Tech Forum

How do I submit a change request to the MLS Finance Group?

I would like to be able to transfer money from one budget category to another. In the past we were to be able to do this and utilized this function frequently.

I asked MLS Support the following question and show their response.
How do we transfer money from budget subcategories into the Distribution Center IROP?

Example
The Relief Society purchases some books for $10 from the Distribution Center. We receive a IROP showing a debit of $10 to the Distribution Center. How do we transfer money from the Relief Society budget category to the Distribution Center category?

Dear Brother Christensen,

In this case, the easiest way to correct this would be to reallocate the funds in 'Budget' (i.e. decrease the 'Relief Society' budget allocation by $10 and increase 'Distribution Center' by $10).

Thank you for your service.
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Their solution will not allow the organizations to see what they have spent at the Distribution Center, they will just know that their budget has been decreased.

I am interested in hearing your suggestions on how to submit a change request and how to solve the transfer problem.

craigbc wrote:How do I submit a change request to the MLS Finance Group?

I would like to be able to transfer money from one budget category to another. In the past we were to be able to do this and utilized this function frequently.

I asked MLS Support the following question and show their response.
How do we transfer money from budget subcategories into the Distribution Center IROP?

Example
The Relief Society purchases some books for $10 from the Distribution Center. We receive a IROP showing a debit of $10 to the Distribution Center. How do we transfer money from the Relief Society budget category to the Distribution Center category?

Dear Brother Christensen,

In this case, the easiest way to correct this would be to reallocate the funds in 'Budget' (i.e. decrease the 'Relief Society' budget allocation by $10 and increase 'Distribution Center' by $10).

Thank you for your service.
------

Their solution will not allow the organizations to see what they have spent at the Distribution Center, they will just know that their budget has been decreased.

I am interested in hearing your suggestions on how to submit a change request and how to solve the transfer problem.

The ability to transfer between budget categories was only recently removed. The best way to handle Distribution Center purchases is simply to change the category of the expense. Go into View/Edit expenses, select the order, and edit the budget category to reflect the right organization.

craigbc wrote:In this case, the easiest way to correct this would be to reallocate the funds in 'Budget' (i.e. decrease the 'Relief Society' budget allocation by $10 and increase 'Distribution Center' by $10).

I think that's a rather bad suggestion. I think allenjpl's suggestion is much better.

If you are adjusting budget allocations whenever an expense comes in, then that's an indication that your ward didn't budget very well. If the plan is to leave Distribution Center charges in the Distribution Center subcategory, then the budget created before the beginning of the year should have reflected that plan, and there should be no "extra" money sitting in the RS budget, since the plan all along would have been to spend a certain amount in the Distribution Center subcategory. Some wards choose to operate that way, but if the intent is to make the Relief Society responsible from a budget perspective for all the expenses they incur, then the only reasonable approach (now that intra-Budget transfers are no longer possible) is to recategorize the expense from Distribution Center to Relief Society.

aebrown wrote:I think that's a rather bad suggestion. I think allenjpl's suggestion is much better.

Agreed. I called on this early last year and was told that this (reassigning expenses from Distribution Center Charges to the correct subcategory) was the correct way. It makes sense and MLS handles it correctly these days.
AB

And keep in mind that a Distribution Center order can be assigned to several organizations using allenjpl's method.

So the Clerk could order manuals for RS, YM, and YW and the Distribution Center expense can be correctly broken out to remove the appropriate amounts from each organization's budget.

davesudweeks wrote:And keep in mind that a Distribution Center order can be assigned to several organizations using allenjpl's method.

So the Clerk could order manuals for RS, YM, and YW and the Distribution Center expense can be correctly broken out to remove the appropriate amounts from each organization's budget.

When this happens you just change the expense category to each organization, you can have multiple categories on a single expense.

The biggest problem I have found is what ever you state for the reason of the change becomes the purpose. To work around this I state the purpose first then the reason for the change. That way the purpose for the expense show on the reports.

In our ward we budgeted and amount for curriculum and place anything to do with curriculum under curriculum no matter what organization ordered it or what time of year it was ordered.

Gary_Miller wrote:The biggest problem I have found is what ever you state for the reason of the change becomes the purpose. To work around this I state the purpose first then the reason for the change. That way the purpose for the expense show on the reports.

In our ward we budgeted and amount for curriculum and place anything to do with curriculum under curriculum no matter what organization ordered it or what time of year it was ordered.

Good point.

We cover the Curriculum outside of the organizations as well. I found a few years ago that most organizations would just order a full set of everything, even when we had extra manuals in the Material Center. I bounce the order requests off what is already in the Material Center to help avoid over-ordering.

However, we only cover the Annual order (and items that fully wear out) this way. If an organization wants extra manuals because their existing ones are serviceable but not "new" they can expend their budget for that.

davesudweeks wrote:I found a few years ago that most organizations would just order a full set of everything, even when we had extra manuals in the Material Center. I bounce the order requests off what is already in the Material Center to help avoid over-ordering.

Our organizations all have there own closets and are responsible for the own supplies which includes insuring they don't order more than is needed.

The Material Center is required to have a specific number of manuals on hand for check out if needed. They have nothing to do with what the organizations need.

davesudweeks wrote:However, we only cover the Annual order (and items that fully wear out) this way. If an organization wants extra manuals because their existing ones are serviceable but not "new" they can expend their budget for that.

We cover everything that curriculum throughout the year.

We prefer to not "micro manage" the organization presidents on the supplies they need. If they fill they need it then they get it. They cannot do their responsibility without the tools and the money has already been set aside under curriculum for this purpose. In other words the organizations budgets have already been decreased and the funds allocated to curriculum.

We have also done this for items that would fall under administration or miscellaneous expenses, such as postage for VT letters or flowers for the chapel . The budget allocated to the organizations are to cover the costs of the activities for the members they serve.

Gary_Miller wrote:We cover everything that curriculum throughout the year.

What do you do when you have 200 copies of a $0.50 pamphlet on hand with no designated use, your ward consists of 160 families, and the R.S. orders 100 more copies so they can hand them out to all the sisters?

A situation similar to this a few years ago is what prompted us to do a better job of encouraging organizations to check what was available already before spending the Lord's money. Before that, the Organizations covered their portion of the curriculum order from their organization budget.

We don't "micro-manage" it either, just encourage due diligence when ordering and requesting. The Bishop's fund takes care of most of the Administration-type items anyway.

Now that organizations can order directly from the DC and charge it to the ward, perhaps some training is in order because recently our Primary ordered 150% more of an item that they needed and charged it.

davesudweeks wrote:What do you do when you have 200 copies of a $0.50 pamphlet on hand with no designated use, your ward consists of 160 families, and the R.S. orders 100 more copies so they can hand them out to all the sisters?

Each organization has their own closet/cabnet where they store their who currulum and supplies. I would hope they know what they have on hand before ordering more.

davesudweeks wrote:Now that organizations can order directly from the DC and charge it to the ward, perhaps some training is in order because recently our Primary ordered 150% more of an item that they needed and charged it.

All DC orders go through the clerks office and I order them. That way I know what to expect expense wise.