July Financial Statement Errors

[Mikerowaved]

The July statements balance information were in error when they were sent down due to a back end database problem. The developers are working on the fix and we hope to have new statements sent down some time next week. Until then, I would disregard the July statement for now. It will be replaced by a correct statement hopefully by next week.

If you haven't already, I would suggest broadcasting an MLS message to all finance clerks regarding the error and time frame of a possible fix so they don't end up pulling out the few hairs they have left.

Mike

[childsdj]

Thought about it, but the worry was that the statement would come down before or at the same time as the announcement. We are diffusing calls and edocs for now and hoping the solution is in place soon.

[tcrowder-p40]

Thank You All for helping me figure out what was wrong with the financial statements!! I will not worry about anything until I get the updated statement.

[Mikerowaved]

Thank You All for helping me figure out what was wrong with the financial statements!! I will not worry about anything until I get the updated statement.

Thank YOU for joining the forum.

I just checked my statement and it's not correct either. I feel sorry for the multitude of clerks still in the dark, wrestling with this trying to make it work. If it doesn't get fixed soon, I would not want to be working in the CHQ call center in the coming weeks.

[mkmurray]

Thought about it, but the worry was that the statement would come down before or at the same time as the announcement.

I do sincerely mean this in the most polite way, but...so what?

I think most of us would rather hear from CHQ, whether we caught the error in time or not. There is nothing to lose by communicating to us! Why keep so many in the dark? I don't see what problem is being avoided or what resource is being saved by not sending the announcement. Obviously in this case, it was the wrong assumption. It is taking a lot longer than you anticipated.

This isn't the only place we've seen this philosophy in practice (see this thread: http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1293). I mean don't get me wrong, I am grateful for all the hard work you guys do to listen to us, fix bugs, and continually produce a great product. I just ask there be more frequent communication.

[aebrown]

I do sincerely mean this in the most polite way, but...so what?

I think most of us would rather hear from CHQ, whether we caught the error in time or not. There is nothing to lose by communicating to us! Why keep so many in the dark? I don't see what problem is being avoided or what resource is being saved by not sending the announcement. Obviously in this case, it was the wrong assumption. It is taking a lot longer than you anticipated.

This isn't the only place we've seen this philosophy in practice (see this thread: http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1293). I mean don't get me wrong, I am grateful for all the hard work you guys do to listen to us, fix bugs, and continually produce a great product. I just ask there be more frequent communication.

I have to agree with mkmurray. I had to field several questions from financial clerks yesterday as they retrieved their July financial statements and tried to reconcile. They were baffled by the problem with opening balances, and had no idea what was going on. A simple message would have set their minds at ease (and saved them a lot of time). Since I knew about the problem, I could explain it and they will wait now. But what about the hundreds or thousands of stakes where no one knows about this forum? It seems like a lot of needless frustration.

[childsdj]

The finance statements are now fixed and staged to come down to your units. We will also send an edoc giving specific instruction to disregard balance information for any July statements prior to today.

Please realize that our communication channels are somewhat limited to the majority of clerks as most don't read their edocs or if they do they read them months later. That could have caused more of a headache. Now that we have a firm date as to when the correct statements are going out, we will send it down.

It will overwrite any current July statements or be inserted if you have already deleted yours. The stake financial summary report will also be remailed to stakes beginning today.

[mkmurray]

Please realize that our communication channels are somewhat limited to the majority of clerks as most don't read their edocs or if they do they read them months later.

I gather by "edoc" you are referring to MLS messages...

Boy, that really surprises me! Do you guys have some way to track the trend of MLS messages not being read in time (or at all)?

Perhaps it is worth a discussion to brainstorm a more effective way to reach clerks with important information, without it being lost or misplaced. To me, the MLS message system should be able to do the job just fine. Maybe the way the user is alerted about new MLS messages or even which users these alerts are shown to could be improved in some way?

[childsdj]

I do mean MLS messages. We don't have a good tracking mechanism, but I know the only real way to track it will be sometime in the future. Currently, a ward membership clerk could be on the machine, receive a message about finances and close or delete the message and the finance clerk doesn't see it (or vice versa). We know some units don't read their messages (and I know it is hard as it seems messages are being sent quite often). The best mechanism we have is what we call a "pop up" message. The ones with a yellow background that appear when you do a send/receive. You have to at least look at these messages, but it still doesn't guarantee that it is getting the right audience.

[aebrown]

I gather by "edoc" you are referring to MLS messages...

Boy, that really surprises me! Do you guys have some way to track the trend of MLS messages not being read in time (or at all)?

Perhaps it is worth a discussion to brainstorm a more effective way to reach clerks with important information, without it being lost or misplaced. To me, the MLS message system should be able to do the job just fine. Maybe the way the user is alerted about new MLS messages or even which users these alerts are shown to could be improved in some way?

I share your surprise. Every time I see the "you have new messages" box pop up, I go and read the message(s), and make sure that anyone else who needs to see it hears about it as well. It is sad to hear that some units choose to ignore these often important messages.


Some suggested features that might help in getting the messages read:

1. Rather than (or in addition to) the one-time message "you have new messages", change MLS to prompt with "You have unread messages." Then you could prompt at other times (such as startup or exit) to make sure they are amply reminded. I know that the presence of unread messages is put on the Urgent Tasks list, and that users are reminded at startup when they have any urgent tasks, but if that's not getting people to read the messages, maybe you should hit people over the head with them.
2. Add a feature for marking messages as Unread. This is a standard feature in most e-mail applications. That way, if I read a message, but don't have time to route it to the proper people (or I don't know who should receive it), I can mark it as unread, and at least the next person to login will have an urgent task to read the message and may better know what to do with it. As it is, if I read a message and don't route it, no one else will have any notification that there is a new message.
3. Overhaul the rather pedestrian user interface of MLS to add a toolbar or status bar or something that would contain some alert indicator so that on the main screen you would have some eye-catching visual reminder that you have messages to read.