Tech Forum

nutterb wrote:I also was locked out of the finances, which is most inconvenient for me. I wasn't able to get to the church on Sunday due to delayed travel plans, and my assistant wasn't there either. The end result is I don't have the reports I was supposed to print off on Sunday.

It would have been nice if we were only locked out of the places we can make modifications, but still allowed to access the read-only parts of the MLS finances. But perhaps that was too difficult to implement. Oh, well, it is what it is at this point.

nutterb wrote:Now, to go down a tangent, would I be able to reconstruct the necessary reports from the latest CUFS and accounting for any financial transmissions since the beginning of October. I have all of those records on paper, and I only have one subcategory in Ward Missionary carrying a balance and one subcategory in Other carrying a balance.

It's truly inconvenient to do it this way, but are there any other things in my reasoning I'll need to take into consideration to make a proper comparison?

The reason we were supposed to print the reports is so that we can compare the state of MLS before the transition with its state after the transition. But hopefully the transition will go well and so there won't be any differences. The main point was to compare what is in MLS, not the CUFS, but I suppose that if you were reconciled as of the end of September, the state of MLS should be close to what is on the CUFS. The CUFS doesn't know anything about individual subcategories, but for the major categories you should be in good shape with your proposed strategy.

Alan_Brown wrote:The reason we were supposed to print the reports is so that we can compare the state of MLS before the transition with its state after the transition. But hopefully the transition will go well and so there won't be any differences. The main point was to compare what is in MLS, not the CUFS, but I suppose that if you were reconciled as of the end of September, the state of MLS should be close to what is on the CUFS. The CUFS doesn't know anything about individual subcategories, but for the major categories you should be in good shape with your proposed strategy.

I had understood that it was for comparison, but now I won't have anything to compare against. I mentioned the single sub-categories carrying balances because it would mean that the super-category balance would be the subcategory balance. So if all the major categories can be reconstructed following the September reconciliation, then I should be good.

Thanks for running through my thought process. I just didn't really want to go through the effort of manual report creation if I was missing something that would invalidate my efforts.

crislapi wrote:The emergency check writing procedure might not work this week either. Even LUS does not have access to finances this week, so they won't be able to enter a check into the system either.

If it is truly an emergency, and the bishop approves, write the check and call headquarters. They have skills.

nutterb wrote:I also was locked out of the finances, which is most inconvenient for me. I wasn't able to get to the church on Sunday due to delayed travel plans, and my assistant wasn't there either. The end result is I don't have the reports I was supposed to print off on Sunday.

Hopefully I don't get you in trouble, but I see two options.

Option 1: the conversion to CUBS won't be complete until you send/receive on Oct 24th. If the system unlocks on a date rather than an event, you might be able to print them before doing the send/receive. However, I highly doubt that will work. I'm guessing you will need to send/receive before the financial section unlocks.

Option 2: Download the installer of MLS onto another computer then kill your internet.
Save a copy of your Oct 17th backup on this computer as well.
Install MLS.
When prompted to, select "Restore from backup" from the options.
Navigate to and select the Oct 17th backup.
Once completed, log in and print the reports.
When done, exit MLS and then uninstall MLS and delete the backup from the second computer. Empty your recycle bin, too.

crislapi wrote:Hopefully I don't get you in trouble, but I see two options.

Option 2: Download the installer of MLS onto another computer then kill your internet. Save a copy of your Oct 17th backup on this computer as well. Install MLS. When prompted to, select "Restore from backup" from the options. Once completed, log in and print the reports. When done, exit MLS and then uninstall MLS and delete the backup from the second computer. Empty your recycle bin, too.

I would also set the date on the second computer back to the 17th before starting the process.

rpyne wrote:I would also set the date on the second computer back to the 17th before starting the process.

I wouldn't.

MLS 3.2.3 has nothing hard-coded in it to lock you out after the 17th. When transmitting Sunday, I noticed it downloading a file called something like cubsfmls. That is more than likely what set up the conversion. Just don't transmit. Not a problem, really, because you can't transmit from an unauthorized computer.

crislapi wrote:I wouldn't.

MLS 3.2.3 has nothing hard-coded in it to lock you out after the 17th. When transmitting Sunday, I noticed it downloading a file called something like cubsfmls. That is more than likely what set up the conversion. Just don't transmit. Not a problem, really, because you can't transmit from an unauthorized computer.

I'm not sure I agree. I was able to transmit multiple times on the 17th. I wasn't locked out until the system date rolled over to the 18th. So it seems to me that the system date is indeed a factor in the lockout.

Alan_Brown wrote:I'm not sure I agree. I was able to transmit multiple times on the 17th. I wasn't locked out until the system date rolled over to the 18th. So it seems to me that the system date is indeed a factor in the lockout.

Agreed, but I'd be willing to bet the downloaded file contained that executable that locked out the financial section and not MLS 3.2.3. Therefore, a fresh install of MLS 3.2.3 will not have the downloaded patch that locked out the financial section, allowing nutterb to access and print his reports.

To test this, I just installed MLS 3.2.3 on my computer here and loaded the test ward. I was successfully able to get into the finance section. From what I can observe, the financial section is fully functional.

crislapi wrote:Option 1: the conversion to CUBS won't be complete until you send/receive on Oct 24th. If the system unlocks on a date rather than an event, you might be able to print them before doing the send/receive. However, I highly doubt that will work. I'm guessing you will need to send/receive before the financial section unlocks.

Unless I'm remembering a prior thread wrong, it will unlock once it gets the updated information - which could be before Oct 24th. It's just not promised before then.

lajackson wrote:If it is truly an emergency, and the bishop approves, write the check and call headquarters. They have skills.

Not so much. I just called to get an emergency, hand-written check authorized, and I was told in no uncertain terms by a very stern Church rep that the Church as ZERO system in place for handling emergency fast offering checks this week, and that they wouldn't be able to verify it.

So, I'm at a loss for what to do. We have a couple who just came in last night and is going to be evicted today if we don't get the rental company a check.

Any suggestions?? I could maybe just give them the check but if they call to verify funds they're going to get a no...