Treasurer in a Box & Financial Compliance

Treasurer in a Box is an integrated financial compliance suite designed specifically for volunteer strata council treasurers and property managers in British Columbia. It translates complex statutory mandates from the Strata Property Act (SPA) and Strata Property Regulation (SPR) into automated, guided workflows that guarantee mathematical exactness, eliminate neighbor-to-neighbor debt collection tension, and protect council members from personal liability.

[!NOTE] Outside British Columbia: the statute sections this guide cites are BC law, and Pastrata shows them only to buildings in BC. A building in another jurisdiction sees the same screens with neutral wording, and should check its own bylaws and statute for the rules that apply.

Required Roles & Capabilities

Access to the Treasurer Console and financial compliance engines is restricted to authorized financial administrators:

1. Form V Unit Entitlement Fee Engine (SPA ss. 99 & 100)

Under British Columbia Strata Property Act Sections 99 and 100, strata maintenance fees must be allocated strictly in proportion to each strata lot's registered Unit Entitlement (Form V filed in the Land Title Office), unless an alternative formula has been approved by unanimous resolution.

The Zero-Drift Hamilton-Hare Algorithm

Standard floating-point division causes fractional cent rounding errors where the sum of unit fees does not equal the approved annual budget. Pastrata uses the statutory Hamilton-Hare (Largest Remainder) method:

1. Each unit receives the integer floor of its proportional quota in cents.
2. The remaining residual pennies are allocated sequentially to lots with the largest fractional remainders.
3. Deterministic tie-breaking is enforced by unit number and identifier.
4. Mathematical invariant: Total Unit Fees == Approved Total Budget (exact zero-drift penny reconciliation).

How to Calculate and Apply Fee Schedules

1. Open Finances > Treasurer in a Box (or open /[building]/management/finances/treasurer).
2. On the CRF & Fee Schedule tab, click Open Form V Calculator & Deltas.
3. Review the side-by-side fee delta preview table showing:
   • Form V registered entitlement
   • Current monthly fee vs. proposed monthly fee
   • Operating fund share vs. Contingency Reserve Fund (CRF) share
   • Monthly dollar and percentage change
   • Annualized household impact
4. Click Export CSV to download an audit spreadsheet for council distribution or AGM exhibits.
5. Click Apply to Active Fee Schedule to atomically deactivate previous schedules and update active billing rates across all units on the designated effective date.

2. Statutory 10% CRF Reserve Minimum (BC SPR 6.1)

Effective November 1, 2023, British Columbia Strata Property Regulation Section 6.1 mandates that every annual operating budget must include a contribution to the Contingency Reserve Fund (CRF) of at least 10% of the total operating fund budget for the fiscal year:

Statutory Minimum CRF = round(Operating Fund Budget * 0.10)

Live Visual Compliance & 1-Click Auto-Fix

• Live Gauge: In both the Budget Editor (/[building]/management/finances/budgets/[budgetId]) and the Treasurer Console, a live statutory meter displays the proposed CRF ratio relative to the 10.0% statutory floor.
• Deficit Guardrail: If a proposed budget contributes less than 10%, the system flags a statutory deficiency and prevents transition to ACTIVE status without a formal exemption.
• 1-Click Auto-Fix: Clicking Auto-Fix to 10% automatically adds or adjusts the CRF contribution line item by the exact deficiency amount, immediately bringing the budget into full legal compliance.

3. "The Gentle Chaser" — Impersonal Automated Arrears Escalation

Debt collection between neighbors is one of the most stressful duties for volunteer council members. "The Gentle Chaser" replaces awkward personal interactions with a scheduled, impersonal 4-tier escalation pipeline.

The 4 Escalation Tiers

Visual Kanban Board & Manual Execution

1. Navigate to Treasurer in a Box > Arrears Pipeline.
2. View delinquent units organized across the 4 tier columns, with total overdue amounts and interest accrued.
3. Click History on any unit card to view the timestamped audit log of automated communications.
4. Authorized managers can click Escalate Overdue Accounts at any time to run an immediate escalation cycle.

4. Rent Redirection (not available in BC)

Earlier versions of the Treasurer Console offered a rent redirection wizard based on Strata Property Act ss. 143 and 144. Those sections were repealed, and no current provision of the Act lets a strata corporation collect a tenant's rent to cover the owner's arrears. The Rent Redirections tab and the Redirect Rent action on arrears cards are therefore hidden for BC buildings. Any redirections recorded before this change stay visible on the tab for reference, but no new ones can be started and no notices can be issued.

To recover arrears from an owner who rents out their lot, use the arrears pipeline, demand notices and, where appropriate, a lien under SPA s. 116. Talk to your strata's lawyer before taking enforcement steps.

5. Special Levy Sub-Funds & Statutory $100 Surplus Engine (BC SPA s. 108)

Special levies collected under Section 108 of the Strata Property Act must be held in dedicated, segregated sub-funds and disbursed exclusively for the approved resolution purpose (SPA s. 108(4)).

Proposing a Special Levy Before the Owners' Vote

A special levy needs a resolution of the owners at a general meeting before anyone owes it. Record it as a proposal first, then record the outcome after the vote:

1. Go to Management > Finances > Treasurer and open the Special Levies tab.
2. Select Propose special levy. Enter the name, the purpose as it will appear in the resolution, the total amount, the due date, and how it is shared: by unit entitlement (3/4 vote) or another way (unanimous vote). Tick Let owners pay in installments to offer a payment plan.
3. Save. Nothing is charged yet. While the levy is proposed, the tab shows which owners' vote it needs, with the citation, and links to scheduling the meeting.
4. After the meeting:
   • If the owners passed it, select Record approval and enter the date the resolution passed. Change the amount or due date only if the meeting amended them. Each strata lot's share is then issued by unit entitlement, as charges or payment plans.
   • If the owners voted it down, or the council dropped it, select Withdraw. Nothing was charged, so nothing needs reversing.

Spending Over the Approved Budget or From the Reserve Fund

While the budget workflow is running, the same notice on the Treasurer page also lists spending already recorded this fiscal year that may need an owners' vote:

• Over the approved budget. Each budget line where recorded expenses are more than the approved amount, showing the amount budgeted, the amount spent and how much it is over. Spending with no line in the approved budget is listed as not in the budget. Operating-fund spending beyond the approved budget needs a 3/4 vote unless it falls within the limits for unapproved expenditures (SPA s. 97, s. 98).
• From the Contingency Reserve Fund. Each expense recorded against the CRF, with its amount and date. CRF spending needs a 3/4 vote unless an exception applies (SPA s. 96, s. 98).

Expenses are matched to budget lines by category and subcategory. Voided expenses, and expenses tagged to a special levy (the owners already voted on the levy), are left out. Recording an expense is never blocked. The notice only tells you which vote the spending may need; check with your strata manager or counsel about whether it applies. Only people who can manage the building's finances see these lists.

Project Completion & The Surplus Refund Rule (s. 108(5)–(6))

Upon project conclusion, the strata corporation must reconcile total collections against actual expenses:

Surplus = Total Collected - Actual Expenses
Each lot's refund = Surplus split in proportion to that lot's contribution to the levy
Each owner's refund = The refunds of every lot they own, added together

The closeout applies your jurisdiction's refund rule. In BC, unused levy money must be refunded to owners in proportion to their contributions (SPA s. 108(5)), unless no owner is entitled to receive more than $100 (SPA s. 108(6)):

• If any owner's refund is more than $100.00:
  Mandatory Proportional Refund. The strata corporation can't keep the funds or transfer them to the CRF. The system disables the transfer option and calculates each owner's refund in proportion to what their lot paid toward the levy, with Hamilton-Hare rounding so the refunds add up to the surplus exactly.
• If no owner's refund is more than $100.00 (a refund of exactly $100.00 included):
  Council Election. Council may elect to issue proportional refunds or execute an atomic book transfer to the Contingency Reserve Fund (CRF).

The rule looks at the largest owner refund, not the average per unit, and the closeout shows that figure. An owner's refund is "in total": an owner of several lots is owed all of their lots' refunds together, so two lots owed $60 each give their owner $120 and require a refund. One large lot owed more than $100 requires a refund too, even when the average is lower. Pastrata reads the owners from your owner register when you close out the levy:

• Each co-owner of a jointly owned lot is counted as owed that lot's whole refund. This leans toward refunding, which the law always allows.
• A lot with no owner on record is treated as its own owner.

Refunds are still paid per lot, so nothing is paid twice. Keep your owner register up to date before closing out a levy. Where your building's jurisdiction sets no refund threshold, there is no statutory gate and council chooses.

Generating Closeout Statements

After executing closeout, download the official Statutory Special Levy Closeout Certificate (PDF) detailing approved resolutions, itemized expenses, surplus calculations, and refund manifests for general meeting records.