farwest wrote:there has always been a difference between the stake financial summary and what the balance amount wards have been allocated. I believe it hasn't jived for many years. Question when CUBS rolls in what will be the current balance amount each ward has? Hopes this make sense.
Just a clarification first. The SFS knows nothing about a ward's budget and remaining balance. It just reports total ward expenses for the "billing cycle" (it is NOT always the first of the month the the last of the month). So rather than comparing balances, you are comparing total expenses (expenses - income - transfers).
I see a couple questions in this one. Here are my replies.
- What will the total expenses be - the current MLS value in the budget report or the value from the SFS? The first question to answer is which value is correct. Definitely the SFS. The MLS value is a reflection of what the clerk(s) have entered and therefore is subject to error. If all credits, expenses and voids are properly accounted for (and you pay attention to dates when running your budget report and comparing it to the SFS) the two should match exactly. More below if you're interested.
- Another potential question: what will each ward's assigned budget be? I don't think we know. I'd assume that, after entering the percentages, the wards will be allotted that percentage from the first 3 disbursements automatically. However, I can't say for sure
- A final potential question: There have been many times the reports have not matched MLS. If I wanted to now make them match, how far back should I go? This shouldn't be much of a problem because, at least up to this point, total ward expenses started at $0 each year on the SFS. If this is in fact an issue, you would only need to worry about 2010. The main thing to worry about before CUBS is credits. You will still be able to enter expenses but I'm making sure my wards have all entered their credits before the switch.
To make your SFS and budget report match, here are some tricks I've learned. First, saying there is always a difference may be overstating it. All my wards' MLS budget reports exactly match the SFS, but that's because I put a lot of effort into making sure they do. If you did want to make them match, I've discovered three common issues.
- Make sure all transactions in the miscellaneous section are accounted for. Automatic payments to entities like Staples or the Distribution Center need to be entered. When entering, use the date indicated in your CUFS as that is the date when the expense is applied when generating the SFS. Credits for returned items should be entered but credits for category switches should not.
- If you void a check that was issued in a previous year, MLS credits the previous year while the SFS and the CUFS credit this year's budget. You therefore need to add a credit for the amount of the voided check using the info in the "Voided Checks" section of your CUFS. Again, this is only for voided checks from a previous year. The process for doing this can be found here.
- Dates matter! When running your budget report, only include the dates that info appears on your CUFS. For example, Feb 28 was a Sunday. Because it was the last day of the month, it was not included in the Feb CUFS. It appears on the Mar CUFS. Here are the dates to use for the first 6 months:
- Jan 1 - Jan 30
- Jan 31 - Feb 27
- Feb 28 - Mar 31
- Apr 1 - Apr 30
- May 1 - May 30 (might be able to go to May 31)
- May 31 - Jun 30 (might be able to start at Jun 1)
As an aside, the main reason for making sure the total expenses in MLS match the SFS is to ensure wards do not spend more money than they have been allotted. While it is possible to reconcile successfully without entering the automatic payments (Staples, distribution center), it falsely inflates the remaining budget balance. Towards the end of the year this means wards will think they have more money than they actually do and potentially overspend their budget. Have enough wards in the stake do that, and you will end up owing CHQ money from your next year's budget.