Post-CUBS Audit - "Other" reconciliation worksheet changes

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atticusewig
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Post-CUBS Audit - "Other" reconciliation worksheet changes

#1

Post by atticusewig »

To prepare for the upcoming audits, I often fill out the
worksheet that reconciles the "Other" account.

Now that CUBS is in effect, I've noticed that some of
the sections might be deprecated.

From my experience, it seems that Outstanding checks
no longer should be listed to bring the difference down to
zero. I imagine this is because the new CUFS uses a Net Available Funds
for its remaining balance so Outstanding checks are already accounted for.

Has anyone else seen any other changes the transition to CUBS has on the audit
process ?

- Atticus
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aebrown
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#2

Post by aebrown »

atticusewig wrote:Has anyone else seen any other changes the transition to CUBS has on the audit process ?

The most obvious challenge for this particular audit is that we are using the new audit instructions, which are written for the post-CUBS era, but July through September 2010 were pre-CUBS. Thus the instructions require some minor adaptation. For example, those three months have a CUFS, not a UFS, and the unit leader and clerk signatures are on the reconciliation form, not the financial statement.
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crislapi
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#3

Post by crislapi »

atticusewig wrote:From my experience, it seems that Outstanding checks
no longer should be listed to bring the difference down to
zero. I imagine this is because the new CUFS uses a Net Available Funds
for its remaining balance so Outstanding checks are already accounted for.

Has anyone else seen any other changes the transition to CUBS has on the audit
process ?
I also noticed that Outstanding checks no longer matter when trying to reconcile Other balance between MLS and the December UFS.

The only other headache I've encountered so far is accounting for the CUBS bug that affects the Other balance.
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ffrsqpilot
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#4

Post by ffrsqpilot »

We ran across an interesting issue during one of the ward audits. (I went along as the stake clerk with the auditor so as to make sure he knew what he was looking at). One of the questions asks if there are any outstanding checks older than six months. The December statement that the auditor looked at showed one check from May that was listed as outstanding. Trying to help the auditor and the clerk I pulled up the "View Expenses" screen for 2010 and it showed the check as being cleared. So how was the auditor or the clerk (who is new by the way) to know if it truly was outstanding or not when MLS said it was cleared? The auditor took a guess and did not mark it as an exception. The next day I called Salt Lake and asked about the specific check which turns out to indeed be outstanding.

We have had this conversation before on the site about checks showing cleared in MLS and what it truly means. After this experience of not knowing if it was indeed outstanding or not I really believe the LUS folks have got to come up with another way in MLS of listing checks.....currently there is no way to know if a check is outstanding or not unless you do the leg work of calling the bank, LUS, or the individual who wrote the check. There has got to be a better way.
crislapi
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#5

Post by crislapi »

FFRsqpilot wrote:We have had this conversation before on the site about checks showing cleared in MLS and what it truly means. After this experience of not knowing if it was indeed outstanding or not I really believe the LUS folks have got to come up with another way in MLS of listing checks.....currently there is no way to know if a check is outstanding or not unless you do the leg work of calling the bank, LUS, or the individual who wrote the check. There has got to be a better way.
It was intended for CUBS to show the actual status of the check, with cleared really being cleared. However, due to a bug with how CUBS interprets the message from the bank, it shows the status as Cleared as soon as the bank confirms the initial transmission of the expense ("posting the expense" so to speak).

You are correct. There is currently no other way to determine the status of the check as of right now other than calling LUS. However, this does not put us in unknown territory - this is exactly how it was pre-CUBS as well. How did you handle this during the last audit? Did you call LUS about every outstanding check or did you just base the audit off of the most recently available statement?

If I see a check was outstanding for at least 6 months on the December statement and it still shows outstanding on the January statement, I'm going to assume it's still outstanding for the audit.
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#6

Post by russellhltn »

crislapi wrote:However, this does not put us in unknown territory - this is exactly how it was pre-CUBS as well.

I beg to differ. The monthly financial reports one got back listed the checks as they were processed by CHQ (aka, the bank). Depending on what the check was written against (like "Other") it also affected the balance.
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ffrsqpilot
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#7

Post by ffrsqpilot »

I don't have the "old" audit forms with me but I don't believe there was a question on the old forms asking if there were any outstanding checks over six months. That is a new question in the new audit forms. Not that it really matters but I wonder why it was added to the audit form when it is already dealt with when we have all the units fill out the "outstanding check" form each year.

The real issue is that while clerks are still getting used to the post CUBs way of doing business, there are some "bugs" in the system that make trying to figure out check status(s) somewhat difficult. I really wish LUS would figure out some method of distinguishing in MLS what actually has cleared and what has not.
jdlessley
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#8

Post by jdlessley »

FFRsqpilot wrote:I don't have the "old" audit forms with me but I don't believe there was a question on the old forms asking if there were any outstanding checks over six months.
Just for the sake of accuracy, item 22 on the old audit form asked, "Have all outstanding checks and other reconciling items more than six months old been cleared?"
JD Lessley
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aebrown
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#9

Post by aebrown »

FFRsqpilot wrote:I don't have the "old" audit forms with me but I don't believe there was a question on the old forms asking if there were any outstanding checks over six months. That is a new question in the new audit forms. Not that it really matters but I wonder why it was added to the audit form when it is already dealt with when we have all the units fill out the "outstanding check" form each year.

The outstanding checks question is also helpful on the mid-year audit, when the "Outstanding Checks" form doesn't have to be filled out for several more months. It gives clerks a reminder to stay on top of outstanding checks.
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stanstrad
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#10

Post by stanstrad »

I have a CUBS Transition problem that I hope is only mine...but fear it is not. Since the transition the new statements show "outstanding" checks on the Financial Statement from as far back as March 2010 that have long since cleared (and show as cleared on statements pre-CUBS, and not just a few...dozens of them and not only showing uncleared checks that are cleared but the same checks listed more than one time i.e. once as check 4875 outstanding and then 00004875 outstanding. I of course call CHQ after getting each new statement and got the response that they will/are working on it and the next statement will reflect it accurately. Now that I have got January Statement (3rd one wrong now).
I am now not as concerned with that at this moment as being able to fill out the "Other" reconciliation form on the Audit that we are trying to conduct. Today when talking to MLS Support the only offering I was given was, to correspond by MLS messaging system and not by phone, because at least then I would have a record of the problem. While that is a note worthy idea, it doesn't help fill out the form. I have attempted several variations of including real outstanding with fake outstanding with and with out the dupes, but can't seem to find the magic combination to get the difference to zero. I have never had problems reconciling the Other category and I think once CHQ fixes the bugs it will be ok. Any ideas of how to handle page 9 form on the audit with this type issue?
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