Transfer Year-end balance to new year

[marcpelchat]

I have a category in MLS that is funded by contributions from other stakes (Regional Public Affairs). Last year they had some money left over and after MLS closed the year and moved to 2014, the money disapear (nothing shows up on the 2014 side of the category). How do I remedy this?

[jdlessley]

Is this a budget category or is this an Other - AMFA category? I suspect it is a budget category. Budget category funds are roled up into the unit budget category and appears in the Balance Forward on View/Edit Budget. Other - AMFA category balances roll into the next year.

The funds rolled over into the Balance Forward can be re-allocated to the appropriate budget category.

[marcpelchat]

Well that sucks.... but if that's the way it is.... then I'll live with it.

So then HOW does MLS know if there is a non-zero balance left over when I try and "hide" a category if it's all set to zero? I get the feeling there are things going on in the background that aren't visible.

[jdlessley]

I don't know what category, Budget or Other:AMFA, you are talking about. You did not answer the question that will help us explain what is happening. What I tried to explain to you was what happens to funds in the Budget category and what happens to funds in the Other:AMFA category. I will try again with a bit more detail.

All budget category and subcategory funds are part of the overall Budget category. Church headquarters does not get involved with how a unit alocates budget funds to budget categories and subcategories. Unit budget allowance alocations to budget categories are for unit internal tracking. Headquarters just deals with the remaining unit budget at the end of the year. That result is rolled in to the next year. Since headquarters only deals with the resultant unit budget they do not know what category or subcategory to roll excesses or deficits into. The Balance Forward is the sum total of all budget categories and their subcategories from the previous year.

If a unit has $200 remaining in their Budget Activities category, -$100 in their Budget Administration category, and all the other Budget categories and subcategories are zero at year end then headquarters only sees a year end budget balance of $100 and rolls that into the next year. The unit sees that $100 in the Balance Forward line item for the next year budget. Both the Budget Activities category and the Budget Administration category amounts will be zero at the beginning of the next year until the unit alocates the Balance Forward amount and each quarterly allowance into all the budget categories and subcategories.

Any effort to zero budget category and subcategory amounts before year end by transfering funds from one subcategory to the next or by realocation is meaningless.

Unlike budget categories, the Other:AMFA subcategory year end amounts remain in the subcategories.

If a unit has $1000 in the Other:AMFA:Scout Camp subcategory at year end, then there will be $1000 in that subcategory at the begining of the next year.

[daveywest]

When I was a ward clerk, my bishop was the agent bishop for the building. After trying to use a budget subcategory unsuccessfully, I realized this type of situation was perfect for an Other account.

Multi unit expenses are all paid out of an Other account, and each participating unit (including my own) is billed. Payments are then deposited to cover the expenses. Using the other account allowed me to handle expenses across multiple years without the history being wiped.

[aebrown]

When I was a ward clerk, my bishop was the agent bishop for the building. After trying to use a budget subcategory unsuccessfully, I realized this type of situation was perfect for an Other account.

I agree. Our stake is the agent stake for regional sports for the neighboring 8 stakes. We use a subcategory of Other:AMFA. It has these benefits:

• No problems with year-end balances being cleared.
• We send an assessment to ourselves, so that we pay for our stake's costs for participating out of our Budget category, but pay all expenses for the regional sports program from the Other account. That keeps a clear separation between our Budget expenses and the expenses we incur simply as an agent.

I've heard of some overeager auditors who have a blanket policy of disallowing ongoing Other subcategories. Our Assistant Area Auditor is very picky about how wards use the Other account, but he has had no problem with this usage at the stake level. So this approach has worked well for us.