New Expense Reimbursement Process

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cchang
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New Expense Reimbursement Process

#1

Post by cchang »

Has anyone started using the new Expense reimbursement process on LCR yet and provide their thoughts? I was reading the online policy for recording expenses and reimbursements but just wanted to get some other feedback on the questions below.

1. So if the Clerk enters the expense and approves the expense, does it require a second approver from the Branch Presidency? It states "two authorized leaders" so I'm thinking one can be the Clerk and the second can be a Unit Leader. If so, does the unit leader go into their LCR and approve it themselves?
2. Does the President's Review section eliminate the need to have the President's signature on any of the paper forms now?
3. Can any member enter their own expenses and then it needs to be approved by two members of the Branch Presidency?
eblood66
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Re: New Expense Reimbursement Process

#2

Post by eblood66 »

1. Whoever enters the expense is the first approver. The second approver must one of the following (other than the person who entered the expense): financial clerk, assistant ward clerk, ward clerk, bishopric counselor or bishop (or equivalent branch positions). The membership clerk and executive secretary cannot approve expenses. If you upload electronic receipts and documentation then the second approver can log in at a later time, review the documentation and approve the expense. If you use paper documentation then the second approver has to be present when you enter the expense and will have to enter their password to approve each expense as they are entered.

2. Theoretically, yes. But as of the last audit the audit system didn't have any information about those approvals. So, personally, I recommend having the bishop or branch president sign the paper forms to ensure the audit goes smoothly at least until you have an audit where they aren't needed.

3. No. Expenses have to be entered by someone with finance rights in LCR, usually a clerk.
scgallafent
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Re: New Expense Reimbursement Process

#3

Post by scgallafent »

cchang wrote:1. So if the Clerk enters the expense and approves the expense, does it require a second approver from the Branch Presidency? It states "two authorized leaders" so I'm thinking one can be the Clerk and the second can be a Unit Leader. If so, does the unit leader go into their LCR and approve it themselves?
One of the approvers must be from (in your case) the branch presidency. "Two authorized leaders must approve each expenditure, and one of them must be a member of the presidency or bishopric."*
cchang wrote:2. Does the President's Review section eliminate the need to have the President's signature on any of the paper forms now?
"The president or the bishop must also review each expenditure that has had electronic receipts attached, unless he is one of the initial approvers. This review indicates that those approving the expense have found it to be appropriate and within Church guidelines."*

There isn't an online approval for the unit financial statement, so the unit leader and clerk should sign and file the financial statement.
cchang wrote:3. Can any member enter their own expenses and then it needs to be approved by two members of the Branch Presidency?
No.

* See https://www.lds.org/help/support/recording-expenses-reimbursements
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Biggles
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Re: New Expense Reimbursement Process

#4

Post by Biggles »

In the UK, if a Clerk enters the expense the other has to be the Bishop, or one of his counsellors. Two clerks cannot authorise the expense!
eblood66
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Re: New Expense Reimbursement Process

#5

Post by eblood66 »

Biggles wrote:In the UK, if a Clerk enters the expense the other has to be the Bishop, or one of his counsellors. Two clerks cannot authorise the expense!
Looks like that is the case in the US as well. My mistake. I've never actually needed to have anyone approve other than the bishop.
cchang
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Re: New Expense Reimbursement Process

#6

Post by cchang »

eblood66 wrote:
2. Theoretically, yes. But as of the last audit the audit system didn't have any information about those approvals. So, personally, I recommend having the bishop or branch president sign the paper forms to ensure the audit goes smoothly at least until you have an audit where they aren't needed.
.
I just wanted to verify if the new process will help eliminate the Branch President needing to sign off on the paper forms if this will be covered in the next audit. I thought I read somewhere that the Branch President needs to approve all expenses so even if a Branch Counselor approves it, the Branch President has to approve it also. I'm hoping the new process will make it more stream lined where, the Branch Clerk, enters the expense (as one of the approvers) and then the Branch President approves it. It seems more effort to initially get two approvers at the time of entry, then get the Branch President's approval again for a total of potentially three approvers. Just wondering if anyone has used the new online expense reimbursement process yet?
cchang
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Re: New Expense Reimbursement Process

#7

Post by cchang »

eblood66 wrote:
Biggles wrote:In the UK, if a Clerk enters the expense the other has to be the Bishop, or one of his counsellors. Two clerks cannot authorise the expense!
Looks like that is the case in the US as well. My mistake. I've never actually needed to have anyone approve other than the bishop.
Same here, usually I would approve it as the Branch Clerk and then the Branch President does the final approval. Even if the Branch Clerk approves it along with one of his Counselors, the President still needs to approve it too.
scgallafent
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Re: New Expense Reimbursement Process

#8

Post by scgallafent »

cchang wrote:
eblood66 wrote:
2. Theoretically, yes. But as of the last audit the audit system didn't have any information about those approvals. So, personally, I recommend having the bishop or branch president sign the paper forms to ensure the audit goes smoothly at least until you have an audit where they aren't needed.
.
I just wanted to verify if the new process will help eliminate the Branch President needing to sign off on the paper forms if this will be covered in the next audit. I thought I read somewhere that the Branch President needs to approve all expenses so even if a Branch Counselor approves it, the Branch President has to approve it also. I'm hoping the new process will make it more stream lined where, the Branch Clerk, enters the expense (as one of the approvers) and then the Branch President approves it. It seems more effort to initially get two approvers at the time of entry, then get the Branch President's approval again for a total of potentially three approvers. Just wondering if anyone has used the new online expense reimbursement process yet?
You started another thread about online reimbursement nine days ago. Some of the questions you are asking are answered in that thread.

If the branch clerk enters the expense (approval 1) and the branch president approves it (approval 2), you are done. If you are storing electronic receipts, you do not have to have two approvers present at the time of entry.

If the branch president is not one of the two approvers, he will need to approve it later. That does not need to be done before payment is issued. It's a fairly straightforward process for him to go in and approve items that need his review.
eblood66
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Re: New Expense Reimbursement Process

#9

Post by eblood66 »

cchang wrote:I thought I read somewhere that the Branch President needs to approve all expenses so even if a Branch Counselor approves it, the Branch President has to approve it also.
That is absolutely true. The Branch President must approval all expenses before they are incurred in fact. However, that pre-approval can be verbal but eventually the Branch President must record his approval.
cchang wrote:I'm hoping the new process will make it more stream lined where, the Branch Clerk, enters the expense (as one of the approvers) and then the Branch President approves it.
If the Branch President is one of the two initial approvers then his electronic approval is automatically also recorded.
cchang wrote:It seems more effort to initially get two approvers at the time of entry, then get the Branch President's approval again for a total of potentially three approvers.
Generally the second approver will be the Branch President. But if he isn't available and an expense needs to be processed urgently then (assuming his verbal approval has been obtained) a counselor can be the second approver. But in that case the bishop must provide his approval later. The system will send him an email reminding him and it shows up on the Dashboard so it's pretty easy for him to do when it's convenient for him.
cchang wrote:Just wondering if anyone has used the new online expense reimbursement process yet?
My stake was on the beta program so I've been using the online system for over a year now.

It pretty obvious from how the system is designed that eventually there will be no need for the bishop or branch president to sign paper documents to record his approval. However, the audit tools and training is still catching up to the new online system. It's possible that by the next audit the electronic approvals will be part of the process but during my last audit they weren't still.
cchang
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Re: New Expense Reimbursement Process

#10

Post by cchang »

eblood66 wrote:
cchang wrote:I'm hoping the new process will make it more stream lined where, the Branch Clerk, enters the expense (as one of the approvers) and then the Branch President approves it.
If the Branch President is one of the two initial approvers then his electronic approval is automatically also recorded.
The online expense reimbursement form is not editable online. Is it only for printing and for recording purposes for the units to fill out? Can we bypass the expense reimbursement paper form altogether and simply enter it on LCR instead so that we no longer are keeping a paper trail of the form itself? For example, the EQ Secretary brings me a receipt saying he needs to be reimbursed for $25 for an activity supplies, can I simply enter the expense directly into LCR, upload the electronic receipt or does the EQ Secretary need to fill out the expense reimbursement form first, have their head of unit (EQ President) signature and then turn it in to me to enter into LCR?
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