Bug in MLS when changing donation "Other" subcategories after fact

[seth.wagenman]

Sometimes when I go back and change the "Other" subcategories into which funds were donated, MLS begins to compound the changes through addition, causing serious errors that can only be resolved by deleting the original donation and re-entering it. This has only occurred for donations that were into more than one "Other" subcategory so far.

[crislapi]

Are you modifying/deleting the category or are you moving the donations from one category to another? I don't exactly understand the problem. What do you mean by "begins to compound the change through addition"?

Combined with yourprevious post and the frequency with which it sounds like you are having to make donation adjustments in Other, I do not think you are using your Other account as the system intended and are therefore encountering bugs we may never have seen before. Perhaps there is not enough detail provided for me to correctly duplicate the error. If you can, please provide more specifics so we can better help. In the meantime, it might be insightful to review the online financial training "Understanding and Using the “Other” Category (U.S. and Canada only)"

[seth.wagenman]

I thank you for the information on the "Other" category. As I mention in my reply to the previous post you mention above, I do indeed have subcategories by activity or purpose, then beneath those I also have sub-subcategories by donor to keep track of the monies attributable to each Scout camp attendeed and enable quick viewing of how much money they have yet to raise.

The issue regarding compounding seems to be related to the function that combines duplicate sub-category entries within donations for "Other", but I'm not certain. I do realize that even though it may not be as convenient, until the bug is fixed that allows the category list on top of a check printout to run off the top section, I will need to donate into only a subcategory as opposed to a sub-subcategory. I have taken it as a best practice to name these sub-catetories according to the date and event for which funds are being donated. The most confusion was caused by the fact that we have three distinct Scout camps occurring this year and so donations from fundraisers were not slated toward any particular one.

Regarding your first question above, I was moving parts of the "Other" donation funds (they were into multiple subcategories or sub-subcategories) between subcategories or sub-subcategories. What I mean about the compounding is that the amount of the entire donation increases upon saving the donation. As mentioned in my second paragraph of this post, it may only occur after I receive the question to the effect of "You have multiple donations into the same category...would you like to combine these donations?" and then it asks me that each and every time I save the donation, regardless of whether I actually made any such changes or not (usually I am just changing the amount for a single donation subcategory or sub-subcategory back to what it should have been prior to the bug compounding the amount of the donation through addition of the "combined" or changed amounts).

[aebrown]

The most confusion was caused by the fact that we have three distinct Scout camps occurring this year and so donations from fundraisers were not slated toward any particular one.

Just as a side note, you might want to ask your priesthood leaders to review the information on funding Scout camps in Book 1 of the Church Handbook of Instructions, pp. 160-161, where it is clearly stated that no more than one camp per year may be funded even in part by participants earning funds or through fundraisers. All other camps are funded through the Budget Allowance.

[seth.wagenman]

I am fairly certain my Bishop has learned the hard way that having multiple camps for Scouts is not a good idea. I thought that the whole point of that policy was to restrict the number of retreats/camps that could be paid for out of the Budget, but it appears that you interpret it to be restrictive instead of how many camps should be paid for through fundraising. I don't have it with me since I'm out of town for work but I'll certainly check it out once I'm back. It's probably going to have to be addressed at a higher level since the Stake Presidency was the one who pushed the number of camps to the minimum of 2 (our Young Men leaders were already planning on a camp this fall before that meeting and asked specifically if the stake wanted our Young Men to attend two camps in the summer and were told yes).

[allenjpl]

Out of curiosity, are these multiple camps for "the Scouts" (generally referring to the deacons) or is this multiple camps for the YM as a whole. For example, for at least the last few years, our Priests have had one activity, Teachers another, and the Deacons go to Scout camp. It's partially justified because the overall cost of having the older boys go on the other activities is less than the cost of having them go to scout camp ($300-$370 for the nearer ones). I was just wondering if any other ward does the same thing.

[seth.wagenman]

Out of curiosity, are these multiple camps for "the Scouts" (generally referring to the deacons) or is this multiple camps for the YM as a whole. For example, for at least the last few years, our Priests have had one activity, Teachers another, and the Deacons go to Scout camp. It's partially justified because the overall cost of having the older boys go on the other activities is less than the cost of having them go to scout camp ($300-$370 for the nearer ones). I was just wondering if any other ward does the same thing.

These are multiple camps for all YM, but some of them will actually go on more than one camp (or have already done so).