New Expense Reimbursement Process

[davesudweeks]

My personal opinion: I have seen posts from others, including a church employee, that they simply have the bishop sign the receipt if it is a paper receipt as his approval. The requirement is not that there be a "form." The requirement is that there is a purpose and the bishop has approved. That can happen multiple ways. We have a form we have used for years but I see us going away from it as we move more and more into the digital age with reimbursements.

Our instruction to our ward council will be if they hand in a paper receipt, keep using the form as a convenient method. If the receipt is digital, the organization president can simply include the information from the form in the body of an email (with the receipt attached) and send it to the bishop. When he forwards it to the clerk, that is his approval and the clerk will have everything they need to move forward without the paper form. Our bishop requires the organization heads to approve expenses in their organization in addition to his approval so we will require members to have the organization head forward/send the email (currently the organization head must sign the form before the bishop will).

[eblood66]

That's pretty much our approach as well. I haven't had very many email requests. But I know our stake has pretty much switched to email requests entirely and pushes hard to do all reimbursements as EFT if possible. For the stake that's much nicer since everyone's not at the same building each Sunday to pass around paper and checks.

[bradbrown58]

I have noticed that using the online expense reimbursement, there is not an approval for the auxiliary president to approve the transaction. So, my question, is having the auxiliary president sign the expense request for just a "tradition" that we have adopted? or is having a YM/YW president sign an expense a procedure that we need to follow?

If the later is the case, how do we include the auxiliary leader in the approval process for online expenses/reimbursements?

[davesudweeks]

I have noticed that using the online expense reimbursement, there is not an approval for the auxiliary president to approve the transaction. So, my question, is having the auxiliary president sign the expense request for just a "tradition" that we have adopted? or is having a YM/YW president sign an expense a procedure that we need to follow?

If the later is the case, how do we include the auxiliary leader in the approval process for online expenses/reimbursements?

Tradition. Per the handbook, the bishop approves all expenses. There is no handbook requirement for organization leaders to approve expenses, though we ask members to route the request through their organization president just so they know about the expense being charged to their organization budget.

[jdlessley]

The audit process does not require ward/branch organization president signature or approval. The bishop is the one responsible for ward expenses and therefore his approval is required. However, the ward organization president responsible for managing an allocation of the ward budget needs to be involved in the disbursement of funds covering expenses supporting their organization's program(s). Our ward does this through the disbursement authorization form organization president signature when submitted the old way. For electronic reimbursement requests we ensure the organization president is involved in the email process. In other words if I, as the ward clerk, get an email requesting a reimbursement directly from a member I will forward the message to the organization president for approval before processing the request. We are training our ward members to send the reimbursement email to the organization president rather than directly to the ward clerk, assistant ward clerk, or assistant ward clerk-finance. That email chain will be used as supporting documentation for the disbursement and attached to the LCR reimbursement request.

[cjerekson]

Can members review/see the expense reimbursements that have been processed for them? Similar to Donation History in the members portal?

[jdlessley]

Can members review/see the expense reimbursements that have been processed for them? Similar to Donation History in the members portal?

No. Only those with finance edit permissions (bishopric, ward clerk, assistant ward clerk, assistant ward clerk - finance) can view expense reimbursements.

[roblauradavis]

How does a ward reimburse a non ward member. In the YSA ward, we have YSA’s from other wards in the Stake by things like refreshments for the YSA ward FHE. How can I reimburse them when their records are not in our ward?

[jdlessley]

How can I reimburse them when their records are not in our ward?

When they provide a payment request (reimbursement request) they will need to either provide their MRN or a mailing address. If their privacy setting is set to Stake you can use the either the online Directory or Member Tools to get their address. You create a payee record for an out of unit member during the process of entering the expense. When you click in the payee combo box a blue 'Add Payee' button will appear. Click it to enter the information for the new payee. If they provided their MRN then click 'Member' and enter the out of unit member MRN. If you only have their address then select 'Nonmember' and enter their address. A paper check is the only payment method available for Nonmember payee accounts.

Once an out of unit payee account has been created you can type in their name in the payee combo box for future payment requests without having to create another payee account.

[tbarron97]

I am not currently in a ward presidency.
I have receipts to submit for reimbursement.
I do not have access to LCR.
Am I stuck using paper forms, or is there a way for me to submit my requests online?