Other account procedures

In our "other" account we have several sub-accounts, some with balances, some with no balance. The bishop wants buy a scout trailer and zero out our "other" account.

First, if he does this, how do I charge these several sub-categories (when I write the check) so they all end up at zero?

Second, I know this is technically contrary to policy regarding the other account. But our bishop is new, and I have been "teaching" him about the other account and how to use it, and how not to. He wants to do things right, but he first must get rid of this money in the other account so he can start at zero. Truthfully, the other account has been used as a "slush fund" in the past, and this bishop inherited a fairly large amount of money that has just been accumulating. I showed him that equipment (scout, girls camp, etc) is a legitimate use for money in the other account. Granted, this should have been planned and tagged beforehand, but it wasn't. So can he spend down the other account in this way? So we can start 2010 at zero?

rexgj wrote: First, if he does this, how do I charge these several sub-categories (when I write the check) so they all end up at zero?

Mechanically, this is easy. Generate an Income and Expense summary for the Other category with all of its subcategories, which will show the current balance for each subcategory. Then create an expense in MLS for the purchase you are making. The right hand side of the expense allows you to specify the category(ies), and you can specify individual amounts in as many categories as you need. MLS will even add them up for you as you go, so you'll know what the total is.

rexgj wrote: Second, I know this is technically contrary to policy regarding the other account. But our bishop is new, and I have been "teaching" him about the other account and how to use it, and how not to. He wants to do things right, but he first must get rid of this money in the other account so he can start at zero. Truthfully, the other account has been used as a "slush fund" in the past, and this bishop inherited a fairly large amount of money that has just been accumulating. I showed him that equipment (scout, girls camp, etc) is a legitimate use for money in the other account. Granted, this should have been planned and tagged beforehand, but it wasn't. So can he spend down the other account in this way? So we can start 2010 at zero?

The policy is that money received into the Other category is always tracked for a specific purpose. Money received for a specific purpose is then spent for that purpose. If it cannot be spent for that purpose, the money is returned to those who gave the money; if they cannot be identified, the money is returned to the Church as surplus funds. See the wiki article Other category and the associated training links in that article.

Whatever portion of the money in the other account was legitimately collected for annual camps can be spent for those annual camps, including equipment for the annual camps. What is appropriate equipment for these camps is another topic that I won't delve into here, but page 160 of the CHI (Book 1 [2006]) does say that equipment for the annual camp can be purchased using these funds if all the conditions are met.

As you implied, a "slush fund" is completely out of policy. So it's good to clean up the Other account, making sure that money received in the past is spent for the targeted purposes or returned to the Church as surplus, and that money received in the future is properly tracked and spent.

Here's a great link to the Wiki that goes through in detail what you should do.

http://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/Other_category

Rexgj, I'm surprised to see your post about buying a trailer based on your posts in a prior thread. Has has the advice from CHQ changed?

Per Russell's suggestion, I called Salt Lake Finance and asked if it is approved, or not approved for a local unit to purchase a "scout trailer". Salt Lake stated it is a stake decision.

I think I'm seeing a trend here, more and more decisions (like this) are being moved to the stake level.