Bishops Approval 1st, Can Counselors still Authorize?

Hi Fin Clerk here,

In the good old days the Bishop would sign a hard copy form authorizing the disbursement of reimbursement funds. When the new on-line system rolled out, initially I had him still sign that hard copy form which I uploaded. The Bishop would then go online and give 2nd approval of the form he signed and the expense payment. Extra work for him?

Also when the online system rolled out I understood the Bishops Counselors could also approve an expense payment. Thus If I entered an expense, a counselor gave 2nd approval, then the funds would be dispersed possibly without the Bishop knowing (until he reviewed the expense). = Audit Exception !!!

What are the rest of you doing? I'd like to see the counselors take turns weekly/monthly approving expenses thus reducing the work load on the Bishop. If you now email the Bishop for authorization, he emails back OK to pay, then he may as well always be one of the approvers?

I've found that the burden of approving expenses online is generally very low for the bishops I've worked with. So the most streamlined process for everyone has been for the bishop to handle most approvals. If something is really urgent then perhaps a counsellor will approve after texting the bishop but it's been rare.

Ya, in hindsight you are correct. The Bishop/Branch President has to review the expense anyway. He may as well do the approval with the review.

I always liked to use email to track the reimbursement request from the member to the org leader to the bishop to the clerk. I could easily capture the thread by printing it to a PDF, and then uploading the PDF with the receipts. No form is required, and the email thread shows the coordination was done.

murdock20m wrote: Also when the online system rolled out I understood the Bishops Counselors could also approve an expense payment. Thus If I entered an expense, a counselor gave 2nd approval, then the funds would be dispersed possibly without the Bishop knowing (until he reviewed the expense). = Audit Exception !!!

If the bishop isn't one of the original authorizers, the system will prompt him to review and approve the transaction.

Even better: If the audit system can see that the bishop has reviewed and approved the transaction online, it automatically answers the question asking whether the bishop has reviewed and authorized the payment.

scgallafent wrote:Even better: If the audit system can see that the bishop has reviewed and approved the transaction online, it automatically answers the question asking whether the bishop has reviewed and authorized the payment.

Bingo! Take that, audit committee!