Tech Forum

Hello,
I was wondering how do you calculate a ward's yearly budget?

lh014 wrote:Hello,
I was wondering how do you calculate a ward's yearly budget?

I'm not sure what you are asking. Are you asking those at the stake level how they decided what part of the stake's budget allocation each ward receives? Or are you asking those at the ward level how they take the ward's budget allocation and divide it among the auxiliaries?

I'll assume you are asking on behalf of a ward and that you are in the United States or Canada. In the United States and Canada, budget allowance is given to the stakes each quarter. The stakes then give their wards and branches a part of this allowance. Assuming that you are not in a high growth area where dozens of homes are being added to your ward every quarter, you simply multiply the first quarter's allowance by four. You may have to make small adjustments as the year wears on, but this seems to work for many wards.

lh014 wrote:I was wondering how do you calculate a ward's yearly budget?

If your ward is not shrinking, the easiest way in the US and Canada is multiply the 4th quarter allocation you received from the stake by four and plan that as your 2009 budget.

The stake receives budget money based mostly on sacrament meeting attendance, with a little added in for youth, single adults, and primary. The stake keeps an amount as the stake budget and lets the wards know how much of the remaining amount is budgeted for their use.

If your sacrament meeting attendance, as reported on your quarterly report, is increasing, you will normally receive more budget funds each quarter. If it is decreasing, your budget authorization will normally go down. Your stake stake clerk or one of his assistants should be able to explain the formula to you.

The budget for the 1st quarter of 2009 will be based on the quarterly report for the 3rd quarter of 2008. (This is one of the reasons there us some excitement over the timeliness of quarterly reports.) You can compare your sacrament meeting attendance from the 2nd quarter 2008 report and your 4th quarter budget amount to figure out which way your allocation will probably go, up or down.

But, the really simple way for budgeting purposes is to take last year's budget and use it again, or last quarter's budget times four and use it. As long as your sacrament meeting attendance is holding steady or going up.