Can we ask our body corporate manager to send monthly statements of their expenses?

Yes, you can. It's probably a warning sign if the answer is anything other than a transparent declaration.

Generally, your fixed costs for management and disbursement fees will be those agreed upon in the contract. There shouldn't be any dispute over these. The numbers on your balance sheet should correlate directly with the amounts listed in the contract. It should be easy for the body corporate to demonstrate this.

Things get more fuzzy when it comes to additional service fees. These are charged as per the agreement. There can be substantial variations on how each company applies and records' additionals'. Better companies will create an invoice recording the work done and the time it took, tying the cost directly to an action. However, some companies only make a minimal recording of the task, and it can be hard to work out if you have been correctly charged.

If you talk to your body corporate company about charges and they are prepared to have a frank conversation and show you invoices and paperwork for charges, that's probably a good sign. It may be a concern if the management agency isn't approachable or doesn't have documentation to support charges.

Generally, professional service charges are applied by an allotment of the time taken to assist your scheme. You might be surprised by how long it takes.

For example, a charge for issuing a work order may be a fixed price or perhaps 15 minutes of office time. Is the charge unreasonable? It may only take a few minutes to send the work order. However, the manager may have taken several actions to complete the task. They would have received an initial contact about the problem and reviewed the issue to determine responsibility, perhaps going back to the reporter for extra information. They might then seek committee permission for the works, including reviewing funds available and whether it is within the spending limits for the scheme. Then, looked for an appropriate contractor and maybe called or emailed, confirmed access details and spoken to an agent. They need to ensure they get everything right because they will get the blame if something goes wrong.

The invoice may show a line item for a work order issued, but probably, there were multiple small actions and decisions before issuing the work order.

It's good to ask questions about how the system works but be prepared to be realistic about the time it takes to manage your site.