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Renaming Purpose for Distribution Center Chargers

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:51 pm
by PhillipsCJ
I am a new ward clerk and doing some cleanup on our budget. We have a number of expenses to the Distribution Center that appear to come in automatically and in the purpose field say something like, "DISTRIBUTION CE******* FOR SERVICE CALL 801-240-****".

It would be great if we could go in and edit that purpose so that we can quickly see what the charges are for, but in MLS I'm not seeing a way to edit that field - it is grayed out. Has this been discussed before or is there any way to update this that I am missing?

Re: Renaming Purpose for Distribution Center Chargers

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 8:34 pm
by davesudweeks
You can go in and re-categorize the budget line the charge pulls from (from the View and Edit Expenses menu). However, you will need to figure out what the charge was for first.

For example, I recently ordered manuals for YM and YW. I re-categorized part of the order from the YM budget and the rest from the YW budget. Often, the ones for service calls with a phone number are for copier maintenance in the library. I also recently called and ordered a new ward boundary map for the clerk's office after a boundary change - that one was listed as a service call with a phone number as well.

Re: Renaming Purpose for Distribution Center Chargers

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 6:35 am
by drepouille
You should examine (and perhaps print) all IROP statements, from either MLS or from LCR Finance. Every purchase from either Staples or store.lds.org will result in a charge to your Distribution Center budget category, as well as an IROP statement.
When such a charge occurs, I always open the expense item, and change the source of the funds, keeping a zero balance in my Distribution Center budget category. I print the financial transmission report that shows the change, and attach it to the associated IROP, as well as the shipping document that came with the shipment. In a perfect world, I would have the bishop sign each IROP, but that is not required by the auditors, since the bishop reviews and signs the monthly financial statement.

Re: Renaming Purpose for Distribution Center Chargers

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 6:55 am
by drepouille
I just logged in to LCR Finance on lds.org, clicked on the Expenses tab, and changed All Categories to Distribution Center Charges. Although I have recategorized most of my IROP expenses, I still have one no-charge IROP there. When I clicked the REF# link, I see the Expense Detail for the selected IROP. Next to "Reference #IROP: ##########", there is a PDF icon, and when you click on the PDF icon, the PDF of the IROP appears in a new tab in my browser.
As far as I know, we cannot yet edit expenses in LCR Finance, so we must still use MLS to recategorize expenses to the correct budget category.

Re: Renaming Purpose for Distribution Center Chargers

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 11:04 am
by PhillipsCJ
Thank you so much for the responses and helpful advice. I have figured out how to go in and find the IROP to identify the purpose and change the budget category, but I'm not seeing a way to update the purpose section? It is not so much for the bishopric as for when we share the budget reports with the ward council - it seems sort of silly that they put such an unhelpful purpose in and then don't let you edit it?

Re: Renaming Purpose for Distribution Center Chargers

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 11:38 am
by drepouille
Yes, I agree, but I don't know of any way to change the description of an IROP.

Re: Renaming Purpose for Distribution Center Chargers

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:01 pm
by eblood66
PhillipsCJ wrote:Thank you so much for the responses and helpful advice. I have figured out how to go in and find the IROP to identify the purpose and change the budget category, but I'm not seeing a way to update the purpose section? It is not so much for the bishopric as for when we share the budget reports with the ward council - it seems sort of silly that they put such an unhelpful purpose in and then don't let you edit it?
When you adjust the category for an expense it asks for a reason. This reason shows up as the description of the expense in the budget report in the new category. So I just put the correct description as the reason for the change.

Re: Renaming Purpose for Distribution Center Chargers

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 11:15 am
by PhillipsCJ
That makes sense - thanks again to everyone for your help, greatly appreciated!