Reconciliation - temporary items
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:11 pm
The Temporary items screen just plain confuses me. The instructions say:
Any item on the Church Unit Financial Statement that requires Church headquarters to make an adjustment to the account should be entered as a Temporary Item. Temporary Items should be entered for deposit errors, returned checks, deposit category adjustments, and check category adjustments. All require headquarters to make an adjustment.
Doesn't the CUFS come from headquarters in the first place? Can't they just make the adjustments they need to make and then inform us what they did? It seems that they inform us of an error, then we enter a Temp. item to tell them to adjust the error, then they adjust the error, then they tell us the error has been adjusted, then we clear the temp. items. If HQ knows an adjustment needs to be made, why do they need to tell us to tell them to make the adjustment?
I'm never sure exactly which items I'm supposed to enter in the Temp items screen. Is it EVERYTHING in Misc. Disbursements and Transfers other than the Missionary payments and Distribution Ctr. payments and interest? Or are there sometimes items in Misc. that don't need to be entered anywhere? Also, where exactly do they inform us that we can go ahead and clear previous Temp. items? MLS keeps informing me that I have uncleared temp. items, but I'm not sure if it's okay to clear them.
The stumbling-around method I've been using, is to enter the Other Items stuff that I'm sure of, and then click on "Report" and see if I'm balanced. If I'm unreconciled, then I try to figure what else I need to add into the mix to make it balance. I wish the CUFS would indicate which items need to be entered into Other and which need to be entered into Temp. and which are just informational and don't need to be entered anywhere.
Any enlightenment on this subject would be much appreciated.
Alan Afualo
Any item on the Church Unit Financial Statement that requires Church headquarters to make an adjustment to the account should be entered as a Temporary Item. Temporary Items should be entered for deposit errors, returned checks, deposit category adjustments, and check category adjustments. All require headquarters to make an adjustment.
Doesn't the CUFS come from headquarters in the first place? Can't they just make the adjustments they need to make and then inform us what they did? It seems that they inform us of an error, then we enter a Temp. item to tell them to adjust the error, then they adjust the error, then they tell us the error has been adjusted, then we clear the temp. items. If HQ knows an adjustment needs to be made, why do they need to tell us to tell them to make the adjustment?
I'm never sure exactly which items I'm supposed to enter in the Temp items screen. Is it EVERYTHING in Misc. Disbursements and Transfers other than the Missionary payments and Distribution Ctr. payments and interest? Or are there sometimes items in Misc. that don't need to be entered anywhere? Also, where exactly do they inform us that we can go ahead and clear previous Temp. items? MLS keeps informing me that I have uncleared temp. items, but I'm not sure if it's okay to clear them.
The stumbling-around method I've been using, is to enter the Other Items stuff that I'm sure of, and then click on "Report" and see if I'm balanced. If I'm unreconciled, then I try to figure what else I need to add into the mix to make it balance. I wish the CUFS would indicate which items need to be entered into Other and which need to be entered into Temp. and which are just informational and don't need to be entered anywhere.
Any enlightenment on this subject would be much appreciated.
Alan Afualo