Cleaning Supplies Expenses

Are the cleaning supplies that are used to routinely clean church buildings (i.e. spray cleaners, latex/plastic gloves, paper towels, trash bags, etc.) now paid for using the ward budget? I had thought the FM Group provided and restocked those supplies, but I was recently told by a ward clerk that the ward now pays for those supplies.

I believe the ward orders it, but they use an account that bills to the appropriate account (not the ward's activity budget).

Exactly right. The FM Group created a Staples account for me to order cleaning supplies, which are shipped to my home.

Is this a new thing or location specific? I've been the ward clerk when our ward has been the agent ward for the building and I never ordered anything. As agent ward, we did purchase sacrament cups, copier paper, toner, etc, but no cleaning supplies. We use the staples account for the office supplies.

Yes, it's new this year.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=22439&hilit=cleaning#p195009

drepouille wrote:Yes, it's new this year.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=22439&hilit=cleaning#p195009

Ahh, good to know. We'll be up for agent ward again in 12 months. I hope they cover the costs or the stake does. I'm still trying to convince our stake to change how the agent ward is reimbursed (because they aren't right now).

The FM Group created a Staples account for me to order cleaning supplies, which are shipped to my home. So the FM Group still pays for cleaning supplies.

I reviewed the emails I had received from the FM Group when they created the Staples account for our building supplies. The emails indicated that the FM Group would provide a list of approved building supplies, which I never received. However, when I login to the Staples account, I see two lists of items: initial order; and approved building supplies. I copied the list of 104 approved items from the web site into a document, which I distributed to the ward council. I will print that list and post it in the cleaning closet for inventory purposes.

chriswoodut wrote: Ahh, good to know. We'll be up for agent ward again in 12 months. I hope they cover the costs or the stake does. I'm still trying to convince our stake to change how the agent ward is reimbursed (because they aren't right now).

I've see this done 2 different ways. In my current stake the stake gives the agent ward some money for those agent ward expenses. In a prior stake the agent ward would track the expenses and occasionally bill the other units in the building for their portion of the expenses.

What is the link for ordering Janitorial supplies?

dtaylor01 wrote:What is the link for ordering Janitorial supplies?

Go to https://store.churchofjesuschrist.org and log in. Then click Units and Callings. Then scroll down to the bottom and you will see information about Office Supplies and Other Materials Available from Staples.

dtaylor01 wrote:What is the link for ordering Janitorial supplies?

In May 2019, my FM group sent out a message to all units:

With the upcoming changes to meetinghouse maintenance, the FM Group will no longer be providing cleaning and paper supplies. Each meetinghouse will need to have a Ward/Branch Building Representative (WBR) that will work with Staples to order and receive supplies for the building. Each Unit should have a Building Representative.

My bishop submitted me as the building representation who would order all cleaning supplies. The FM group created an account for me, and sent the login credentials to me. Although it is the same Staples website we use to order office supplies, when I login using the FM account, the cleaning supplies I purchase are billed to the FM group, rather than the ward budget.

So the bottom line is that your FM group needs to send you this information.

We just ordered building cleaning supplies through Staples and they were deducted from our ward budget. We share the building with another ward so how is this expense balanced with their budget? We hadn't planned for these expenses in our budget. I read on this policy page that the church pays for building supplies from a different budget: "The local unit budget allowance does not include expenses for building construction, maintenance, telephones, utilities, computers, or priesthood leader travel. These expenses are paid from general Church funds according to current guidelines." (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/hel ... e?lang=eng)

@pj_andersen: See the post just before your post. The key to the order is to have FM set up an account with Staples. You need to use the credentials of that account to have the order paid from the FM budget. If that account was not set up then you will have to work that out with your FM Group.

Regarding the link to Janitorial Supplies... Go to Leader and Clerk Resources > Applications > Order Office Supplies... there you'll find your link to the office supply store for your region and direction on how to login.