Do excess funds at end of year decrease future funds?

Do excess funds at end of year decrease future funds for the next year? I am trying to determine if I should encourage the different organizations to spend their money before the year is up in order for us to not receive decreased funds next year. I am a new ward clerk, but I feel like I had heard this counsel from my ward clerks in my youth, and didn't know if it is true, or was ever true. Because of COVID, our ward has a lot of extra funds that haven't been spent yet.

That is up to the discretion of your Stake President. I don't believe excess ward funds are automatically swept at the end of the year, but I do know that our Stake President watches ward funds and requires bishops to transmit excess funds back to the stake for their needs if the ward is not spending their funds. He only allows wards and branches to keep a certain amount to roll over from year to year.

The stake sets the unit's funds so it is also possible that if a unit is consistently underspending their budget the Stake President could reduce their annual allotment as the history would show they don't need that much.

trevongalbraith wrote:Do excess funds at end of year decrease future funds for the next year?

The budget process is described in General Handbook, 34.7. What a unit receives is calculated based on attendance (General Handbook, 34.7.2.1). What the unit is allocated from the attendance calculations is determined by the stake. The stake budget is a portion of the allowance computed for each unit. The stake has several methods of allocating the portion of each unit's allowance to pass to the unit. Our stake uses a percentage of each attendance category and sends that to headquarters before the quarterly allowance is distributed.

Whether or not an excess budget rolls over into the next year is up to the stake. The stake president may ask the units to submit any or all of the excess to the stake or he may take no action and allow the units to keep the excess as a rollover. In some stakes they may reduce the allocation to units to compensate for the excess rollover. This could be done in the first quarter or it may be spread out over all four quarters. You will have to talk to your stake clerk to find out how the stake plans on managing any excess at the end of 2020.

trevongalbraith wrote:I am trying to determine if I should encourage the different organizations to spend their money before the year is up in order for us to not receive decreased funds next year.

The Church discourages this use it or lose it type of budget spending. General Handbook, 34.7.2.2, outlines the principles in managing the sacred funds and states in one paragraph "Unneeded budget allowance funds should not be spent. Unneeded ward funds are returned to the stake. Unneeded stake funds are returned to Church headquarters or the assigned area office."

I personally have had the discussion with our bishop about the funds that normally would have been spent to date but haven't been due to COVID 19 restrictions and limitations on programs and activities. We expect the stake president will have a discussion with the bishops some time in the near future in regard to this situation. We are not planning to spend beyond the planned programs and activities even though much of that has not occurred.

Thank you so much for responding to me! I read your posts and conveyed that information on to my bishop and the ward council. I then forgot to say thank you. Haha I feel like one the the 9 lepers that forgot to give thanks. Thank you so much!