Donations and Expenses report comparisons - common discrepancies

Discuss questions around local unit policies for budgeting, reconciling, etc. This forum should not contain specific financial or membership information.
Post Reply
crislapi
Senior Member
Posts: 1267
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:05 pm
Location: USA

Donations and Expenses report comparisons - common discrepancies

#1

Post by crislapi »

I have compared pre and post CUBS printouts for about 8 of my units now. I have learned a couple things and thought I'd share.

Donations and Offerings:
  1. Some wards now have donations appearing from 31 Dec 2006. No 2006 batches were included in the pre-CUBS reports. I wasn't expecting that, but once I saw it it made sense. Year end is usually something like Dec 30 at noon and any information entered after that is considered part of the new year.
  2. Donations to specific missionaries have been changed to be to Ward Missionary Fund. If multiple donations to Ward Missionary Fund result from this change, they have usually been consolidated into a single donation to Ward Missionary Fund on the post-CUBS report.
  3. Donations to Temple Patron Assistance have changed to be to Payable to Local Unit. (there are other more subtle category name changes, but they should be obvious)
  4. There are some new deposits. Most commonly, these appear to be related to the Deposit less than/greater than call items that appeared in the miscellaneous section of the CUFS.
  5. The other new deposits I've found appear to be for deposits that were hand-delivered to the bank (deposit key lost that week or donations prepared during tithing settlement for example). The pre-CUBS report shows it just like the other batches. The post-CUBS report shows the pre-CUBS ref number and date but with all zeroes. A new batch is created (new date & ref number) but with identical deposit information to the pre-CUBS batch.
Having been able to account for the discrepancies, I have not found any missing/new batches that require action.

Expenses:
  1. The most common actual error I've discovered is related to units not having voided lost checks correctly pre-CUBS. In essence, they voided (and reissued the check) in MLS but CHQ never voided it on their end so it still showed as outstanding on their CUFS. With CUBS, local information has been replaced with CHQ's. The previously voided check now shows as outstanding again. My concern is clerks will miss this subtlety and void and reissue the check again, essentially paying the same expense twice.
  2. I had one case where the opposite was true - the ward still had the check listed as outstanding while CHQ listed it as voided. It is still an issue and we'll need to follow up to make sure the member is/was reimbursed.
  3. Most wards also had new expenses appearing from 31 Dec 2006. No 2006 expenses were included on the pre-CUBS reports. Like #1 under donations, I wasn't expecting that, but once I saw it it made sense. Year end is usually something like Dec 30 at noon and any information entered after that is considered part of the new year.
  4. If your unit used the "Other Items" section often to enter miscellaneous expenses, you may find many new expenses in your post-CUBS report. The reason for this is pre-CUBS, "Other Items" showed as transfers, not expenses. Therefore, they were not included in the pre-CUBS printout.
  5. Related to #4, "Other Items" was the only section where you could enter credits. This is commonly reimbursements for missionary payments (from switching responsible units), items returned to the distribution center, etc. These credits are also now listed as expenses post-CUBS.
Again, I have been able to reconcile every difference in the expenses report, thereby getting pre and post CUBS totals to match exactly. However, unlike donations, there are items that need to be followed up on.

Income and Expense Report:
See this post.

Has anyone else found any common discrepancies?
crislapi
Senior Member
Posts: 1267
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:05 pm
Location: USA

Other & Budget balance off

#2

Post by crislapi »

In investigating non-zero balances in some of my units, I have come across an explanation that is at least plausible to me. The issue seems to be related to 2007 (or later) expenses that deal with 2006 (or earlier) funds. For Other, the issue seems to arise when donations were made in 2006 but the checks were cut in 2007. For Budget, the issue appears to be when a check from 2006 was voided in 2007.

See this postabout Other balance and this postabout Budget Administration balance.

I'd be curious to find out if this holds true for others.
jbh001
Senior Member
Posts: 856
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 6:17 pm
Location: Las Vegas, NV

#3

Post by jbh001 »

crislapi wrote:I have compared pre and post CUBS printouts for about 8 of my units now. I have learned a couple things and thought I'd share.

Donations and Offerings:

Some wards now have donations appearing from 31 Dec 2006. No 2006 batches were included in the pre-CUBS reports. I wasn't expecting that, but once I saw it it made sense. Year end is usually something like Dec 30 at noon and any information entered after that is considered part of the new year.
Another possibility is donations that come in after December 31, but are postmarked for or prior to the 31st. They are currently supposed to be processed this way.
Post Reply

Return to “Local Unit Finance”