Expenses through Church-owned business

greglittlebyu-p40 · #1

Hi. How do we reconcile expenses that are made through Church-owned businesses? Our Bishop uses the unit info when he needs to get something for the ward at the Distribution Center or something through BYU (i.e. Print Services, Catering, etc).

On our unit financial statements in the "Miscellaneous Disbursement and Credits" section there will be line-items such as "DC Order #" and then an order number. In the details portions, right underneath this line-item it will say "TRFR BUDGET To HQ" just like with any expense and show the same amount as the "DC Order" amount. When we do reconciliation, there are no problems. However, we can't figure out how to register those expenses to the correct budget account. Whenever I enter the expenses into the "Other Items" section in Reconciliation, it doesn't match up with any transfers. In the Transfers portion there are no transfers for the same dollar amount. So, when I go to do a reconciliation report, it shows that the MLS Balances are off.

I ANSWERED MY OWN QUESTION. IT TURNS OUT THAT THE ITEMS WERE NEVER ENTERED AS EXPENSES IN THE FIRST PLACE, SO THAT'S WHY I WASN'T BEING GIVEN THE ABILITY TO RECONCILE THEM.

#2

The Church reconciliation process will only balance the OTHER and MISSIONARY categories. Since the expenses you are seeing are being taken directly out of BUDGET, they are not being reconciled each month. The expenses you are describing should be recorded in MLS as a "Not a check" expense. This is explained in the training video called "Reconciling the Church Unit Financial Statement", found about 3/4 of the way down on THIS page.

BTW, there is a good way to also reconcile your BUDGET category, which is explained in the Wiki HERE.

Regards,
Mike