Closing out 2010

[aebrown]

I just found my answer in another thread. (See pots #17.) My next question is then, I just checked, and it appears that the income and expense report is not affected by using the View/Edit Budget.

Yes, that's true because entering values in View/Edit Budget does not create any transfers (or any transactions of any kind). Thus there will be effect on the Income and Expense Report, which only shows actual transactions.

Note, however, that the reverse is not true. If you choose to make transfers into individual subcategories so that the Income and Expense Report will reflect your current balances, then those transfers will show up on the Budget Report and may be confusing. However, as I mentioned in another thread, it would be wise to hold off on making such transfers.

If I were to use that for putting the carryover budget from last year, can anyone think of potential negative effects for doing that?

I'm not sure what you are asking. Are you suggesting that you would enter the carryover budget amount in some category on the View/Edit Budget screen?

If so, my answer would depend on what you plan to do with the carryover amount. If, for example, you have $3000 left over from last year and you anticipate $10,000 will be allocated to your ward for this year, then the question is, is your budget plan for this year based on $10,000 or $13,000? Or something in between?

The View/Edit Budget screen should reflect the budget you are actually operating from. If you have an additional surplus beyond the amount you plan to operate on, then I would say that it should not be entered in the View/Edit Budget screen. Your ward will still have that money, as reflected in the Income and Expense Report, but you will conservatively be operating on a budget with a lesser amount.

[lambertinut]

I'm not sure what you are asking. Are you suggesting that you would enter the carryover budget amount in some category on the View/Edit Budget screen?

If so, my answer would depend on what you plan to do with the carryover amount. If, for example, you have $3000 left over from last year and you anticipate $10,000 will be allocated to your ward for this year, then the question is, is your budget plan for this year based on $10,000 or $13,000? Or something in between?

Thanks for your reply. Using your numbers, my plan was to transfer the $10,000 from the Budget Allocation category to the individual sub-categories we created. I would then use the View/Edit Budget to enter in the carryover from last year so it shows up on the Budget Report.

I will hold off on making any transfers to see what happens. We have some changes that will be happening on the ward level in the next few weeks, so we are waiting for those to occur before we do anything with the budget anyways, but I wanted to get a plan ready so that once they happen we can go ahead with the first quarter's budget.

[aebrown]

Thanks for your reply. Using your numbers, my plan was to transfer the $10,000 from the Budget Allocation category to the individual sub-categories we created. I would then use the View/Edit Budget to enter in the carryover from last year so it shows up on the Budget Report.

That sounds like mixing the two options in a way that will be particularly confusing. If you want to use View/Edit Budget, then enter all your budget numbers there and run Budget Reports to see where you stand -- don't do any transfers. That's what I would recommend, based both on my experience and some as yet unreleased information about changes to MLS.

But if you want to do the transfers, then use the Income & Expense Report for everything -- the Budget Report would be confusing.