Template for budget categories and subcategories

Greetings. This is my first year creating/monitoring budgets for the new year. There are several budget categories as well as several inactive categories and subcategories. I would like a template or direction on how things should be set up in terms of the categories and subcategories. Also, it would be nice to have direction on which activities are paid via which categories and subcategories. Also, unsure if I should be granting access to some organizations for some categories or not (like Activities category, access to all the organizations for activities at the ward level).

Thanks!

Get an understanding of the budget process by reading General Handbook, 34.6 and 20.6. Discuss any questions that may arise with your stake clerk and/or bishop. The ward budget should have inputs from each organization with their individual budget fund needs and should be completed, or at least in discussion with the ward council and bishop, this time of year.

There is no standard for subcategories, other than the default categories created by headquarters for the entire church, and the flexibility to do what is necessary for the circumstances of your ward are dependent on what your stake president and bishop direct. In our ward I, as the clerk, make recommendations to the bishop to meet the needs of the ward and organizations.

The only question up in the air that has been discussed in other threads is how to handle the funds for the activities described in General Handbook, 20.6, and previously managed in Other:AMFA subcategories. The AMFA categories have been recently discontinued and all funds collected for those activities authorized in General Handbook, 20.6, are now placed in the budget categories (ref: September 9, 2022, Notice, Donation categories simplification: Discontinuation of “Authorized Member Financed Activities” Category). Our ward is following the previous instructions for the Other:AMFA categories but managed in organization budget subcategories. We will continue to manage those funds in this manner until further instructions from headquarters are provided.

Granting access to categories and subcategories not available by default to organization presidencies is a challenge since granting visibility is not separate from granting payment requests against those categories. I have granted access to organization presidencies for the ward activities budget category since organizations are responsible for planning and running ward activities. I run into organizations submitting their organization's activities expenses payment requests against the ward activities budget when they should be submitted against the organization budget. A minor issue requiring more communication and training once in a while.

You can see what categories organization presidencies see, and have ability to submit payment requests against, by going to LCR > Finance > Budget and selecting the organization in the organization drop-down list box to the right of the three budget tabs.