit note or adjusting the creditor’s balance with a journal entry. However, the new restriction has added complexity, particularly because:

• Inability to Enter Credit Notes in the Old Year: Credit notes can't be dated in a prior year, which is necessary for removing creditors from last year’s financials before they are finalised.
• Journaling Restrictions: Although you can journal adjustments to creditor accounts in the previous year, this now results in discrepancies that affect the ability to process payments in the current year. Specifically, the total invoices and the creditor account balance no longer align.

 

 In the meantime though, we have come up with a temporary workaround to manage the issue for our clients. 

Our Workaround: Step-by-Step Guide

Ascend is actively liaising with StrataMax to seek a permanent resolution.  In the meantime, we’ve devised a five-step workaround that can address this issue for the time being.  Please note that this is a temporary and somewhat complex process, and requires careful attention to detail:

1. Journal in the Old Year: Debit: Supplier Account, Credit: Expense. This adjusts the creditor’s balance in the prior year.
2. Hide the Expense in Reports using Transaction Report Manager: This ensures the financials appear as if the creditor's invoice was not present.
3. Generate Financials: Print the financial reports to PDF, which will exclude the creditor’s invoice from the old year.
4. Re-align the Creditor Account: Enter another journal in the old year: Dr Sundry Creditors, Cr Supplier Account. This step ensures the creditor account is balanced correctly.
5. Enter a Credit Note in the New Year: This should be coded to Sundry Creditors, aligning the balances in the current year.

This workaround allows you to temporarily adjust the prior year’s financials to remove creditors and send out correct financials in an AGM notice.  It is unfortunately a significantly more involved process than what would typically be required with the other two platforms we recommend (Property IQ and StrataMaster).

 

Ongoing Collaboration with StrataMax

Ascend are in communication with StrataMax’s support team to escalate this issue and advocate for a solution that will simplify this process. We’ve reached out on behalf of our clients to explain how this change is affecting daily operations, and we are hopeful that StrataMax will address this in an upcoming update.

For now, our team remains available to assist with this workaround or any other queries related to these software limitations. 

 

Quick Takes:

• Recent StrataMax changes restrict journals to creditor accounts in the current year and prevent credit notes from being backdated.
• These changes impact the ability to remove unwanted creditor invoices from year end financials, leading to a more complex process for making adjustments and tidy ups.
• Ascend has developed a temporary workaround, though it is more time-consuming.
• Our team are liaising with StrataMax to push for a more permanent and simplified resolution.

 

If you have any questions or need assistance with the workaround, please don't hesitate to contact us. We will keep you updated on any progress with StrataMax's response.

 

 

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The above content is of a general nature and should not be relied upon as professional advice. Ascend encourages readers to seek advice from suitably qualified professionals in relation to their specific circumstances and not to rely solely on the information provided above.  Please contact our office for more information.

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