Questions about Other Funds

We had our 6th month audit this past Sunday. Just a couple of questions that came up.

1. I guess we have money just in our general other funds. We never put money there, so it either it was rollover from other years, or the auditor brought up it could just be tax money the church is giving back to us.
Can I just move that money to any of the other other sub categories?

2. One of the audit questions asks if the money in the other categories are being used for their "intended purposes". We still have money in some Hygiene kits category. In previous years we used some of that money to help cover the cost for some boys to go to scout camp. What do we do with this other category? The Bishop and kind of the auditor suggested we just change the name of this category (which I'm not sure if we can do) and then that way we can answer that question correctly. I can just change the name to "Other fund to be use as needed"? Suggestions?

3. Our first counselor in YM presidency paid to go to some varsity scout camp. We ended up calling him to be the scout master. Instead he went to younger boys scout camp. For what ever reason the scout camp he went to was cheaper then what he needed to pay. This money all went into the other YM Scout camp category. The YM presidency wants to give back the scout leader $100 he over paid. Can we do that?
The auditor felt like if we fill out some expense report and the bishop signs it because this is just coming from the other category we are fine giving money back. We might try to get some invoice showing how much camp was and how much the scout master paid, to show he paid too much.

Thanks

tubaloth wrote:1. I guess we have money just in our general other funds. We never put money there, so it either it was rollover from other years, or the auditor brought up it could just be tax money the church is giving back to us.
Can I just move that money to any of the other other sub categories?

Your need to identify where that money came from. If it came from tax refunds or interest then you can move it to another category. But I don't believe the church has been putting tax refunds or interest into the Other account for several years now (since CUBS went active) so unless it's been sitting there for years it probably isn't a tax refund or interest.

If you can identify the original purpose then you should move it to a sub-category for that purpose, either an existing one or a new one if you don't have an existing one that matches. You can't move it to a different sub-category for a different purpose. You then need to use the money for that purpose.

If you can't identify the original purpose then you need to contact Local Unit Support on how to submit the funds to CHQ.

tubaloth wrote: 2. One of the audit questions asks if the money in the other categories are being used for their "intended purposes". We still have money in some Hygiene kits category. In previous years we used some of that money to help cover the cost for some boys to go to scout camp. What do we do with this other category? The Bishop and kind of the auditor suggested we just change the name of this category (which I'm not sure if we can do) and then that way we can answer that question correctly. I can just change the name to "Other fund to be use as needed"? Suggestions?

We are not allowed to have a 'as needed' kind of fund. The money has to be used for the original purpose, refunded to the contributors or sent to CHQ. You can't change the purpose. So you need to either make more Hygiene kits and donate them, return the money to the donors (if they can be identified at this point) or send the money to CHQ if you can't use it otherwise. You should read the Help Center article The "Other" Category to better understand how these funds must be handled.

tubaloth wrote: 3. Our first counselor in YM presidency paid to go to some varsity scout camp. We ended up calling him to be the scout master. Instead he went to younger boys scout camp. For what ever reason the scout camp he went to was cheaper then what he needed to pay. This money all went into the other YM Scout camp category. The YM presidency wants to give back the scout leader $100 he over paid. Can we do that?
The auditor felt like if we fill out some expense report and the bishop signs it because this is just coming from the other category we are fine giving money back. We might try to get some invoice showing how much camp was and how much the scout master paid, to show he paid too much.

Yes, if there is money paid and then not used it should be returned to the donor. Including some sort of documentation like you indicated is always a good idea.

tubaloth wrote:3. Our first counselor in YM presidency paid to go to some varsity scout camp. We ended up calling him to be the scout master. Instead he went to younger boys scout camp. For what ever reason the scout camp he went to was cheaper then what he needed to pay. This money all went into the other YM Scout camp category. The YM presidency wants to give back the scout leader $100 he over paid. Can we do that?

Yes, while generally chartable donations are not refundable, donations to "other" are. Refunding funds back to the donor is one of the acceptable ways of dealing with an excess.

2.
Reading the help file did talk about trying to use the funds for the purpose, and if not give the money back to member. I don't see that really feasible at this point.

In the comments it said this. from 2013

If there are excess funds in the “Other” category, and the funds do not have an identified purpose, you should first try to identify what the original purpose was. If you cannot identify the purpose, clear the funds by printing a check from the “Other” subcategory, payable to Corporation of the President. In the “Purpose” field, enter “Surplus ‘Other’ Funds.” Send the check to the following address:
Finance and Records
120 North 200 West
Salt Lake City, Utah 84103
Attn: Corporate Receipting/Surplus Funds

We have just over $400 in this Hygiene kit account, do I mail a check back to the church?
I honestly feel bad sending money back, and in a couple of months do another fundraiser for Boy Scouts and so forth.

tubaloth wrote:We have just over $400 in this Hygiene kit account, do I mail a check back to the church?

Your options are:

• Use the funds for the intended purpose. In this case, you could ask around and see if someone (RS? YW? Eagle Scout project? etc.) wants to use those funds to actually create hygiene kits.
• Return the funds to the original donors. There may or may not be sufficiently detailed records to do that.
• Send in the surplus funds to the Church. If you can't do either of the first two options, you must do this one, painful though it may be. But you can be content in knowing that the Church will still do good things with the funds -- they are certainly not wasted.

tubaloth wrote:I honestly feel bad sending money back, and in a couple of months do another fundraiser for Boy Scouts and so forth.

Note that the funds were raised for the specific purpose of creating hygiene kits. You have no authority to change the purpose of those funds -- you can't make the determination that even though the funds were raised for one specific purpose, it's just fine to use those funds for an entirely different purpose. Although I have some sympathy for your feelings, hopefully you would feel even worse if you were to use funds for something other than their intended purpose.

It would be good to use these situations as learning experiences. How did surplus funds accrue? Did the organization raise more funds than they could spend? Were they not aware of how much money there was? Did they not have a sufficiently flexible activity plan to use up all the funds that were collected? Were funds collected after the activity was over and so it was impractical to spend more? Asking questions like this can help avoid such situations in the future.

tubaloth wrote:We have just over $400 in this Hygiene kit account, do I mail a check back to the church?
I honestly feel bad sending money back, and in a couple of months do another fundraiser for Boy Scouts and so forth.

Since the purpose of the funds is identified, I would hold a service project activity with the youth or young single adults and make $400 worth of hygiene kits.

And since they are identified for this purpose, you can't use them for Scouts anyway, so keeping them will not avoid a Scout fundraiser.

aebrown wrote:You have no authority to change the purpose of those funds -- you can't make the determination that even though the funds were raised for one specific purpose, it's just fine to use those funds for an entirely different purpose.

No one at the ward or stake level has that authority. Not the bishop, not the stake president.

I get that people gave their money for hygiene kits. As far as I know the church doesn't do hygiene kits from members?
It more asking for more money from members when we have this left over -- but for a different purpose. I actually wish I could go to each member and see if they were will to put it for a different purpose.

There is no way to transfer the money to the church? I do it through a check? To the address above? Do I let the church know what the intended purpose was for?

Thanks

tubaloth wrote:I get that people gave their money for hygiene kits. As far as I know the church doesn't do hygiene kits from members?

I've certainly seen projects done in my stake where people donate money for something such as hygiene kits and then some organization comes together and assembles them and then sends them off to some needy part of the world.

tubaloth wrote:It more asking for more money from members when we have this left over -- but for a different purpose. I actually wish I could go to each member and see if they were will to put it for a different purpose.

If you could truly identify each member's donation, then you would have sufficient information to return their unused funds, which is one of the approved courses of action for your situation.

I don't see how you can use their funds for something like scouting. No direct donations are allowed for that purpose, although with proper restrictions, fundraising can be allowed for the annual scout camp.

tubaloth wrote:There is no way to transfer the money to the church? I do it through a check? To the address above? Do I let the church know what the intended purpose was for?

The only way I know of is a check -- those have been the instructions for a long time. And no, you don't need to specify the original intended purpose. You simply note that the check is for Surplus Other Funds.

We just went through our semi-annual financial audit, and found two subcategories in our Other account that have negative amounts. I know that the funds for both have been expended as intended, but am confused as to why we have the negative numbers. Can this be corrected through the ward budget? Any suggestions are appreciated.

wallaced wrote:We just went through our semi-annual financial audit, and found two subcategories in our Other account that have negative amounts. I know that the funds for both have been expended as intended, but am confused as to why we have the negative numbers. Can this be corrected through the ward budget? Any suggestions are appreciated.

The first thing to do is to do an analysis of each subcategory. Look at all the income records and all the expense records. Make sure that they are all properly categorized, and that no other income or expense records that should have been categorized with that particular subcategory have some other category. Also make sure that no income or expense for that particular purpose is still pending.

Once you've done all that, if you still have a negative balance, it can be entirely appropriate to use budget funds to cover the deficit. This is often the normal course of action for, say, a scout camp, where funds are raised for a portion of the camp, but the expenses exceed the raised funds. Budget funds cover the remainder.

If by chance you end up with a surplus after your analysis and corrections have been made, then you should follow the advice earlier in this topic about how to deal with a surplus.