Budget Allowances

Discuss questions around local unit policies for budgeting, reconciling, etc. This forum should not contain specific financial or membership information.
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ffrsqpilot
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Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 8:51 am
Location: Montrose, Colorado

Budget Allowances

#1

Post by ffrsqpilot »

First of all, this is probably way down there on the list of things to worry about, but it does make one wonder!

While preparing a talk for stake conference, the 2nd counselor in our stake presidency called me and asked the question "how do church finance folks compute quarterly budget allocations". I though it was kind of a dumb question at first, since the 2nd counselor has been managing the finances for the stake for the last four years. The letter we receive from CHQ that lists the budget allocation for the next quarter explains exactly how they figure the allocations. But on closer review, I can see why the 2nd counselor was confused.

Most of the calculations CHQ uses makes sense but in a couple of cases I (as well as the 2nd counselor) are a bit baffled at how they arrive at a certain amount. For example...

1. In our most recent letter with our 2nd Quarter budget allocation they allocated each unit a certain amount for primary attendance
2. The letter explains that they use the data gleaned from the unit's quarterly report.
3. The letter also explains that for Primary, they use the attendance of all children ages 8 - 11 to calulate how much each unit is allocated
4. But, the quarterly report each ward submits calculates the attendance of all primary children ages 3 - 11.

Thus the question - how do CHQ folks know how many children age 8 - 11 are attending? It could happen (not likely but possible) that no children between 8 and 11 are attending and only children ages 3 - 7 are attending. How would they know?

The same question arises for funds allocated for single adult members. No where in the quarterly report is there a report on how many single adults are attending, but the quarterly budget amount includes funds for a certain attendance level. So, where did they get that data from?

By no means am I trying to stir the pot. I just never looked that closely at the quarterly budget allocation until the counselor asked me about it this past week when he was using the most recent report to prepare part of his talk. After I took a look at the report I saw the disparity of reporting data and wondered --- HOW DO THEY KNOW! :confused:

Please don't spend nights pacing the floor worrying about it, but if someone has an answer I'd sure be interested - and so would the second counselor.
eblood66
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Location: Cumming, GA, USA

#2

Post by eblood66 »

It's explained on the wiki here:

https://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/Bud ... ance#Basis

Basically they take the number of primary children ages 8-11 and multiply it by the percentage attendance for primary on the quarterly report. Similarly they take the number of YSAs in the ward and multiply it by the sacrament meeting attendance percentage.
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ffrsqpilot
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Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 8:51 am
Location: Montrose, Colorado

#3

Post by ffrsqpilot »

Well I guess that answers that. Thanks for the link. I will pass it on to our 2nd counselor.
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