2023 Budget Preparation

There is a long and detailed message posted today under finance in LCR on the church web page regarding 2023 budget preparation and budgets in general. Am not posting it here as those with a calling involving finance can see it in LCR.

Out of curiosity, did it address the handing of things like Youth camps that used to be handled in "Other"?

russellhltn wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 8:19 pm Out of curiosity, did it address the handing of things like Youth camps that used to be handled in "Other"?

No, although without quoting the message it deals mostly with excess budget funds at year end and what to do about them, so in a very round about way one could say it does.

We can't see anything like that at the stake level here (we just have a quick 2-liner about AMFA being discontinued). Is this a ward level targeted thing?

caillines wrote: Sat Nov 12, 2022 5:20 pm We can't see anything like that at the stake level here (we just have a quick 2-liner about AMFA being discontinued). Is this a ward level targeted thing?

It talks about both stakes and wards. There is a deadline for stakes to comply this year. The memo is visible on the financial dashboard. Hopefully the church employee who set up the addressable call-up of the memo did it correctly.

caillines wrote: Sat Nov 12, 2022 5:20 pm We can't see anything like that at the stake level here (we just have a quick 2-liner about AMFA being discontinued). Is this a ward level targeted thing?

It's showing up at the stake level for me. Since it primarily deals with excess budget funds, perhaps it only shows up for units (or for stakes with units) that have more than a certain percentage of their yearly budget allocation unused?

eblood66 wrote: Sat Nov 12, 2022 9:47 pm

caillines wrote: Sat Nov 12, 2022 5:20 pm We can't see anything like that at the stake level here (we just have a quick 2-liner about AMFA being discontinued). Is this a ward level targeted thing?

It's showing up at the stake level for me. Since it primarily deals with excess budget funds, perhaps it only shows up for units (or for stakes with units) that have more than a certain percentage of their yearly budget allocation unused?

Extremely unlikely. That would only teach the correct principles to some units, leaving others in the dark. It would also assume that budget funds are static, and if wards return funds to the stake obviously that would not be correct.

I don't believe based on other results coming out of the IT department that business rules are being written with as much detail or variety as surmised.

garystroble wrote: Sun Nov 13, 2022 4:37 am

eblood66 wrote: Sat Nov 12, 2022 9:47 pm Since it primarily deals with excess budget funds, perhaps it only shows up for units (or for stakes with units) that have more than a certain percentage of their yearly budget allocation unused?

Extremely unlikely. That would only teach the correct principles to some units, leaving others in the dark. It would also assume that budget funds are static, and if wards return funds to the stake obviously that would not be correct.

Good point. Mostly just grasping at straws about why it wouldn't show up for a stake.

hmmm. I wonder if it's USA only.
Who knows. Maybe we'll get it eventually.

garystroble wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 6:36 pm There is a long and detailed message posted today under finance in LCR on the church web page regarding 2023 budget preparation and budgets in general. Am not posting it here as those with a calling involving finance can see it in LCR.

I read this message the day it came out while I was sitting in my car. Now that I'm working on the budget I can no longer find the message.

cbailey208 wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 1:52 pm

garystroble wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 6:36 pm There is a long and detailed message posted today under finance in LCR on the church web page regarding 2023 budget preparation and budgets in general. Am not posting it here as those with a calling involving finance can see it in LCR.

I read this message the day it came out while I was sitting in my car. Now that I'm working on the budget I can no longer find the message.

Not sure where you are looking, but it is there still. LCR>finance>dashboard.

cbailey208 wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 1:52 pm

garystroble wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 6:36 pm There is a long and detailed message posted today under finance in LCR on the church web page regarding 2023 budget preparation and budgets in general. Am not posting it here as those with a calling involving finance can see it in LCR.

I read this message the day it came out while I was sitting in my car. Now that I'm working on the budget I can no longer find the message.

If you dismissed the message by clicking the X in the message box, the message can be brought back by doing a browser hard refresh for the Finance page or by deleting the cookies and site data.

I have it in my LCR home page when I click "Official Communications"

As a side question here for budget preparation:
Can someone point to the direction that is the "Additional Allowance" and "Allocation Adjustments" categories? I'm trying to help a Bishop (I'm at the stake level) try to figure out his 2023 budget, and he's not sure how to add up the 50% rollover, whether or not it should include the line items in those budget categories or not. I've gone through the handbook and searched the Internet and haven't found anything specific there.

lospugs wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 3:47 pm Can someone point to the direction that is the "Additional Allowance" and "Allocation Adjustments" categories? I'm trying to help a Bishop (I'm at the stake level) try to figure out his 2023 budget, and he's not sure how to add up the 50% rollover, whether or not it should include the line items in those budget categories or not. I've gone through the handbook and searched the Internet and haven't found anything specific there.

"Allocation Adjustments" are transfers that have been made into or out of the Budget Allocations category. If a unit had any money left in an AFMA account when they were discontinued they would show up here. Or if the stake transferred additional budget to a ward or branch that would show up here.

I'm not entirely sure about "Additional Allowance" but it is an editable field. I assume it can be used to enter any expected additional allowance that the stake may intend to provide to a unit. In my experience that is rare.

As for how to calculate the 50%, I believe it should be based on the total of the estimated 4 standard allocations plus anything the stake plans to transfer directly (if any).

Thank you for the quick reply. I was doing all sorts of math trying to reverse engineer the allocation adjustments and wasn't finding anything there. I thought I probably figured out the additional allowance field, and my thoughts were directly in line with what you said so that helps as well.

lospugs wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 3:47 pm I'm trying to help a Bishop (I'm at the stake level) try to figure out his 2023 budget, and he's not sure how to add up the 50% rollover, whether or not it should include the line items in those budget categories or not. I've gone through the handbook and searched the Internet and haven't found anything specific there.

The ward budget does not rollover to ward budget categories. Instead the total remaining ward budget, regardless of the remaining allocated amounts in the individual categories for 2022, rolls over to the 'Balance Forward' for the 2023 year. The stake has the ability to limit the rollover amount; and it appears your stake has determined units will retain 50% of that rollover.

The rollover available for 2023 will be the 2022 'Budget Balance' as shown in the Budget > Budget Summary tab less any outstanding expenses expected between now and the end of the year. The challenge is getting a handle on the expected expenses that have yet to be turned in and processed before the end of the year.

An estimate of the rollover can be entered into the 2023 'Balance Forward' line. Once the 2023 year begins then the rollover will appear on the 'Balance Forward' line as the actual amount. The estimate/actual 'Balance Forward' amount can be allocated to the unit categories in any manner the bishop determines. The rollover, or 'Balance Forward', will be added to the four quarterly estimate/actual amounts and the Additional Allowance amount, if any provided by the stake, in a total as the 'Annual Budget Estimated/Actual' amount. The 'Annual Budget Estimated/Actual' amount is the amount used in making allocations to the unit and organization categories.

jdlessley wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 5:33 pm The ward budget does not rollover to ward budget categories. Instead the total remaining ward budget, regardless of the remaining allocated amounts in the individual categories for 2022, rolls over to the 'Balance Forward' for the 2023 year. The stake has the ability to limit the rollover amount; and it appears your stake has determined units will retain 50% of that rollover.

I think rather that lospugs' stake is limiting the rollover to 50% of the annual budget in accordance with the guidance given in the recent LCR message and official letter that anything over 50% of the annual budget is excessive rollover and should be returned to the church headquarters.

eblood66 wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 7:44 pm I think rather that lospugs' stake is limiting the rollover to 50% of the annual budget in accordance with the guidance given in the recent LCR message and official letter that anything over 50% of the annual budget is excessive rollover and should be returned to the church headquarters.

Which quickly raises the question of how the "annual budget" figure is determined. Is the threshold 50% of last year's funding? What if the ward split?

russellhltn wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 7:53 pm

eblood66 wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 7:44 pm I think rather that lospugs' stake is limiting the rollover to 50% of the annual budget in accordance with the guidance given in the recent LCR message and official letter that anything over 50% of the annual budget is excessive rollover and should be returned to the church headquarters.

Which quickly raises the question of how the "annual budget" figure is determined. Is the threshold 50% of last year's funding? What if the ward split?

The letter just says 'annual budget allocation'. I expect stakes and wards are supposed to use inspired judgement in unusual circumstances. There hasn't been any indication that this will be enforced in any automated fashion.

My ward spent more than we were assigned as ward budget. So, the stake president helped us with extra funds using "Allocation adjustments". That helped us get back to positive numbers, to finish the last two months with funds for activities, and allowed us to actually have a ward Christmas dinner.

rulismarquez wrote: Tue Dec 20, 2022 8:46 am My ward spent more than we were assigned as ward budget. So, the stake president helped us with extra funds using "Allocation adjustments". That helped us get back to positive numbers, to finish the last two months with funds for activities, and allowed us to actually have a ward Christmas dinner.

The stake president was very kind to help out your ward. Hopefully the ward leaders learned from this experience and will watch the budget more closely in the future.