blairjames wrote:Thank you for the informative tips.
As I have looked back to see what others have done in the past, I see that they have created a transfer somehow from the ward missionary sub category instead of the expense method that has been earlier discussed. How would that work and would that accomplish the same thing properly?
The reconciliation process is the most likely technique that led to the creation of transfers (as opposed to expenses) for the debits to the ward missionary subcategories. During reconciliation, you can create Other Items (not Temporary Items). Once you save those Other Items, they become Transfers (which you can see on the View Transfers screen).
The one tricky thing is that you do have to make sure you enter a negative amount -- if you enter a positive amount you'll create a mess, since you'll have to undo those transactions and then make the correct negative transactions.
One ward financial clerk in our stake does it this way very successfully. He likes the fact that this technique lets you see the transactions for all the missionaries in the ward on one screen. That way it's less likely you'll lose your place as you are entering transactions for multiple missionaries, as might happen when you enter Expenses one by one.
I personally prefer Expenses because you can't accidentally enter the wrong sign, and then on Income and Expense Reports it makes better sense for the expenses to show up in the Expense column. But either way works; it's just a matter of personal preference.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.