Dudley – your Strata Manager is right, as whilst I’m not sure about taxation (ATO) implications, in terms of an audit-trail all Invoices should be made out the to “The Owners SP*****”.
As an aside, enforcement of that requirement has proven useful for our self-managed Plan where local Property Managers would routinely arrange repairs for which the Owners Corporation (O/C) would otherwise be responsible, and then send their Contractor’s invoice as issued to them to me for payment.
Our refusal to routinely pay third-party invoices from Contractors with whom our O/C has no involvement or business relationship quickly put an end to that practice, and re-established our O/C’s ability to properly maintain its Common Property.