Direct Debit

The instructions in this article relate to Direct Debit. The icon may be located on your StrataMax Desktop or found using the StrataMax Search.

The Direct Debit area controls two processes:

It records the bank account details for refunding an owner's account.
It confirms which owners have a Direct Debit Authority in place.

Owner EFT Setup

Note that the appropriate permissions are required in the Security Setup menu in order to access this function. Specifically the 'Debtor bank account details edit permission'.

This section details the steps needed to enable EFT payments to owners in order to issue a refund or reimbursement by EFT.

In the even that there is only one contact in the lot, then the bank account information is entered in the Roll in the lot owner's contact card and will be cleared if the ownership of the lot changes. Once the owner's bank account details have been entered into the their contact card in the Roll, proceed with the below steps to enable the EFT setting for the owner.

However, when there are two or more owners in a lot, the system will by default only observe the first owner (the one at the top), even if there are no bank details in their contact card, and the second owner DOES have bank details recorded.

In this scenario, if the refund needs to go to the second owner, their contact card must be entered in 'Debtor Bank Account Setup'.

Search or select Direct Debit.
Select Options > Debtor Bank Account Setup.
Check that the lot has the owner's correct BSB Number and Bank Account No. If not, they must be entered in the Roll in the lot owner's contact card.
- If there are two or more owners in the lot, and the refund needs to go to the second owner, their contact card must be entered in 'Debtor Bank Account Setup' by clicking the Edit button. Then in the 'Debtor Maintenance' window, click the select the Create / Select Contact button to search for and select the contact card of the second owner, whilst also making sure there are bank details in their contact card.
Click the 'EFT Active Switch' button, and a 'Y' will appear in the 'EFT Active column, meaning EFT payments can now been made to this owner in the Payment Entry screen.
Repeat the above steps for each owner that requires a refund or reimbursement by EFT.

StrataPay Direct Debit

For an owner to set up a direct debit for their levy payments, they need to complete a Direct Debit Request on the StrataPay website here: http://www.stratapay.com/directdebit/. This website also provides options for amending or cancelling a Direct Debit as well.

Once StrataPay have received the request, this data will automatically be sychronised daily to the Owner record in StrataMax. For Owners that have an active Direct Debit, Direct Debit payment instructions will appear on the Levy Notice, as long as a template with merge Field 60 is selected. This file is also used to identify the lots that have had their Direct Debit Authority removed by the owner.

For information on using StrataPay and Direct Debits, including privacy, security, payment usage, and fees associated with StrataPay transactions, refunds or reversals, dishonoured payments, etc., see the StrataPay Terms and Conditions.

Direct Debit Instructions Levy Template

The direct debit message will appear in Field 60 of the levy notice template; examples of template are below. To amend the Direct Debit instructions on the levy notice, have a look at Edit Direct Debit Instructions article. Follow the below steps to check your levy notice template:

Search or select Levy Notice/Reports
Click the more button [...] to display a list of all the levy templates. The current template will already be tagged.
Click Options > Preview Style
- Field Numbers will display the merge fields as numbers, so the direct debit field will be Field 60.
- Field Names will display the merge fields as names, so the direct debit field will be Payment Direction 1.
- Sample Data will insert some dummy data into the template when the Preview button is clicked.
Click the Preview button to view the template.

Direct Debit Status / Report

Owner Info will confirm the type of Direct Debit in place, and Direct Debit will confirm a Y flag if setup but no confirmation on the type of Direct Debit. This also applies to Utility Groups. This information is automatically updated from the Direct Debit file which is is downloaded and processed by each client regularly.

Direct Debit Types

Client Initiated
The payers reference number and account details are held on our system; however payments are only made when initiated by the payer. Notification can be made by telephone or internet. We will need to be instructed to make a payment of a set amount, together with any service charges which may apply, on a set date.

Fixed
The payer sets a fixed payment amount, together with any service charges which may apply, to be debited from their nominated account either weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly or half yearly intervals beginning on a specified date and continuing until the finish date specified or until further notice.

Auto Balance
Any amount due on the payers account as advised by the biller, together with any service charges which may apply, will be drawn from the payers nominated account or credit card up to 5 business days prior to those levies or other charges becoming due on the account.

For greater ease of reference, an extra field in Owner Info has been created to report whether an owner has a Direct Debit setup for levy payments, and if so what type of DDR it is (eg. Auto Balanced, Fixed etc)

Owner Info

Search or select Owner Info.
Select the lot owner and click OK.

Note the Account Status field which displays information relating to their Direct Debit Details if set up. If details appear here, this means the owner has contacted StrataPay and initiated their Direct Debit facility.

Search or select Direct Debit.
Click Options > Debtor Bank Account Setup.
In the 'Payer Account Details' window, the default can be applied to look at 'Main Debtors' and 'Secondary Debtors' by selecting the Both radio button in the bottom right.
Review the DDR Active window and for any Owners that do have a Direct Debit in place will be flagged with a 'Y'.

Arrears Manager (Direct Debit Report/Extract)

Search or select Arrears Notice.
Select Goto > Arrears Manager.
Ensure 'Include Accounts with Nil or Credit balance' is ticked, the click Close.
The 'Arrears Manager' screen will appear with a table, which includes a 'DDR' column (you may need to scroll right to see it).
- A blank cell means a direct debit has never been set up.
- 'Y' means a direct debit has been set up and is active.
- 'N' means a direct debit was set up in the past, but is no longer active.
Click the 'Show in Excel' button to export the table to Excel, where you can edit and print the table to your requirements.

Levy Templates with Field 60

The below templates include Field 60 however not all templates may appear in StrataMax due to state restrictions. To view templates designed for other states from the template selection window select Other > View All States.

Before changing the template to Global for all buildings, it is recommended to first test a template Locally in a single building, and then print preview a test levy notice to confirm that the template is appropriate.

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