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Discuss questions around local unit policies for budgeting, reconciling, etc. This forum should not contain specific financial or membership information.
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jltware
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#21

Post by jltware »

MLS in Australia doesn't have this yet either. However, it is easy enough to request area offices to push it through from their end. Just needs a phone call or email. I would imagine there must be some sort of system where a backend administrator could refresh the database from their end. Otherwise, there would be no recovery method should the MLS hard drive fail unless a recent backup was available. However, I confess I have no knowledge whatsoever about how involved this would be. I will leave it to people wiser than I to answer that one. If the ability to do this really is completely absent at all adminsitrative levels in America, it would make certain problems very hard to fix. Probably a good thing they're adding that feature if so.
jdlessley
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#22

Post by jdlessley »

It is not hard to tell when an update has been made. The simplest method is to check the version number. While there have been updates without notification in the past this has not been so here in the US or Canada since version 2.9.2. We have had miscommunication but generally know that the updates occur.

If a problem is the result of an MLS update then wouldn't there be more than one unit reporting the same problem?
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jltware
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#23

Post by jltware »

If it is an update to MLS itself, then yes, the version number will usually make it very obvious. But these updates tend to be well documented on the forums and release notes, and are not usually the source of the problems I am talking about. However, whenever the back end at the area offices / CHQ is updated, it may necessitate modifications (perhaps updates was the wrong word) to the MLS platforms communicating with that server. These modifications are supposed to go through without interruption of our end at all. However, they seem to be a frequent source of unanticipated bloopers, and it would be nice if we were given warning when such changes were planned even if they are intended to be unnoticed, since they frequently aren't.

And in the recent cases I was referring to, the whole stake was affected (all units) and area offices said that similar reports had come in from other units. Given that not one ward in the stake has approached me to complain that their whole budget has been deleted despite me personally logging on and confirming that this is the case in all of them, I wouldn't put to much weight to the assumption that if nobody reports it, then nobody's been affected. There is a great degree of variation between units when it comes to technical expertise to notice problems, and also a slightly depressed "care factor" when it comes to debugging what they see as a problem with the program that we can't fix.

BTW, I think we have crossed threads here. Perhaps we should move this back.
russellhltn
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#24

Post by russellhltn »

jltware wrote:I would imagine there must be some sort of system where a backend administrator could refresh the database from their end. Otherwise, there would be no recovery method should the MLS hard drive fail unless a recent backup was available.
There is a method of making a backup available, but I don't know if it can be pushed out without destroying the data entered since the last 30-day backup.
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lajackson
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#25

Post by lajackson »

jltware wrote:. . . wouldn't it have been easier if a simple error could not be located to request a refresh of the financial data from your support office? That way, everything they have will match exactly with what you have. It won't tell you what the problem was, but it would fix it nonetheless. Or am I missing something here?
In this case, a refresh of the financial data (we call it a restore here) would not have fixed the problem. The problem was that the local clerk recorded the information incorrectly in MLS. Restoring a backup would just have restored the same problem again.
RussellHltn wrote:There is a method of making a backup available, but I don't know if it can be pushed out without destroying the data entered since the last 30-day backup.
The last time one of our units needed to obtain a backup from Church Headquarters, Hq placed it in a directory on the local unit computer. The local unit then had to restore from that backup.

All data entered after the date of the backup was lost. The computer reverted to the way it was at the moment CHQ took the backup. The local unit had to reenter all membership and financial information after the date of the restored backup.

As Alan mentioned, we look forward to the day when we will not have to worry about these reconciliation issues. Countries outside the US and Canada do not have to worry about them today. At some point it will be the same way here. In this area, you have the advantage in Australia and other countries around the world.
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jltware
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#26

Post by jltware »

Wow, that's really interesting. Particularly so because I know there are plans in place to move Australia over to the same back end that USA uses for their financial database in the very near future. I wonder if we will lose this ability in the process.
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