Some members can enter expenses themselves?

Hey everyone, new Assistance clerk for finance here!

Are members able to request reimbursements themselves online? I’m not finding any information on it unfortunately, just old information introducing EFTs for reimbursements.

I’ve done some research online and chatted with the local Elder’s quorum President, Relief Society President, and I know they can submit, but can only request from their respective funds? (EQ budget, Primary budget, etc.)

So I guess to summarize:

1) Can members submit expenses (reimbursement requests) themselves?
2) if so, is it only limited to certain callings? Like Elders Quorum President?
3) if so again, can they only request for their respective organization? For example, an Elders Quoum President couldn’t request for something to be paid out of Relief society? (Or perhaps an “other” budget category that was setup)

Thank you for the help!

As you've seen, only organization presidencies (which I think includes the secretaries) can request reimbursements and only for reimbursement from their budgets. But they can request it on the behalf of any payee. There is no connection between "Other" categories and organizations so I very much doubt they can request reimbursement from "Other" categories. However, the clerk can change the category when he actually creates the expense.

eblood66 wrote:As you've seen, only organization presidencies (which I think includes the secretaries) can request reimbursements and only for reimbursement from their budgets.

Actually the organization presidencies can submit payment requests for some other categories outside their organization budget category. They can be given this ability for the Activities, Curriculum, Library, Miscellaneous, and Single Adults categories as long as their organization is given permission in the Permissions column. Any organization can also be given permission to submit payment requests against any unit added subcategory for any of the predefined categories. But organizations cannot be given payment request permission for an other organization's parent budget category. A subcategory would have to be created in the organization's budget category for another organization presidency to be given permission to submit payment requests against another organization,s budget category. These permissions are set up by the ward clerk, or anyone with finance edit permissions.

eblood66 wrote:There is no connection between "Other" categories and organizations ...

That is correct for the default setup for Other:Authorized Member-Financed Activities subcategories. Permissions can be granted for any organization for any Other:AMFA subcategory. Just as for Budget subcategories, all that needs to be done is for the clerk to set up the permissions.

Edit: I forgot to mention these permissions are edited in the LCR > Finance > Budget > Manage Categories tab.

jdlessley wrote:Edit: I forgot to mention these permissions are edited in the LCR > Finance > Budget > Manage Categories tab.

Good to know and thanks for the correction. I haven't had reason to edit any categories so I hadn't seen that.

Can you help me out here. Reading these comments, I came across something with which I am not familiar. Could someone please give me a link where I can learn about the 'self reimbursement' information is found? I am the Financial Clerk in our Ward, but was gone from home August 2019 to April 2020 and am wondering if it came out in that time frame. But in any case could I get some info please?

waynecooke wrote:Can you help me out here. Reading these comments, I came across something with which I am not familiar. Could someone please give me a link where I can learn about the 'self reimbursement' information is found? I am the Financial Clerk in our Ward, but was gone from home August 2019 to April 2020 and am wondering if it came out in that time frame. But in any case could I get some info please?

There is no "self reimbursement". The feature being discussed is the ability of unit organizations to submit payment requests, aka reimbursement requests, through a feature in LCR > Finance that just showed up earlier this year or late last year. This feature is not available to the general membership. The feature provides unit organizations the ability to enter the payment request into LCR without sending paperwork to a clerk for him to enter into the system. There is no documentation, yet, about this feature.

What you will see as an assistant ward clerk - finance are two added features in LCR > Finance. The first is the addition of a tab labeled Payment Request on the LCR > Finance > Budget page. For you to see that tab you will need to select a unit organization in the organization drop-down list box that has a default display of Unit Leader/Clerk to the right of the three tabs labeled Budget Summary, Assign Budget, and Manage Categories.

The second feature is the addition of another overview item on the Dashboard found at LCR > Finance > Overview. That item is a link labeled Payment Request that shows the number of payment requests awaiting approval. Clicking the link will take you to the approval page.

Any payment request submitted using the online payment request feature uses the default payment type of electronic ACH transfer. The payment request page does not have an option to change the payment type for checks. This will be evident when you open the payment request and see an error message under the payment type stating "No EFT details exist for this Participant for the Payment Type selected..." for members who have not set up their account for electronic ACH transfer payments.

Once you have approved this online payment request it will appear to the second approver the same as any reimbursement request entered at the LCR > Finance > Expenses page.

Thank you soooo much, and the explanation was perfect!!