1. Where does the money sit between the resident and the property?
If amenity fees, move fees and other charges flow into the vendor's or the manager's account and are remitted later, you have a float, a reconciliation job and, in BC, a trust-accounting question. Ask whether payments settle directly into the property's own bank account and how refunds are issued.
2. How is one client's data separated from another's?
A brokerage running forty buildings on one platform needs each council to see only its own building, enforced at the database, not by hiding menu items. Ask whether isolation is row-level, whether platform staff access is audited, and where the data is hosted.
3. Is maintenance accountable to a person?
An open ticket queue lets easy jobs jump the line. Ask whether work is assigned to a named technician, whether reopened jobs are tracked, and whether contractor visits are logged with times that can be compared to the invoice.
4. Can it send a letter you would sign?
Ask to see the exact preview of an outgoing notice with a PDF attached, how the recipient list is built, and what happens to bounces. Then ask how the directory is kept true when people move.
5. Does it know your legislation?
A BC strata needs s.135 enforcement, Form B and Form F, Form K, depreciation report attachments and the two-week minutes rule. An Ontario condo needs status certificates and Condominium Act processes. Ask which the product was built for and which it merely tolerates.
6. What does the price include?
- Per-door or per-unit price, the minimum, and the term.
- Whether email, SMS, storage, users and modules are metered or included.
- Onboarding and migration cost.
- Customisation rates and how change requests are handled.
- What happens to your data if you leave: export formats and timing.
Frequently asked questions
Should a small self-managed strata buy software at all?
If more than one volunteer touches the money, the directory or the maintenance list, yes — the cost of one privacy incident or one unverified invoice exceeds a year of software.
Do we need accounting inside the property software?
Self-managed stratas benefit from it; brokerages usually keep their accounting system and want the operations layer to bridge to it cleanly.
How long does migration take?
For a single building with a clean directory, days. For a portfolio, it is scheduled per building with the directory reconciled against move records.
Last reviewed 2026-09-21. Product details describe AryaPM as it ships today; legislation summaries are general information, not legal advice.