Fund a Missionary deficit

We have a returned missionary with a $800 deficit. The family is unable to pay. The Stake President said we can pay the deficit from our Ward Budget. I can't see a way to transfer funds in LCR or do this as an expense. Any ideas? I haven't tried MLS yet. Thank you.

That seems strange to me. When a ward has excess missionary funds, it is expected to transfer the excess to the stake, so the stake can redistribute those excess funds to other wards that have a deficit. If the excess funds are not needed by any unit in the stake, then the stake transfers the excess to the general fund. I'm surprised that your stake does not have any excess funds to share with your ward.

Also, $800 would be quite a hit to the activity budget.

The inability to transfer is probably deliberate as that's not normal.

The normal procedure is to transfer the amount needed from the ward's excess balance in the Ward Missionary Fund to the missionary's subcategory to zero the subcategory.
For example if the missionary account balance for Joseph Smith is -$800.00 it can be zeroed by going to LCR > Finance > Transfers;

• Enter a short description of the purpose in the Purpose field;
• Select Ward Missionary Fund : Ward Missionary Fund in the From drop-down list box;
• Enter the amount ($800) for the From category
• Select Ward Missionary Fund : Ward Missionary Fund : Smith, Joseph in the To drop-down list box;
• Enter the amount ($800) for the To category

If there is not enough, or no excess funds, in the the Ward Missionary Fund then there are options zero the missionary subcategory:

• Keep the account open until unit donations to that missionary subcategory reduce the deficit to zero. This would include donations from the missionary's family (immediate & extended);
• Use budget funds by writing a check against the Budget : Budget Allocations category and deposit that check into the Joseph Smith subcategory
  This may require re-allocating the ward budget allocations to cover the check;
• Ask the stake to help with necessary funds to cover the deficit;
• Any combination of the options above.

It's possible that when the stake president said "ward budget," he meant "ward missionary fund."

General Handbook, 24.3.4.1 specifically says that "Local unit budgets … may not be used" to finance young missionaries.

General Handbook, 34.4.3 may also be helpful.

34.4.3 doesn't exist, it's actually 34.3.3 (at least as of today), but otherwise, it's a perfect answer!