Approval or Unit Financial Statement

With the new Electronic Reimbursement processes, we have started to look at what else we can do to help simplify and be more efficient. Does anyone do the review and approval of the Unit Financial Statement via email? Would that pass audit with the Clerk sending the Bishop/Stake President an email with his comments and approval and then the Bishop/Stake President responding accordingly they have reviewed and approved? We could then attach that printed email to the statement for the audit?

Thanks

We have suggested the following workflow for those who want to go all digital (digital receipts and ACH reimbursement):
1. Member seeking reimbursement scans or takes a photo of the receipt and sends it to the organization president. They should identify the purpose of the expense and who the reimbursement goes to.
2. Organization president forwards the email to the bishop, identifying what account they want it taken from (only needed for those organizations who have multiple accounts, like primary).
3. Bishop forwards email to the clerk stating it is "approved."
4. Clerk saves the digital receipt to the clerk computer and exports the email as a .pdf.
5. Clerk generates the reimbursement and attaches both pieces of documentation.
6. A member of the bishopric approves the reimbursement (all receive an email from the system that a reimbursement is waiting for approval).

We have only used the above once so far, but it worked very well.

I have asked members to scan (or take clear photos) of receipts, and state clearly the purpose of the expense, as well as the exact amount they expect to be reimbursed. Many members submit receipts that list a hundred items, with half of them lined out. So it is often a chore when I try to check their math.

sdespain wrote:With the new Electronic Reimbursement processes, we have started to look at what else we can do to help simplify and be more efficient. Does anyone do the review and approval of the Unit Financial Statement via email? Would that pass audit with the Clerk sending the Bishop/Stake President an email with his comments and approval and then the Bishop/Stake President responding accordingly they have reviewed and approved? We could then attach that printed email to the statement for the audit?

I'm pretty sure the audit steps pertaining to the unit financial statement have not changed. You still have to print it, review it, and sign it promptly each month.

drepouille wrote:I have asked members to scan (or take clear photos) of receipts, and state clearly the purpose of the expense, as well as the exact amount they expect to be reimbursed. Many members submit receipts that list a hundred items, with half of them lined out. So it is often a chore when I try to check their math.

We have the same problem with some. We have asked them to refrain from mixing purchases for church activities with their other household purchases. We'll see how successful we are...

drepouille wrote:I'm pretty sure the audit steps pertaining to the unit financial statement have not changed. You still have to print it, review it, and sign it promptly each month.

This is true. The question was concerning the monthly financial statement, not concerning the new electronic reimbursement process.

I suppose if the bishop was out of town he could review the financial statement online, then send the clerk an email that he had done so, but the clerk still would have to print it out, and you might as well just print out the signature page of the statement as is currently being done. I would hazard a personal guess that there might be a time in the future when an electronic approval of the actual unit statement may be possible, but that time is not yet.

You are certainly welcome to suggest it using the Feedback link at one of the Church website pages.

If we receive a paper receipt and upload it as a digital receipt, do we have to retain the paper receipt?

You should probably ask your stake Audit Committee Chairman.

dongreear wrote:If we receive a paper receipt and upload it as a digital receipt, do we have to retain the paper receipt?

In our stake, we have decided that the digital receipt is all that is needed. So whether we get a paper receipt that we scan ourselves, or we are provided a digital receipt initially, we treat it the same. This was all approved by our stake audit committee chair and the stake president.