New Expense Reimbursement Process

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?

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.

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

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

My personal opinion: I have seen posts from others, including a church employee, that they simply have the bishop sign the receipt if it is a paper receipt as his approval. The requirement is not that there be a "form." The requirement is that there is a purpose and the bishop has approved. That can happen multiple ways. We have a form we have used for years but I see us going away from it as we move more and more into the digital age with reimbursements.

Our instruction to our ward council will be if they hand in a paper receipt, keep using the form as a convenient method. If the receipt is digital, the organization president can simply include the information from the form in the body of an email (with the receipt attached) and send it to the bishop. When he forwards it to the clerk, that is his approval and the clerk will have everything they need to move forward without the paper form. Our bishop requires the organization heads to approve expenses in their organization in addition to his approval so we will require members to have the organization head forward/send the email (currently the organization head must sign the form before the bishop will).

That's pretty much our approach as well. I haven't had very many email requests. But I know our stake has pretty much switched to email requests entirely and pushes hard to do all reimbursements as EFT if possible. For the stake that's much nicer since everyone's not at the same building each Sunday to pass around paper and checks.

I have noticed that using the online expense reimbursement, there is not an approval for the auxiliary president to approve the transaction. So, my question, is having the auxiliary president sign the expense request for just a "tradition" that we have adopted? or is having a YM/YW president sign an expense a procedure that we need to follow?

If the later is the case, how do we include the auxiliary leader in the approval process for online expenses/reimbursements?

bradbrown58 wrote:I have noticed that using the online expense reimbursement, there is not an approval for the auxiliary president to approve the transaction. So, my question, is having the auxiliary president sign the expense request for just a "tradition" that we have adopted? or is having a YM/YW president sign an expense a procedure that we need to follow?

If the later is the case, how do we include the auxiliary leader in the approval process for online expenses/reimbursements?

Tradition. Per the handbook, the bishop approves all expenses. There is no handbook requirement for organization leaders to approve expenses, though we ask members to route the request through their organization president just so they know about the expense being charged to their organization budget.

The audit process does not require ward/branch organization president signature or approval. The bishop is the one responsible for ward expenses and therefore his approval is required. However, the ward organization president responsible for managing an allocation of the ward budget needs to be involved in the disbursement of funds covering expenses supporting their organization's program(s). Our ward does this through the disbursement authorization form organization president signature when submitted the old way. For electronic reimbursement requests we ensure the organization president is involved in the email process. In other words if I, as the ward clerk, get an email requesting a reimbursement directly from a member I will forward the message to the organization president for approval before processing the request. We are training our ward members to send the reimbursement email to the organization president rather than directly to the ward clerk, assistant ward clerk, or assistant ward clerk-finance. That email chain will be used as supporting documentation for the disbursement and attached to the LCR reimbursement request.

Can members review/see the expense reimbursements that have been processed for them? Similar to Donation History in the members portal?

cjerekson wrote:Can members review/see the expense reimbursements that have been processed for them? Similar to Donation History in the members portal?

No. Only those with finance edit permissions (bishopric, ward clerk, assistant ward clerk, assistant ward clerk - finance) can view expense reimbursements.

How does a ward reimburse a non ward member. In the YSA ward, we have YSA’s from other wards in the Stake by things like refreshments for the YSA ward FHE. How can I reimburse them when their records are not in our ward?

roblauradavis wrote:How can I reimburse them when their records are not in our ward?

When they provide a payment request (reimbursement request) they will need to either provide their MRN or a mailing address. If their privacy setting is set to Stake you can use the either the online Directory or Member Tools to get their address. You create a payee record for an out of unit member during the process of entering the expense. When you click in the payee combo box a blue 'Add Payee' button will appear. Click it to enter the information for the new payee. If they provided their MRN then click 'Member' and enter the out of unit member MRN. If you only have their address then select 'Nonmember' and enter their address. A paper check is the only payment method available for Nonmember payee accounts.

Once an out of unit payee account has been created you can type in their name in the payee combo box for future payment requests without having to create another payee account.

I am not currently in a ward presidency.
I have receipts to submit for reimbursement.
I do not have access to LCR.
Am I stuck using paper forms, or is there a way for me to submit my requests online?

tbarron97 wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 11:09 am I am not currently in a ward presidency.
I have receipts to submit for reimbursement.
I do not have access to LCR.
Am I stuck using paper forms, or is there a way for me to submit my requests online?

There is no way for you to submit a request online directly to church systems. But ask your ward clerk or ward finance clerk. They would probably be happy to accept an request by email with scanned receipts or they might ask you to email them to your organization presidency to have them submit the request for you. As a clerk myself I prefer emailed requests or paper requests since I can just upload the scanned receipts directly. It helps more if you set up a reimbursement account in the Donations settings so that they can reimburse you with direct deposit.

tbarron97 wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 11:09 am I am not currently in a ward presidency.
I have receipts to submit for reimbursement.
I do not have access to LCR.
Am I stuck using paper forms, or is there a way for me to submit my requests online?

If your expense was related to a specific ward organization – Sunday School, Young Women, Elders Quorum, etc. – then you can email the expense paperwork (including the receipt) to a member of the organization presidency, who does have access to create a reimbursement request online. Otherwise, you can email it to a clerk or member of the bishopric. Access to the reimbursement request tools is limited to make sure that communication happens, and all expenses are properly approved by the bishop and relevant organization leaders beforehand.

I just downloaded the most recent version of the Tools app so I can take advantage of the new feature of submitting receipts for reimbursement from my phone (android). However, I can't see the feature and the tutorials online give instructions for how to do it on iphones only, not android. Is the new feature not available yet on android? Or am I missing something..

westora wrote: Mon Sep 20, 2021 3:31 pm Or am I missing something..

What is your calling? It's only available to presidencies.

If you're not in a presidency, I'd suggest emailing the information to the appropriate presidency or clerk.

westora wrote:Is the new feature not available yet on android?

It is my understanding that they try to coordinate, but iOS and Android development is done separately. They do not hold up release on one platform for the other to catch up. It appears that the iOS guy got there first in this case. I would expect Android to follow along shortly. As russellhltn said, though, it has been a function for leadership only at this point.

I am on Android and have the ability to submit expenses through the Member Tools app. I am the elder's quorum president in my ward. So it is on Android for those who's callings grant access to submit expenses.

I'm on Android. If I click on the menu (the three lines), "Help", and then "What's New", I see "Submit Payment Request" is there in the "For Leaders" section as of 4.4. Since I don't have a leadership calling, I don't have that feature.

For those in leadership roles using Android Member Tools:
1. Tap the 3 lines at the top-left
2. Tap the Finance menu item
3. Tap the Payment Requests menu item
4. Tap the red + button at the bottom right to start a new request.
I cannot advise beyond that as I have never submitted a payment request from my phone.

I am a stake clerk who is attempting to get reimbursed for an expense I incurred. I am using my phone and have entered all of the required information except pictures of receipts. I have two options - take a pic or upload a file. I have 4 pics I need to get into the system but using my Pixel 3A I don't seem to be able to get more than 1 pic before I am prompted to submit the expense. Anybody dealt with this issue yet? I don't claim to be the most tech savvy person around so I assume I'm missing something. Surely, those who created this system would not have assumed that everyone will just need to add a single pic, right? Thanks for any help offered.

Last year I tried using my phone (android samsung) to submit an expense, and was unsuccessful uploading even one photo for the receipt. I gave up, and since then have done the longer process of taking the pic, emailing it to myself from my phone, and then using a computer to enter the expense and uploading the pic from my email. Yeah, not what I'd prefer, but at least it works. I only had a single receipt so I would have been happy in that case to have it "auto-submit" after a single pic was uploaded, perhaps somebody else will see this and show us the way...

I would like to see a list of callings or positions that are authorized to enter expenses. Is that available anywhere?

The best documentation describing who can submit an electronic payment request is found in the Help Center article Payment Request Instructions for Organization Leaders. That article states; "Organization leaders can submit receipts for church-related expenses..." Practical experience indicates that organization leaders includes the organization presidencies as well as the organization secretary. Callings must be entered into LCR using standard callings to grant the access.

Additionally those with finance edit permissions (bishop, 1st counselor, 2nd counselor, ward clerk, assistant ward clerk, assistant ward clerk - finance) have both direct entry into LCR > Finance > Expenses > Enter Expenses as well as into LCR > Finance > Budget. At the Budget page select an organization in the drop-down list box and then select the Payment Request tab. The latter is processed against the organization budget category or any budget category that organization has permission to access.

I had a similar experience and am also using email to get pic to laptop, same as you. Lately it's gotten better from tools. Maybe newer versions of the app have helped.
The benefit of entering in tools is it generates a pdf similar to the previous "expense request" which seems to make our finance clerk happier. He would still rather print the electronic submissions and have us sign and file. Change can be slow.

jgusolson wrote: Sun Dec 26, 2021 4:35 pm I would like to see a list of callings or positions that are authorized to enter expenses. Is that available anywhere?

Seems like our organization presidents can enter receipts and they are limited to budget categories for their organization. I haven't seen any come in from counselors or secretaries. This entire process has been completely trial and error. I guess documentation and training will be sometime later.

As a bishop the only categories I get as I enter in the tools app are welfare and FSY. So unless I have a counselor or clerk make a switch to YM Budget when they add their approval I'll still be using LCR rather than tools.
We are slowly getting the hang of it and there is nothing better than less time in the clerks office.