Manual Quarterly Report creation

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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KAnderson
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Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada

Manual Quarterly Report creation

#1

Post by KAnderson »

I saw something new today. Upon startup of MLS, we got the normal message about doing a send/receive for Quarterly report creation. After the send receive some membership reports printed and then there was a message about checking the urgent messages. One of the messages was that there hadn't been a send/receive done which was strange but we did it again. Then we went to enter the Quarterly report information and it wasn't there. We tried everything we could think of, including multiple send/receives, program exits, and machine reboots. Still no quarterly report.

How do we make MLS force the creation of this report?
jbh001
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#2

Post by jbh001 »

That depends on what you mean by "it wasn't there."

If you are saying that when trying to navigate from the MLS menu bar to Membership > Quarterly Report > Quarterly Report, and one or more of those options are now missing, then it sounds like something is seriously wrong.

If you are saying that navigating to the above location does not bring up the quarterly report (i.e. it never opens) or that the report comes up but is blank instead of having some of the data already computed, that is a slightly different problem.

The first thing I would to is immediately back up the database.

Next I would see if the report is "there" under a different MLS login that also has sufficient privileges to view/edit that report.

If it still is not "there," I would try a clean install of MLS.

If that doesn't fix things, I might suspect that the user file has some gotten corrupted and check to see if the all the users, still have the rights/privileges/access they are supposed to.

To do that, from the MLS menu bar navigate to Edit > System Options > Users, and check the Rights of each User Name.

If things still seem to be the way they are supposed to be, but the quarterly report is still not "there," then it is probably time to contact your Stake Clerk or STS, or contact Clerk Support if you are the Stake clerk or STS.
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aebrown
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#3

Post by aebrown »

When you go into the Quarterly Report, there is a dropdown that lets you choose which quarter you report on. I don't know precisely when the new quarter is supposed to appear in that dropdown, but it sounds to me like what is described is that the new quarter does not appear in that dropdown. If the new quarter does not appear there, then there is no way to enter data for the new quarter.

However, I have no idea how to make the new quarter appear in the dropdown if it doesn't do so automatically. Obviously we are well into April, so it should be there. If the things jbh001 suggested don't fix it, then follow his steps to contact Clerk Support.
KAnderson
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#4

Post by KAnderson »

jbh001 wrote:That depends on what you mean by "it wasn't there."
Sorry, I should have been more clear. At the beginning of each quarter the quarterly report is generated for the previous quarter. This is usually indicated by the aforementioned message about needing to do a send/receive to make sure the numbers are all up to date. We saw the message and it did a send/receive but after all was said and done, in the drop down on the quarterly report (top right corner) where you select the quarter you want to look at, the new quarter had not been added.

This is not a permissions problem as we can actually get to the quarterly report screen and see the previous quarters, just not Quarter 1, 2009.

Thanks.
russellhltn
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#5

Post by russellhltn »

KevinAnderson wrote:This is not a permissions problem as we can actually get to the quarterly report screen and see the previous quarters, just not Quarter 1, 2009.
Check the date on the computer. Someone might have messed with it.

That's all I can think of.
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lajackson
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#6

Post by lajackson »

KevinAnderson wrote:. . . but after all was said and done, in the drop down on the quarterly report (top right corner) where you select the quarter you want to look at, the new quarter had not been added.

The only way I have ever fixed this problem is to call CHQ and tell them about it. They then set some kind of a trigger that forces MLS to roll over to the new quarter.

Following the conversation, you do a Send/Receive and, if everything worked, it will roll and you will have access to the new quarter's report. (You can do the S/R right after you get off of the phone with the help desk.)

If I were the STC standing at your computer right now, I would do another Send/Receive to see if it will roll over. Not every S/R does the trick. Sometimes an extra S/R will trigger the change.

Then, if you did an S/R and did not get this quarter's report, I would call CHQ and ask for help.

The only time I have had this problem is with a unit that we "forget" from time to time (don't ask). If I do not do at least three S/Rs* each quarter, we have to call CHQ and have them bail us out. MLS can roll ahead at the end of a quarter, but it cannot tell if it is in the correct quarter or not if it gets behind.

*(One S/R to update the database and trigger the rollover, one S/R to send the actual report, and one S/R to get the confirmation that the report was sent.)
jbh001
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#7

Post by jbh001 »

lajackson wrote:The only way I have ever fixed this problem is to call CHQ and tell them about it. They then set some kind of a trigger that forces MLS to roll over to the new quarter.
Having never experienced this problem first-hand, that makes me wonder 1) is the time and date set correctly on the computer itself, and all its attendant settings, like timezone, daylight savings time, etc.; and 2) whether doing a Request Unit Refresh Data might fix the problem.

Here is my reasoning. Checking the date and time settings seems like an obvious thing to troubleshoot since the change to a new quarter is keyed to the date. Since Clerk Support is having to set some flag to fix this, perhaps manually setting the Refresh Unit Data flag might fix this as well as part of the process.

What think ye?
lajackson
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#8

Post by lajackson »

jbh001 wrote:Having never experienced this problem first-hand, that makes me wonder . . .
2) whether doing a Request Unit Refresh Data might fix the problem.

I do not think so, but I have been surprised before. I think there is a flag in the MLS code that sets when MLS thinks it has entered a new quarter. It may be based on the month changing from 3 to 4, 6 to 7, etc., or the year changing would catch one of them.

Whatever the flag is, MLS then goes through the gyrations to switch up a new quarter. Unfortunately, it does not seem to know if it was in the correct quarter to begin with or is going to the correct quarter after the rollover.

Then again, I do not really know the details of how MLS is programmed. But, somehow, I do not think a Request Unit Refresh Data is going to trigger a rollover.
alanharker-p40
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Resolved?

#9

Post by alanharker-p40 »

KevinAnderson wrote:Sorry, I should have been more clear. At the beginning of each quarter the quarterly report is generated for the previous quarter. This is usually indicated by the aforementioned message about needing to do a send/receive to make sure the numbers are all up to date. We saw the message and it did a send/receive but after all was said and done, in the drop down on the quarterly report (top right corner) where you select the quarter you want to look at, the new quarter had not been added.

This is not a permissions problem as we can actually get to the quarterly report screen and see the previous quarters, just not Quarter 1, 2009.

Thanks.

Did you get this resolved? If so, how? I have a ward with the same issue.
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