Urbanise Strata MCP Server · User Guide

Everything you can
ask it to do.

A plain-language guide to everything the Urbanise Strata MCP Server can do — written for the people who manage the portfolio, not the people who build the software. It covers all 89 actions, grouped by the job you're actually doing. New here? Start with the overview.

How to ask

You don't need special commands. Ask the way you'd ask a colleague who has your Urbanise data in front of them — your assistant works out which action to take.

A few habits get you faster, more precise answers:

Name the building first. Almost everything in strata hangs off a plan. If you have the plan number, use it — "SP48291" or "823298G-1" goes straight to the right building. If you only have a building name or a suburb, that's fine: your assistant will search the portfolio and find it.

Copy plan and lot numbers rather than typing them from memory. The format varies by jurisdiction — "SP12345" in New South Wales, "823298G-1" for a Victorian owners corporation — and some carry an external reference brought across from another system. Paste what Urbanise shows you and it will resolve.

To find an owner by name, say which building. Urbanise's portfolio-wide owner search doesn't reliably match owner names, so your assistant searches within a plan instead, where names match properly. "Find the Nguyen lot in SP48291" works; "find every lot Nguyen owns anywhere" needs a building to start from. This is a limitation in Urbanise, not in the server — see Good to know.

Start broad, then drill in. "Give me the levy position for SP48291" gives you the building-level picture; you can then ask "what does lot 12 owe?" or "who's on the committee?" without repeating the plan number.

It confirms before it changes anything. Anything that writes to Urbanise — raising a levy, receipting a payment, creating a supplier — is shown to you and confirmed first. Some connections are read-only and can't write at all; see Making changes safely.

Buildings, lots & owners

Find any plan, lot or owner across the portfolio, and pull up the details, the entitlements and the people involved.

Find a building

Look up

Lists the strata plans under management, narrowed by plan number, plan name or address. Start here when you know the building by name or suburb but not by number.

Try saying: "Which plans do we manage with 'Harbour' in the name?"

Get a plan's details

Look up

Full details for one strata plan — its name, address, scheme type, bank accounts and configuration.

Try saying: "Tell me about plan SP48291."

Who manages this plan

Look up

The strata manager responsible for a building, with their contact details — for "who looks after this one?"

Try saying: "Who's the strata manager on SP48291?"

See the committee

Look up

The owners corporation committee for a plan, with each member's role — chairperson, secretary, treasurer and ordinary members.

Try saying: "Who's on the committee for SP48291?"

List the lots in a building

Look up

Every lot in one plan, with owner and levy details. You can narrow the list by lot number, unit number or owner name — and this is the reliable way to find an owner by name.

Try saying: "List the lots in SP48291, and find the one owned by Nguyen."

Find a lot across the portfolio

Look up

Searches every plan for a lot by its identifier — unit number, lot number or external reference — and returns the plan and lot references the other actions need. Searching by owner name here is unreliable, so your assistant will ask which building instead.

Try saying: "Which plan has a lot 12A?"

Get a lot's details

Look up

Full details for one lot — owner and contact details, unit entitlements, address, and how levies are configured against it.

Try saying: "Show me lot 12 in SP48291."

Get an owner's record

Look up

An owner's full record — name on title, entity type, postal and email addresses, and phone numbers.

Try saying: "What are the contact details for the owner of lot 12 in SP48291?"

Every lot an owner holds

Look up

Lists all the lots one owner holds, across every plan — an investor's whole position in your portfolio in one answer.

Try saying: "What else does this owner hold across the portfolio?"

When did they buy?

Look up

The acquisition record linking an owner to a lot — settlement date, disposal date if they've sold, and the share of title held. The way to confirm whether an owner is current or historical.

Try saying: "When did the owner of lot 12 in SP48291 settle?"

An owner's associated contacts

Look up

The extra contacts recorded against an owner — a managing agent, a solicitor, a power of attorney — who should receive copies of correspondence. Ask for the list, or open one in full.

Try saying: "Does this owner have a managing agent on file?"

Your own agency details

Look up

The strata management company operating the Urbanise tenant — trading name, ABN, addresses and contact details. Useful when drafting correspondence that has to carry the agent's own details.

Try saying: "What ABN should go on the letterhead?"

Record a new owner after settlement

Create

Records a new owner against a lot — the change-of-ownership step once a sale settles. The outgoing owner isn't removed automatically, so your assistant will check whether they still need a disposal date.

Try saying: "Record the new owner on lot 12 in SP48291 — settled last Friday."

Record the sale of a lot

Update

Updates the acquisition linking an owner to a lot — most often to set the disposal date when the lot has been sold, so the outgoing owner stops appearing as current.

Try saying: "Set the disposal date on the previous owner of lot 12 to 30 June."

Correct an owner's details

Update

Updates an owner's record — typically a corrected postal address, email or phone number.

Try saying: "Update the postal address for the owner of lot 12 in SP48291."

Add, correct or remove an associated contact

CreateUpdateDelete

Attaches an extra contact to an owner — an agent or solicitor — corrects one already on file, or removes one for good. Your assistant checks the existing contacts first so you don't create a duplicate, and reads a contact back before removing it.

Try saying: "Add the owner's solicitor as an associated contact on lot 12."

Create or update a lot

CreateUpdate

Adds a lot to a plan, or changes one that exists. Updating reads the whole lot first and sends the complete record back, so nothing already on file is quietly dropped.

Try saying: "Add lot 43 to SP48291."

Create or update a strata plan

CreateUpdate

Brings a new building under management, or changes an existing plan's details. Creating a plan is a significant change, so your assistant checks the plan doesn't already exist and confirms with you first.

Try saying: "Do we already have a plan for 44 Bayside Parade?"

Looking for an owner and coming up empty? Name the building. Urbanise's portfolio-wide owner search doesn't match the owner names it returns, so an empty result there proves nothing — and your assistant will say so rather than report the person as absent. Searching within a plan matches names correctly.

Levies & arrears

The heart of it: what's been struck, what's been collected, and who's behind — building by building or owner by owner.

A building's levy position

Look up

The levy summary for a whole plan — what has been struck per period per fund, what has been collected, and what's outstanding. The building-level arrears picture in one answer.

Try saying: "What's the arrears position on SP48291?"

What one owner owes

Look up

The levy ledger for a single lot — each levy period with its issue and due dates, administrative and capital works amounts, penalties, what's been paid, and the balance outstanding. Filter to a date range if you only want part of the history.

Try saying: "What does lot 12 in SP48291 owe, and how far behind are they?"

What's owing as at a date

Look up

Calculates what a lot owes as at a given date, including levies raised, interest and any recovery costs — a provisional invoice, which is what a settlement or a certificate enquiry usually needs.

Try saying: "What will lot 12 owe as at 30 September?"

Payment references for a plan

Look up

The payment references configured for a building — BPAY biller code and customer reference format — so you can tell an owner exactly how to pay.

Try saying: "What's the BPAY biller code for SP48291?"

Which plan is behind a biller code

Look up

The reverse lookup: given a BPAY biller code from a bank statement, find the plan bank account behind it. For reconciling a payment you can't place.

Try saying: "Which plan does biller code 218472 belong to?"

Raise a one-off levy

Create

Raises a charge against a single lot outside the regular levy cycle — a special levy, a debt-recovery cost, or a charge for damage to common property. This creates a debt the owner is liable for, so the amount and the reason are confirmed with you first.

Try saying: "Raise a $480 debt recovery charge against lot 12 in SP48291."

Attach a document to a one-off levy

Create

Attaches supporting documentation to a one-off levy already raised — the invoice, quote or notice that justifies the charge.

Try saying: "Attach the repair invoice to that special levy."

Receipt a levy payment

Create

Records a levy payment received from a lot owner and allocates it against their outstanding levies. Money movements can't be reversed through the assistant, so the amount, date and lot are confirmed before it goes through — and your assistant will read the ledger back afterwards to show you how it was allocated.

Try saying: "Receipt $1,240 against lot 12 in SP48291, paid yesterday by EFT."

Plan finances

Budgets, funds, investments and costs incurred on a building's behalf.

A plan's budget

Look up

The budget for one plan, financial year and fund, broken down by account with budgeted and actual amounts. The administrative fund and the capital works fund are separate cost centres with separate budgets.

Try saying: "Show me the 2026 admin fund budget for SP48291, budget versus actual."

A plan's funds and cost centres

Look up

Lists the cost centres configured for a plan — typically the administrative fund and the capital works fund, plus any sub funds the building runs.

Try saying: "What funds does SP48291 have?"

Investments and term deposits

Look up

The term deposits and investment accounts held by a plan, with balances, rates and maturity dates — for "when does that TD roll over?"

Try saying: "What term deposits does SP48291 hold, and when do they mature?"

Uninvoiced disbursements

Look up

Costs incurred on a plan's behalf that haven't yet been charged to it — postage, printing, searches and the like.

Try saying: "What disbursements are sitting unbilled on SP48291?"

Record disbursements

Create

Records costs incurred on a plan's behalf so they can be recovered — postage, printing, searches, certificates.

Try saying: "Record $84.50 of certificate searches as a disbursement on SP48291."

Trace a receipt

Look up

Searches the receipts posted to a plan's general ledger by date range, lot, reference or receipt type. Use it to trace a specific payment — "did we ever receive this cheque?" — rather than to read an owner's balance.

Try saying: "Did we receive cheque 004412 on this plan in June?"

Accrue an expected supplier cost

Create

Accrues a cost you know is coming against a plan, so it shows in the building's financial position before the invoice arrives.

Try saying: "Accrue $6,200 for the lift service against SP48291."

Correct an accrual

Update

Updates an existing accrual — usually to correct the accrued amount once the real invoice comes in.

Try saying: "The lift invoice came in at $5,980 — update the accrual."

Delete an accrual

Delete

Permanently removes an accrual and records why. This changes the plan's reported financial position and can't be undone, so it's read back and confirmed with you first. Correcting the amount is usually the better move.

Try saying: "Remove the duplicate lift accrual on SP48291 — it was entered twice."

Invoices & receipts

Supplier invoices coming in, owners corporation invoices going out, and the payments against both.

Enter a supplier invoice

Create

Enters a supplier invoice against a plan, attaching the scanned invoice document at the same time.

Try saying: "Enter this plumber's invoice against SP48291."

Correct a supplier invoice

Update

Updates an invoice already entered — a corrected coding, an amount, or the work it relates to.

Try saying: "Recode that plumbing invoice to the capital works fund."

Upload a supporting document

Create

Uploads a quote, statement or remittance against a plan or an invoice, so the paperwork sits with the transaction.

Try saying: "Attach the remittance advice to that invoice."

Invoices the owners corporation has issued

Look up

Lists the accounts receivable invoices raised by the owners corporation — common property rent, key and access charges, recovery of damage costs. Filter by plan, lot, date range and whether they've been paid. Levies aren't receivables; for those use the lot ledger.

Try saying: "What unpaid invoices has SP48291 issued this year?"

Open one receivable invoice

Look up

Opens a single accounts receivable invoice by the reference number printed on it.

Try saying: "Pull up invoice AR-2231."

Receipt a payment against an invoice

Create

Records a payment received against a receivable invoice. This moves money in the plan's books and can't be reversed through the assistant, so the amount and date are confirmed against the bank record first.

Try saying: "Receipt $330 against invoice AR-2231, received Tuesday."

Suppliers & work orders

Who you can send to a building, whether they're insured and licensed, and what the committee expects on the work order.

List suppliers

Look up

Every supplier on the books, with trade, contact details, insurance and licences. Ask for only those changed since a date if you're keeping another system in step.

Try saying: "Which electricians are on our supplier list?"

Get a supplier's record

Look up

One supplier in full — trading name, ABN, trade, bank details, public liability cover and licence expiries.

Try saying: "Is Metro Plumbing's public liability still current?"

A plan's preferred suppliers

Look up

The suppliers a building has nominated as preferred. Worth checking before recommending a trade — the committee may have a standing arrangement.

Try saying: "Does SP48291 have a preferred plumber?"

A plan's blacklisted suppliers

Look up

The suppliers a building has blacklisted. Always check this before raising a work order for that plan.

Try saying: "Is anyone blacklisted on SP48291?"

Licence types

Look up

The licence types configured in Urbanise — electrical, plumbing and so on — used when recording a supplier's credentials.

Try saying: "What licence types can we record against a supplier?"

Add a supplier

Create

Creates a new supplier. Your assistant searches the existing list first — duplicate supplier records cause payment errors later.

Try saying: "Add Metro Plumbing as a supplier."

Update a supplier

Update

Updates a supplier — renewing an insurance certificate or licence expiry, correcting bank details, or changing contact details.

Try saying: "Metro Plumbing's PL certificate now expires 31 March 2027."

A plan's work order instructions

Look up

The standing instructions a building wants included on every work order sent to a contractor — access arrangements, hours, site rules.

Try saying: "What standing instructions go on work orders for SP48291?"

Work order documents

Look up

The documents attached to a plan's work orders — quotes, invoices, completion photographs and reports. Very large files are described rather than returned in full.

Try saying: "Show me the quotes attached to work orders on SP48291."

Insurance

Policies, renewals and sums insured across the portfolio.

List insurance policies

Look up

The policies recorded against a plan — building, public liability, office bearers, workers compensation — with insurer, sum insured and expiry.

Try saying: "Which policies on SP48291 expire in the next 60 days?"

Record a policy

Create

Records a new insurance policy against a plan.

Try saying: "Record the new building policy on SP48291 — $14.2m sum insured, expires 1 July 2027."

Renew or correct a policy

Update

Updates a policy — a renewal, a change of sum insured, or a corrected expiry date.

Try saying: "Renew the office bearers policy on SP48291 for another year."

Tasks & documents

Raise the work, and keep the evidence with it.

See the task types

Look up

The task types configured in Urbanise — maintenance request, by-law breach, insurance claim and so on. Your assistant reads these before creating a task so the right type is used.

Try saying: "What kinds of task can we raise?"

Create a task

Create

Raises a task in Urbanise — a maintenance request, a by-law follow-up, a compliance item — with a title, description, type, priority, dates and who it's assigned to. It lands in a real person's work queue, so your assistant confirms it with you and writes a description someone can act on cold.

Try saying: "Raise a high-priority maintenance task on SP48291 — lift out of service on level 3."

Attach a document to a task

Create

Attaches a document to an existing task — a photograph of the defect, a quote, a report.

Try saying: "Attach the contractor's quote to that lift task."

Tenants & common property

Who's living there, and what's been let out of the common property.

Get a tenant's record

Look up

A tenant's name, contact details and the lot they occupy — for access, by-law matters and notices.

Try saying: "Who's the tenant in lot 12 of SP48291?"

Add or update a tenant

CreateUpdate

Records a new tenant against a lot when a lease starts, or updates one — corrected contact details, or recording that a lease has ended.

Try saying: "Record the new tenant in lot 12, lease started 1 August."

List a plan's common property

Look up

The common property areas in a building — visitor car spaces, storage cages, rooftop areas — including which can be let.

Try saying: "What common property does SP48291 have?"

Get a rental agreement

Look up

The rental agreement over one common property area — who holds it, the rent, and the term. You can ask for it as at a particular date to see a historical or future agreement.

Try saying: "Who holds the licence over car space 4 at SP48291, and what's the rent?"

Create or update a rental agreement

CreateUpdate

Sets up a rental over a common property area — letting a visitor car space or a storage cage — or changes one: a rent review, a change of term, or a new end date.

Try saying: "Let car space 4 at SP48291 to the owner of lot 27 at $180 a month."

Raise the next rental invoice

Create

Raises the next invoice against an existing common property rental — the monthly or quarterly charge under the agreement.

Try saying: "Raise this quarter's invoice for the car space licence at SP48291."

Banking & payment runs

Reference data, bank imports, and the outbound payment run from start to finish. These actions move money and drive files to and from the bank — they're the most consequential in the server, and most connections don't have them switched on at all.

Banks and branches

Look up

The banks configured in Urbanise and their branches with BSB numbers — reference data for resolving an account.

Try saying: "What's the BSB for that branch?"

Import bank transactions

Create

Pushes a batch of bank transactions into Urbanise for reconciliation. A bulk financial operation — normally part of a scheduled feed rather than something you ask for ad hoc.

Try saying: "Import today's transaction file for reconciliation."

Pending payment batches

Look up

The payment batches waiting to be sent to a given file service — the outbound payment runs that haven't gone yet.

Try saying: "What payment batches are waiting to go out?"

Items in a payment batch

Look up

The individual payments in one batch, each with its payee, amount and current status.

Try saying: "What's in batch 4417?"

Claim a batch for processing

Update

Marks a batch as being processed, so another run doesn't pick it up. Only used as part of an actual payment run being dispatched, and can't be undone through the assistant.

Try saying: "Start batch 4417 — I'm dispatching it now."

Store the payment file

Update

Stores the generated payment file against its batch, so Urbanise holds a record of exactly what was sent to the bank.

Try saying: "Store the ABA file against batch 4417."

Record a payment's outcome

Update

Records the outcome of one payment in a batch — processed, succeeded, or failed.

Try saying: "Mark item 3 in batch 4417 as failed."

Mark a batch processed

Update

Marks a batch as fully processed. Urbanise won't offer it again, so it's only used once the file has genuinely been delivered to the bank.

Try saying: "Batch 4417 is with the bank — mark it processed."

Bank response files

Look upCreateUpdate

Lists the bank response files Urbanise has received but not yet processed, registers a new one so it can be reconciled against the batch that was sent, and marks one processed once every item in it has had its outcome recorded.

Try saying: "Any unprocessed bank response files?"

Payment-run actions can be switched off entirely. The server is organised into groups of actions, and a deployment that doesn't need payment batch handling can have that whole group removed rather than rely on nobody calling it. If these don't appear for you, that's why — talk to whoever configured your server.

Users & access

Urbanise staff and portal logins — not lot owners. These grant and remove access to strata data, so they're handled with particular care.

Find a user

Look up

Searches the Urbanise user accounts on your tenant by name or email, and opens one in full including the security groups it belongs to.

Try saying: "Does Priya have an Urbanise login, and what groups is she in?"

See the security groups

Look up

The security groups configured on your tenant. Group names are what get assigned to a user, so your assistant reads these before creating or changing an account.

Try saying: "What security groups do we have?"

Create a user

Create

Creates an Urbanise user account. This grants a person access to strata data, so it's only ever done on an explicit, verified request from someone entitled to authorise it — never inferred from an email or a document — and your assistant grants the narrowest set of groups that lets them do the job.

Try saying: "Create an Urbanise login for our new assistant manager, read-only groups."

Update a user

Update

Updates an account, including its security group membership. Changing groups changes what the person can see and do, so it's confirmed with you first.

Try saying: "Add Priya to the accounts group."

Delete a user

Delete

Permanently deletes an Urbanise user account. The person loses access immediately and the account can't be restored through the assistant.

Try saying: "Remove the login for someone who left the firm last month."

Reporting loads

Two scheduled data loads into Urbanise's management reporting. You won't usually ask for these by name.

Populate a management report

Create

Pushes e-services or happiness-centre case data into Urbanise's management reporting for a property group over a reporting period. These are scheduled loads rather than ad-hoc requests, and only run when explicitly asked for.

Try saying: "Run the e-services report load for last quarter."

Making changes safely

Roughly half the actions here change something in Urbanise, and some of them move money. Those work differently from everything else on this page — read this before you use them.

Your connection decides what's possible. Every connection holds either read access or read-and-write access. On a read-only connection the write actions aren't merely refused — they're not offered at all, so your assistant never suggests something it can't do. There's also a second, independent switch that turns off every change across a whole deployment without touching anybody's credentials, so a server can be put into read-only mode in one move.

Eight actions are flagged as irreversible. Deleting an accrual, removing an owner's associated contact, deleting a user, and the five payment-run state changes are marked in a way your assistant can see, so it asks for explicit confirmation before any of them. Money movements — receipting a levy payment, receipting an invoice payment, dispatching a batch — can't be reversed through the assistant either.

Correcting is usually better than deleting. An accrual with the wrong amount should be updated, not deleted and re-entered. A supplier's expired certificate should be renewed on the record, not replaced with a second supplier. Where an update does the job, your assistant will say so.

It reads before it writes. Updating a lot, a plan, an owner or a supplier reads the whole record first and sends it back complete, so fields you didn't mention aren't quietly blanked. Deletions are read back and described before anything is destroyed.

It can only ever reach your data. The strata client the server acts on is fixed in its configuration and can't be changed by anything you or your assistant says — there is no way to point it at another management company's portfolio, by accident or otherwise.

Good to know

A few things worth keeping in mind as you work.

It confirms before it changes anything

Whenever you ask to create, update or delete something, you'll see the details and be asked to confirm first. Actions that move money or can't be undone are flagged more firmly still.

Read-only is a real setting, not a promise

If your connection is read-only, the write actions aren't in the list your assistant can see. It isn't relying on good behaviour — the actions simply aren't there.

Owner search needs a building

Urbanise's portfolio-wide owner-name search doesn't match the names it returns, and any realistic surname comes back empty. Your assistant searches within a plan instead, and if an empty result ever comes from the unreliable search it tells you so rather than reporting the person as absent.

Plan numbers are jurisdiction-specific

"SP12345" in New South Wales, "823298G-1" for a Victorian owners corporation, and some plans carry an external reference from another system. Copy what Urbanise shows rather than reconstructing it.

Long lists come back in pages

Lots, plans, invoices and receipts are returned a page at a time. Ask for more and your assistant will keep going — but a whole portfolio in one answer is rarely what you want, so narrow the question where you can.

A secure, dedicated server

Your organisation has its own dedicated server with its own credentials, reaching only your Urbanise tenant. Your portfolio data stays separate from every other manager's, and is never pooled or used to train anything.

Actions run under the agency's integration account

Unlike a per-person login, the server holds one Urbanise service credential for your organisation, so Urbanise records changes against that account rather than the individual who asked. Where you need attribution to a named person, note it in the task or the description.

Check the answer

Your assistant is a helpful tool, not a substitute for your own judgement. Confirm anything important — an arrears figure going into a notice, a sum insured, a payment allocation — against Urbanise itself before you rely on it.

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