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MLS Transfers...

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 7:58 am
by kodriscoll
Has anyone figured out how to transfer funds between different categories in MLS? There's got to be a work around :-)

fmcgruter@gmail.com

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 9:33 am
by aebrown
kodriscoll wrote:Has anyone figured out how to transfer funds between different categories in MLS? There's got to be a work around :-)

The first question is WHY you want to transfer funds between different categories. If it is to rectify a problem where one or more transactions were incorrectly categorized, then a good solution is to go back to those transactions and fix the categories. For example, if a check was written from Other:AMFA:Scout Camp that should have been written from Budget:Young Men, you could simply change the category on that check to be Budget:Young Men. That will essentially transfer funds from Budget:Young Men to Other:AMFA:Scout Camp.

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 9:50 am
by Gary_Miller
MLS will only allow you to tranfer funds between, Other:AMFA Catagories, and Ward Missionary accounts. Within their individual prospective accounts/catagories.

You cannot transfer funds with in the Budget Account Catagories. Nor can you transfer from Budget to Other, or Other to Missionary. However, like aebrown stated you can make corrections to expenses.

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 9:58 am
by benjamincarleski
Some other options you have are transfers, which work between other categories, adjusting budget amounts, and writing a check to the ward, which works for most other transfers. As aebrown mentions, if you are just looking to recategorize an expense, you can simply go find the expense and edit the categories it was assigned to. If a donation was recorded to the wrong category, edit the donation batch and recategorize the donation. These two are the best methods for those cases as they update the expense/donation so that anyone looking at it sees the correct categories, and they also maintain the history of the changes nicely.

Transfers are helpful with cleaning up the Other:AMFA categories if they have been out of balance for so long that you are no longer able to determine original intent and make adjustments accordingly (see the Other Category page on the Wiki for more details). Otherwise I personally haven't found much use for them.

If you simply want more money available in one budget category and want to take it from another, a transfer isn't necessary. Instead you can just adjust the budget amounts for each category to whatever you want them to be.

I will occassionally write a check to the ward in cases where the Bishop would like to pay for part of a Other:AMFA expense out of Fast Offering funds because one or more members are unable to pay. In this case I would write a check against Fast Offering: Other, include the description of what it was for and indicate who was the FO recipient. You make the check payable to the ward and then fill out a Tithing and Offerings slip, putting the ward's name as the donor and putting the funds in ther Other line, indicating the AMFA category it will go into.

The three methods of reallocation where possible, and transfers and checks where not, have solved all issues I've encountered related to transferring between categories.

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:26 am
by kodriscoll
Thanks for the feedback. This functionality used to be there, though, and it is much simpler and quicker than making expense adjustments, reworking the budget over and over, or writing checks back to the ward. These are all good/workable solutions, but not the best IMHO.

I have heard there are clerks who have found a way to do this...I'm just looking for that solution.

Thanks again!
fmcgruter@gmail.com

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:57 am
by aebrown
kodriscoll wrote:This functionality used to be there, though, and it is much simpler and quicker than...

Really? Are you saying that at some point in MLS you could use the Enter Transfers feature to move funds from one major category to another? I've been involved with finances the entire life span of MLS, and I don't recall that ever being possible.

Note that this comment applies to the US/Canada. The rules are different in other countries, as you can see in the thread Transfer across major categories.

Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2012 8:23 am
by Gary_Miller
benjamincarleski wrote:I will occassionally write a check to the ward in cases where the Bishop would like to pay for part of a Other:AMFA expense out of Fast Offering funds because one or more members are unable to pay. In this case I would write a check against Fast Offering: Other, include the description of what it was for and indicate who was the FO recipient. You make the check payable to the ward and then fill out a Tithing and Offerings slip, putting the ward's name as the donor and putting the funds in ther Other line, indicating the AMFA category it will go into.

I find this pratice to be out of line with the funding guidelines for activities, as well as inappropriate use of Fast Offering Funds. The funding Guidelines for activities give only one option use budget funds, there are only 4 exceptions where you can ask members to pay for all or a portion of the expense. None of which Authorize the use of Fast Offering Funds to fund activities for those who can't afford to pay.

Handbook 2: Parg 13.2.8, Funding Activities
https://www.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2 ... eng#13.2.8

Handbook 2: Parg 13.5, Optional Activities
https://www.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2 ... ng=eng#135