Budget Allocation Report

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mzundel
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Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:08 am

Budget Allocation Report

#1

Post by mzundel »

While reviewing the budget allocation report, I believe I have found an issue with the MLS Software. I don't know if it is related to v3.0 of MLS.

First, let me say that I did a search and read http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.ph ... get+report that explains a bit about this report. I found this useful but did not explain my situation.

Here is the situation. I was reviewing a detail budget allocation report. It shows both donations and expenses. All the donations have the proper amounts shown while the expenses all show a balance of 0.00. My first thought was the expenses were entered wrong or somehow entered with 0.00 amounts. I reviewed both checks and found them in proper order.

Any advice?
crislapi
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#2

Post by crislapi »

mzundel wrote:I was reviewing a detail budget allocation report. It shows both donations and expenses. All the donations have the proper amounts shown while the expenses all show a balance of 0.00. My first thought was the expenses were entered wrong or somehow entered with 0.00 amounts. I reviewed both checks and found them in proper order.
Could you provide some more details? Is this true for every budget category? Do you allocations show up correctly? Is your total balance 0? Any transfers? And I don't mean to insult you, but are you sure you are using the budget report and not the income and expense report? The ending balance for the income and expense report is always 0 because transfers always match expenses.
mzundel
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Posts: 33
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:08 am

#3

Post by mzundel »

After checking every budget category, I have found that only one seems to have this problem. I am not showing any transfers, just the two checks written (with a $0.00 amount in the report) and a few donations (with their correct amount) for this category. The category is showing a balance, which is correct after the donations and projected start balance.

I know I am using the correct report. There are two reasons. The first is in the upper left corner of the report, it clearly states "Budget Allocation Report." The second is when I run the report, I am using the lower left panel in MLS as opposed to the upper right panel for the Income and Expense Report.

This is very perplexing as I have had no problems with the end of month reconciliation process. This leads me to believe MLS thinks everything is in order.
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aebrown
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Location: Draper, Utah

#4

Post by aebrown »

mzundel wrote:After checking every budget category, I have found that only one seems to have this problem. I am not showing any transfers, just the two checks written (with a $0.00 amount in the report) and a few donations (with their correct amount) for this category. The category is showing a balance, which is correct after the donations and projected start balance.
I'm pretty sure what you are seeing is a check that has had a category correction. Look in the View/Update Expenses screen and find the check number(s) in question. See if there are a couple of lines with the same reference number. One would be the check in the original subcategory, and the other would say (Multiple) for the category. Click on the (Multiple) link and you'll see something like +$100 in the original subcategory and -$100 in some other subcategory. That +$100 balances out the original -$100, leaving a net 0 for that check within the original subcategory. This could well be what you are seeing on your Budget report.

mzundel wrote:This is very perplexing as I have had no problems with the end of month reconciliation process. This leads me to believe MLS thinks everything is in order.
Remember that the Budget category does not usually affect the reconciliation process, since there is always an outstanding transfer to match any outstanding check. So the fact that you can reconcile really doesn't tell you much about issues in the Budget category.
crislapi
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Posts: 1267
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:05 pm
Location: USA

#5

Post by crislapi »

mzundel wrote:After checking every budget category, I have found that only one seems to have this problem. I am not showing any transfers, just the two checks written (with a $0.00 amount in the report) and a few donations (with their correct amount) for this category. The category is showing a balance, which is correct after the donations and projected start balance.
With this info, the first question I had was if the category total was zero or the two checks are showing up as $0. If the checks are $0, the only time I've seen that is when a check has been voided.

Is your report correct for that category? Beginning balance + donations - expenses + transfers = ending balance?

I was just using budget reports Sunday (so in the new MLS 3.0) to check ward expenses against the SFS and did not notice any problems so if it is a problem, it is not widespread.
mzundel
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Posts: 33
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:08 am

Solved

#6

Post by mzundel »

Alan, Thanks for the information. That is exactly what was happening; I failed to see the category correction. It would have been helpful if the correction appeared on the report instead of just showing as a 0.00 amount. When I was looking for the check, I searched through the list and without thinking excluded numbers that had **** in front of the check number.

Thanks again!
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