Should all Outgoings be on the Purchase Ledger?

I am a learner bookkeeper who has been doing the job for a few months now but I am short of people to ask 'technical' questions, so am hoping that someone on here can help.

Obviously I am using an inherited system of accounting on Sage but do wonder why some of the outgoings which are paid for by Direct Debit are not entered on the purchase ledger. They seem to only have one 'invoice' coming in every 12 months e.g. for 'Office Insurance' then the Direct Debits are recorded as Bank - Payments.

Sorry if this is not too clear but I barely know how to explain it, Sage confuses me so much :(

What if I needed to know how many Direct Debit payments had been made to the 'Office Insurance' I can't check on the 'activity' tab like I would do with a supplier? Or can I???

Puzzled Poppy!