#23539
Sir Humphrey
Strataguru

    As a treasurer, I have resisted giving the ‘Account Payments’ details. That is, the listing of every single payment for every little thing. Often the managing agent’s description was a bit vague and general meetings would get bogged down on misconstrued debate about items worth 10s of dollars in a budget of $150,000. 

    However, our managing agent’s software always produces an ‘income and expenditure’ document that lists each budget item with what was budgeted, what was actually spent, what was spent in the year before, and what is proposed for the next year. That has categories such as ‘gardening services’, ‘insurance’, ‘R&M electrical’, ‘lighting’, ‘managing agent fees’, ‘tax’, ‘interest’, ‘electricity’, ‘tree maintenance’ and so on. That is always provided to the meeting as the core of the financial reporting. ‘Miscellaneous expenses’ is a minor item as most things are in other categories.

    In addition to the output of the managing agent’s accounting software, I also write a ‘Treasurer’s report’ that attempts to translate into plain english. So, for example, I write that ‘lighting’ covers purchases of new globes whereas, ‘R&M electrical’ covers getting an electrician to fix lights that couldn’t be fixed with just a bulb replacement. I list a few examples of things that were covered under ‘miscellaneous expenses’ (eg. Owners Corporation network corporate membership, newsletter printing, new keys for the shed). I note that ‘gardening services’ actually covers not just the monthly fee for the gardener but also occasional supplies of mulch or new plants. 

    So, I think you should be getting more detail, though, perhaps, not necessarily as much as at your residence.