Funds from one budget category to another

luvmy8dz wrote:I searched--at least a little bit--and didn't find another thread about this so here goes. We have one budget category which is seriously overdrawn to the tune of around $360. We have leftover funds in other areas of the budget (not "Other" category) and I was wondering if we are able to move leftover funds from, for example, Young Women to Library. If I can do it, do I write a check and do a donation slip or is it possible to just move them using "View/Edit Budget"?

It is indeed possible to move funds from one Budget subcategory to another. Of course you would first get the bishop's approval. You can simply use View/Edit Budget, and adjust the one total budget allocation up and the other one down by the same amount.

luvmy8dz wrote:I searched--at least a little bit--and didn't find another thread about this so here goes. We have one budget category which is seriously overdrawn to the tune of around $360. We have leftover funds in other areas of the budget (not "Other" category) and I was wondering if we are able to move leftover funds from, for example, Young Women to Library. If I can do it, do I write a check and do a donation slip or is it possible to just move them using "View/Edit Budget"?

The categories within Budget are entirely local to the unit, and merely represent projected levels of spending. In this example, I think all you have to do is edit the budget to increase the projected amount for the category that has overspent (Library), and decrease the budget for Young Women. Do not write a check to transfer any funds.

Like Boomer said, the categories are strictly local to the unit, so at the end of the year if one is under by $360, two are over by $180 and the rest are OK, the ward as a whole is within their allotted budget from the stake and no adjustments are really needed. The bottom line is what's important. Adjusting the budget allocation amounts might be helpful for calculating the new budget categories for 2009, but it's not needed for closing out 2008.

Quoted for emphasis.

Mikerowaved wrote:so at the end of the year if one is under by $360, two are over by $180 and the rest are OK, the ward as a whole is within their allotted budget from the stake and no adjustments are really needed. The bottom line is what's important.

If you do a transfer or make an adjustment, you hide the fact that someone went way over their budget. Given that we're almost to the end of the year, I'd leave it alone. You may end up teaching someone that there's no serious downside for going over budget. That's not a good thing.

Again, the only thing that (usually) matters to the stake is the total. Everything else is just internal bookkeeping.

You may also see it as a mechanism to plan for next year, will that category need to be larger next year?

We all like things to be nice and tidy, but in this case leaving the negative balance can tell you much about spending tendancies and where to plan for expenditures in the coming year. I believe the only account that needs to be "zero balanced" are categories within the Other "account". Having the budget "account" with negatives is not a big issue unless the overall balance of all categoriesis in the red, which will probably lead to the Bishop having a nice talk with the Stake President.

Thus I would go with the advice of just leaving the budget categories alone. At least that is what I have done in both my ward and stake callings as clerk. It helps those who plan the budget where to fine tune the upcoming year.