Transfer funds?

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
tubaloth
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Transfer funds?

#1

Post by tubaloth »

I'm trying to find some details on how the Transfer funds option works in MLS. I did just a basic search in the help and nothing came up.

We need to transfer money from our budget to another account that is in the negative (YW Camp).
When the old ward clerk was training us he explain that with the other accounts we actually have to write a check from one account to another. But when I saw this transfer option I assume that is what this is for?
The problem is I don't know which side is the From and the To. (so I'm looking for a help menu to walk me through it). I don't know if I can transfer money just from our general fund (money that hasn't actually been assigned a budget category) to this other account?

Thanks
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benjamincarleski
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Re: Transfer funds?

#2

Post by benjamincarleski »

Have a look at the thread here.

The short answer is that you can recategorize expenses if they are in the current year, or transfer the funds using a check. The Transfer feature allows you to transfer funds between Other accounts, but doesn't work between Budget accounts and Other accounts.
tubaloth
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Re: Transfer funds?

#3

Post by tubaloth »

That is good to know. Because we are going to transfer some money between other accounts.

From the thread you linked to one person said this on the second page.
"And so the proper accounting step is as has been proposed, to transfer the funds from the Budget to the Other account. As others have mentioned, this used to require the writing and redepositing of a check, but can now be done by changing the category of the check in MLS.
"

If I under stand this, we would go into the Expensive (just like we are writing a check). But we can change the category of the check... It will then just move money with out actually printing the check?
Is this correct?
Is the Category to one of the other accounts?

Thanks
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aebrown
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Re: Transfer funds?

#4

Post by aebrown »

tubaloth wrote:If I under stand this, we would go into the Expensive (just like we are writing a check). But we can change the category of the check... It will then just move money with out actually printing the check?
Is this correct?
Is the Category to one of the other accounts?
It's not exactly like writing a check. To write a check, you would go to "Enter an Expense"; to change an existing check, you go to "View/Update Expenses".

Once you are in "View/Update Expenses" you need to find the actual check that was written from the wrong category. Then you click on its check number. You change the category and then save the check.

For example, suppose I had written check #1234 for $100 from the category of "Other:Authorized Member Financed Activities:YW Camp". Then I discover that we didn't have sufficient funds in that "Other:AMFA:YW Camp" category, so I should have written the check from "Budget:Young Women:Camp". I would go to "View/Update Expenses", and click on the 1234 check number. I would then change the category from "Other:AMFA:YW Camp" to "Budget:Young Women:Camp". I save that check and eventually do a Send/Receive.

This change would have the effect of transferring $100 from "Budget:Young Women:Camp" to "Other:AMFA:YW Camp".

Note that if you do this, you should go back to your expense authorization documentation for check #1234 (which most likely indicates that the check was written against "Other:AMFA:YW Camp") and make a note that the check is now written against the "Budget:Young Women:Camp" category.
tubaloth
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Re: Transfer funds?

#5

Post by tubaloth »

It wasn't written from the wrong category. Not really. We took the money from the other YM camp category and I guess the fund raiser wasn't enough to cover it all. So they are around $100 in the hole. The Check was written from the correct category. Just didn't get enough money back to cover it.

So the only way to fix this is to write a check from the budget... actually can I write a check that isn't in one of the budgets. (Not from YW) Just from some General Fund? We had almost 1k that rolled over from last year.

It sounds like to get money into this other account I need to write a check. Correct?
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aebrown
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Re: Transfer funds?

#6

Post by aebrown »

tubaloth wrote:It wasn't written from the wrong category. Not really. We took the money from the other YM camp category and I guess the fund raiser wasn't enough to cover it all. So they are around $100 in the hole. The Check was written from the correct category. Just didn't get enough money back to cover it.
I guess it depends on how you look at it, but I would say that the check was definitely written from the wrong category. You wrote one or more checks from a category that didn't have sufficient money in it.

But regardless of whether you think it was wrong or right initially, you still could use the technique of recategorization to fix the deficit you currently have in your Other YM Camp category. You might have to recategorize more than one check, and there could be one check that ends up split between two categories (e.g., you have a $100 deficit, two checks for $70 and $50, so you recategorize the $70 as all Budget and the $50 as $30 Budget and $20 Other).
tubaloth wrote:So the only way to fix this is to write a check from the budget... actually can I write a check that isn't in one of the budgets. (Not from YW) Just from some General Fund? We had almost 1k that rolled over from last year.

It sounds like to get money into this other account I need to write a check. Correct?
That's the other approach -- write a check from Budget to the ward, then deposit that check into the Other subcategory that has the deficit. You would write it from the subcategory of Budget where the money actually resides (that $1000 has to be somewhere).
russellhltn
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Re: Transfer funds?

#7

Post by russellhltn »

tubaloth wrote:It wasn't written from the wrong category. Not really. We took the money from the other YM camp category and I guess the fund raiser wasn't enough to cover it all. So they are around $100 in the hole. The Check was written from the correct category. Just didn't get enough money back to cover it.
Writing a check to do the transfer is certainly one way to do that. If I was in this situation, it might well be the preferable thing to do. (The transfer being tagged as due to a shortfall of fundraising. By splitting/re-categorizing an expense, that detail might not be as obvious when a report is run for future leaders. I'm all in favor of whatever will make for the clearest reports in the future.)

Note that writing a check from budget to Other is fine. But going the other direction can raise some eyebrows and should be avoided as it can give the appearance of trying to extend the budget via fundraising.
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tubaloth
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Re: Transfer funds?

#8

Post by tubaloth »

When I write the check can I take the money from something other then the budget? Like I said before we had money roll over from last year. I'm sure MOST of it got put in a given budget. But taken $100 from the YW budget to pay off the shortage of the YW camp Other doesn't really put them in any better situation? I guess I just want to take the money from some general budget... But I don't see a way to do that. (Sitting at that computer right now).

Second would be to add more money to the YW budget and then take it from them.

Back to the Transfer option. I know this is used for Transforming between other accounts. But as I sit here I see that I have a Transfer From account called "Budget:Budget Allocation". I can not for the life of me figure out what the account is except just the general budget money? Can I take money from this account and pay off the YW camp?

Thanks
eblood66
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Re: Transfer funds?

#9

Post by eblood66 »

tubaloth wrote:When I write the check can I take the money from something other then the budget? Like I said before we had money roll over from last year. I'm sure MOST of it got put in a given budget. But taken $100 from the YW budget to pay off the shortage of the YW camp Other doesn't really put them in any better situation? I guess I just want to take the money from some general budget... But I don't see a way to do that. (Sitting at that computer right now).

Second would be to add more money to the YW budget and then take it from them.

Back to the Transfer option. I know this is used for Transforming between other accounts. But as I sit here I see that I have a Transfer From account called "Budget:Budget Allocation". I can not for the life of me figure out what the account is except just the general budget money? Can I take money from this account and pay off the YW camp?

Thanks
Budge:Budget Allocation is the the total budget allocation you receive from the stake (usually via automatic allocation). You should only write checks from that category if you are returning unused budget funds to the stake.

The first thing you should do is look at you budget using Finance > Budget > View/Edit Budget. I don't have one in front of me but there should be a line that indicates how much unallocated budget you have. If you have enough unallocated budget funds there are a couple ways you can handle it. You could edit the YW budget and add the appropriate amount to the budget and then write the check from that category. Or you could add a new budget category, add the funds to that category, and then write the check from there.

On the other hand, if you don't have any unallocated funds then you're going to have to take it from an existing category. If you take it from something other than the YW budget then you'll probably want to reduce the other budget and add it to the YW budget and then write the check from there. That way the expense won't look like it's coming from some unrelated category.
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aebrown
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Re: Transfer funds?

#10

Post by aebrown »

tubaloth wrote:When I write the check can I take the money from something other then the budget? Like I said before we had money roll over from last year. I'm sure MOST of it got put in a given budget. But taken $100 from the YW budget to pay off the shortage of the YW camp Other doesn't really put them in any better situation? I guess I just want to take the money from some general budget... But I don't see a way to do that. (Sitting at that computer right now).
I'm not sure what you mean by the term "general budget." One thing to keep clear is the distinction between your budget balance, and how much you have allocated to your various budget categories. Those might not be the same. The Budget Summary Report (BSR) will make it clear how much you carried forward from last year, how much you have received in quarterly budget allocations, and how much you estimate will be received in upcoming quarterly budget allocations this year. That is the total budget funds available for the year, and is the line item "Estimated/Actual Annual Budget" on the BSR.

Your unit can assign budgets to each subcategory of Budget. The sum of those is the line item "Annual Budget Assigned by Unit" on the BSR. The difference will be on the next line, labeled "Unassigned Annual Budget." If there is money on that line item, then you have more money available to spend than you have allocated to each subcategory.
tubaloth wrote:Second would be to add more money to the YW budget and then take it from them.
That's a reasonable option, particularly if you "Unassigned Annual Budget" as I explained above.
tubaloth wrote:Back to the Transfer option. I know this is used for Transforming between other accounts. But as I sit here I see that I have a Transfer From account called "Budget:Budget Allocation". I can not for the life of me figure out what the account is except just the general budget money? Can I take money from this account and pay off the YW camp?
No. The "Budget:Budget Allocation" category is a special category that should ONLY be used for budget allocations. Automatic quarterly allocations as specified by the stake are automatically put in that category. If you ever receive a budget allocation check from the stake, you would deposit it into that category. If you need to return surplus budget allocation funds to the stake, you would write the check from that category. But you should never use that category for any expenses or any other purpose unrelated to budget allocations.
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