CUBS Transition Period Question

I have a very very basic question, as it pertains to the week during the transition from the 17th to the 24th. Asking us to NOT make changes to the finance side during this period. Does that include NOT Writing Checks? I think I have myself wrapped around this issue.

Thanks.

outback wrote:I have a very very basic question, as it pertains to the week during the transition from the 17th to the 24th. Asking us to NOT make changes to the finance side during this period. Does that include NOT Writing Checks? I think I have myself wrapped around this issue.

Yes, we cannot write and transmit checks using normal procedures during that transition week.

However, you can still follow the Emergency check writing procedures if an issue arises that couldn't be handled by the 17th and can't wait until the 24th.

From my understanding, the finance portion of MLS is unavailable during the week starting late Sunday evening on the 17th until sometime Sunday morning the 24th. In other words, everyone is locked out of the finance side of MLS. All other functions in MLS are still usable however.

If it is absolutely necessary to write a check, I believe there are procedures in the MLS manual as well as some instruction on the clerk wiki.

Oops, Alan beat me to it. Follow his instructions above.

TY so much.

Alan_Brown wrote:Yes, we cannot write and transmit checks using normal procedures during that transition week.

However, you can still follow the Emergency check writing procedures if an issue arises that couldn't be handled by the 17th and can't wait until the 24th.

Pilotfly wrote:From my understanding, the finance portion of MLS is unavailable during the week starting late Sunday evening on the 17th until sometime Sunday morning the 24th. In other words, everyone is locked out of the finance side of MLS. All other functions in MLS are still usable however.

Help me out with one more clarification: If we do find ourselves in a situation where a check is urgently needed, and we follow the Emergency Check Writing Procedures, must we hand write the check as implied above?

Or, can we still print the check using MLS, knowing that it must be re-entered into MLS after the 24th once CUBS is activated? (This was implied in the August CUBS discussions: http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5436)

86Bengal wrote:Help me out with one more clarification: If we do find ourselves in a situation where a check is urgently needed, and we follow the Emergency Check Writing Procedures, must we hand write the check as implied above?

Or, can we still print the check using MLS, knowing that it must be re-entered into MLS after the 24th once CUBS is activated? (This was implied in the August CUBS discussions: http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5436)

You must hand write the check. As I understand the latest instructions, you won't even be able to go into the financial portion of MLS during the lockout. The system won't allow you in.

The emergency check writing procedure might not work this week either. Even LUS does not have access to finances this week, so they won't be able to enter a check into the system either.

crislapi wrote:You must hand write the check. As I understand the latest instructions, you won't even be able to go into the financial portion of MLS during the lockout. The system won't allow you in.

While I was at the stake center yesterday to input some temple recommends I clicked on the Finance section and a pop-up note appears that states you do not have access until next Sunday. So there is no way to enter any financial data nor enter and process a check. So follow the instructions outlined in the Emergency Check Writing Procedures. If absolutely necessary that a check must be written by all means contact Church MLS folks and let them know so the check won't "bounce".

Pilotfly wrote:... So there is no way to enter any financial data nor enter and process a check. So follow the instructions outlined in the Emergency Check Writing Procedures. If absolutely necessary that a check must be written by all means contact Church MLS folks and let them know so the check won't "bounce".

Again, I don't even think the Emergency Check Writing Procedures will work this week either. From the instructions, a clerk would need to "telephone the administration office to have the check manually entered". This is not an option because they don't have access to financial info this week either.

As for handwritten checks, please be aware of this little item:
"Handwritten checks should be reserved for true emergency situations only when approved by the bishop or stake president."

There are very few if any expenses that I can think of that are so important they cannot wait a week (five days now).

In my time as a clerk, I have only seen one check get through before being transmitted. The check was still covered, but showed up in the statement padded with 9's instead of 0's in front of the check number.

I also was locked out of the finances, which is most inconvenient for me. I wasn't able to get to the church on Sunday due to delayed travel plans, and my assistant wasn't there either. The end result is I don't have the reports I was supposed to print off on Sunday.

Now, to go down a tangent, would I be able to reconstruct the necessary reports from the latest CUFS and accounting for any financial transmissions since the beginning of October. I have all of those records on paper, and I only have one subcategory in Ward Missionary carrying a balance and one subcategory in Other carrying a balance.

It's truly inconvenient to do it this way, but are there any other things in my reasoning I'll need to take into consideration to make a proper comparison?

nutterb wrote:I also was locked out of the finances, which is most inconvenient for me. I wasn't able to get to the church on Sunday due to delayed travel plans, and my assistant wasn't there either. The end result is I don't have the reports I was supposed to print off on Sunday.

It would have been nice if we were only locked out of the places we can make modifications, but still allowed to access the read-only parts of the MLS finances. But perhaps that was too difficult to implement. Oh, well, it is what it is at this point.

nutterb wrote:Now, to go down a tangent, would I be able to reconstruct the necessary reports from the latest CUFS and accounting for any financial transmissions since the beginning of October. I have all of those records on paper, and I only have one subcategory in Ward Missionary carrying a balance and one subcategory in Other carrying a balance.

It's truly inconvenient to do it this way, but are there any other things in my reasoning I'll need to take into consideration to make a proper comparison?

The reason we were supposed to print the reports is so that we can compare the state of MLS before the transition with its state after the transition. But hopefully the transition will go well and so there won't be any differences. The main point was to compare what is in MLS, not the CUFS, but I suppose that if you were reconciled as of the end of September, the state of MLS should be close to what is on the CUFS. The CUFS doesn't know anything about individual subcategories, but for the major categories you should be in good shape with your proposed strategy.

Alan_Brown wrote:The reason we were supposed to print the reports is so that we can compare the state of MLS before the transition with its state after the transition. But hopefully the transition will go well and so there won't be any differences. The main point was to compare what is in MLS, not the CUFS, but I suppose that if you were reconciled as of the end of September, the state of MLS should be close to what is on the CUFS. The CUFS doesn't know anything about individual subcategories, but for the major categories you should be in good shape with your proposed strategy.

I had understood that it was for comparison, but now I won't have anything to compare against. I mentioned the single sub-categories carrying balances because it would mean that the super-category balance would be the subcategory balance. So if all the major categories can be reconstructed following the September reconciliation, then I should be good.

Thanks for running through my thought process. I just didn't really want to go through the effort of manual report creation if I was missing something that would invalidate my efforts.

crislapi wrote:The emergency check writing procedure might not work this week either. Even LUS does not have access to finances this week, so they won't be able to enter a check into the system either.

If it is truly an emergency, and the bishop approves, write the check and call headquarters. They have skills.

nutterb wrote:I also was locked out of the finances, which is most inconvenient for me. I wasn't able to get to the church on Sunday due to delayed travel plans, and my assistant wasn't there either. The end result is I don't have the reports I was supposed to print off on Sunday.

Hopefully I don't get you in trouble, but I see two options.

Option 1: the conversion to CUBS won't be complete until you send/receive on Oct 24th. If the system unlocks on a date rather than an event, you might be able to print them before doing the send/receive. However, I highly doubt that will work. I'm guessing you will need to send/receive before the financial section unlocks.

Option 2: Download the installer of MLS onto another computer then kill your internet.
Save a copy of your Oct 17th backup on this computer as well.
Install MLS.
When prompted to, select "Restore from backup" from the options.
Navigate to and select the Oct 17th backup.
Once completed, log in and print the reports.
When done, exit MLS and then uninstall MLS and delete the backup from the second computer. Empty your recycle bin, too.

crislapi wrote:Hopefully I don't get you in trouble, but I see two options.

Option 2: Download the installer of MLS onto another computer then kill your internet. Save a copy of your Oct 17th backup on this computer as well. Install MLS. When prompted to, select "Restore from backup" from the options. Once completed, log in and print the reports. When done, exit MLS and then uninstall MLS and delete the backup from the second computer. Empty your recycle bin, too.

I would also set the date on the second computer back to the 17th before starting the process.

rpyne wrote:I would also set the date on the second computer back to the 17th before starting the process.

I wouldn't.

MLS 3.2.3 has nothing hard-coded in it to lock you out after the 17th. When transmitting Sunday, I noticed it downloading a file called something like cubsfmls. That is more than likely what set up the conversion. Just don't transmit. Not a problem, really, because you can't transmit from an unauthorized computer.

crislapi wrote:I wouldn't.

MLS 3.2.3 has nothing hard-coded in it to lock you out after the 17th. When transmitting Sunday, I noticed it downloading a file called something like cubsfmls. That is more than likely what set up the conversion. Just don't transmit. Not a problem, really, because you can't transmit from an unauthorized computer.

I'm not sure I agree. I was able to transmit multiple times on the 17th. I wasn't locked out until the system date rolled over to the 18th. So it seems to me that the system date is indeed a factor in the lockout.

Alan_Brown wrote:I'm not sure I agree. I was able to transmit multiple times on the 17th. I wasn't locked out until the system date rolled over to the 18th. So it seems to me that the system date is indeed a factor in the lockout.

Agreed, but I'd be willing to bet the downloaded file contained that executable that locked out the financial section and not MLS 3.2.3. Therefore, a fresh install of MLS 3.2.3 will not have the downloaded patch that locked out the financial section, allowing nutterb to access and print his reports.

To test this, I just installed MLS 3.2.3 on my computer here and loaded the test ward. I was successfully able to get into the finance section. From what I can observe, the financial section is fully functional.

crislapi wrote:Option 1: the conversion to CUBS won't be complete until you send/receive on Oct 24th. If the system unlocks on a date rather than an event, you might be able to print them before doing the send/receive. However, I highly doubt that will work. I'm guessing you will need to send/receive before the financial section unlocks.

Unless I'm remembering a prior thread wrong, it will unlock once it gets the updated information - which could be before Oct 24th. It's just not promised before then.

lajackson wrote:If it is truly an emergency, and the bishop approves, write the check and call headquarters. They have skills.

Not so much. I just called to get an emergency, hand-written check authorized, and I was told in no uncertain terms by a very stern Church rep that the Church as ZERO system in place for handling emergency fast offering checks this week, and that they wouldn't be able to verify it.

So, I'm at a loss for what to do. We have a couple who just came in last night and is going to be evicted today if we don't get the rental company a check.

Any suggestions?? I could maybe just give them the check but if they call to verify funds they're going to get a no...

JamesP wrote:Not so much. I just called to get an emergency, hand-written check authorized, and I was told in no uncertain terms by a very stern Church rep that the Church as ZERO system in place for handling emergency fast offering checks this week, and that they wouldn't be able to verify it.

So, I'm at a loss for what to do. We have a couple who just came in last night and is going to be evicted today if we don't get the rental company a check.

Any suggestions?? I could maybe just give them the check but if they call to verify funds they're going to get a no...

In this situation, we would find someone in the ward (usually in the Bishopric or High Priests Group) willing to write a check out of personal funds to the rental company, and then reimburse them with a Fast Offering check once checks are functioning again. It is a rare occurance that is likely to be forgiven during the next audit if enough documentation is provided.

- Atticus

JamesP wrote:Any suggestions?? I could maybe just give them the check but if they call to verify funds they're going to get a no...

The simplest option is to have someone else in the ward cover the rent with a personal check and then reimburse that member next week. As an auditor, I would have no issue with this.

Another option is to have the bishop talk to the landlord, explain the situation, and guarantee a check at the start of next week. Given the circumstances, though, at this point a payment needs to be made not promises of payment next week. I'd go with the first option if I were you.

JamesP wrote:Not so much. I just called to get an emergency, hand-written check authorized, and I was told in no uncertain terms by a very stern Church rep that the Church as ZERO system in place for handling emergency fast offering checks this week, and that they wouldn't be able to verify it.

So, I'm at a loss for what to do. We have a couple who just came in last night and is going to be evicted today if we don't get the rental company a check.

Any suggestions?? I could maybe just give them the check but if they call to verify funds they're going to get a no...

Perhaps talk to the stake president about the situation? If necessary he may be able to talk to the Area Presidency?

I seem to recall learning that when mom says no, it never hurts to go ask dad.

nutterb wrote:Perhaps talk to the stake president about the situation? If necessary he may be able to talk to the Area Presidency?

I seem to recall learning that when mom says no, it never hurts to go ask dad.

Just talked to the Bishop and he's decided to go ahead and give the hand-written check to the rental company with the assumption that the process for cashing the check and verifying funds won't be finalized before CUBS is up and running.

Honestly, it's pretty surprising that the Church had ZERO emergency plan in place for issuing checks this week.

JamesP wrote:Just talked to the Bishop and he's decided to go ahead and give the hand-written check to the rental company with the assumption that the process for cashing the check and verifying funds won't be finalized before CUBS is up and running.

Seems a little risky to me. A rejected check is probably going to cause this member even more problems then he or she is already in. I think this would be an excellent time to let the fire of the covenant burn in the heart of a member who can float the funds for a few days.

nutterb wrote:Perhaps talk to the stake president about the situation? If necessary he may be able to talk to the Area Presidency?

I seem to recall learning that when mom says no, it never hurts to go ask dad.

Seems like a lot of leadership time would be used up for what I consider a relatively minor problem with an easy temporary fix.

mlh78 wrote:Seems a little risky to me. A rejected check is probably going to cause this member even more problems then he or she is already in. I think this would be an excellent time to let the fire of the covenant burn in the heart of a member who can float the funds for a few days.

I told him I'd be more than willing to do that, but he wants to go with Option 1.

Living in a Mormon community, I can't imagine a Bishop walking in with a church check and asking a rental company to wait until Monday to cash the check is really that big of a risk.

JamesP wrote:Just talked to the Bishop . . .

He holds the keys. And it appears to me that he made an excellent decision.

JamesP wrote:Honestly, it's pretty surprising that the Church had ZERO emergency plan in place for issuing checks this week.

The check can be issued. It just can't be verified by CHQ this week. So the recipient of the check will deposit it in a bank account, and the bank will try to clear the check.

When the Church receives the check for payment to the bank, it will verify the check, either by the normal process (which may or may not be in place again when the check arrives for payment), or by calling the bishop to make certain that the check is valid and should be paid.

And then the check will be paid.

There does not need to be an emergency plan. The current backup plan already in place will work just fine.

lajackson wrote: There does not need to be an emergency plan. The current backup plan already in place will work just fine.

Thanks for the clarification.

crislapi wrote:To test this, I just installed MLS 3.2.3 on my computer here and loaded the test ward. I was successfully able to get into the finance section. From what I can observe, the financial section is fully functional.

I also discovered one of my units did not create the reports so I just tried this approach. I first grabbed the 10/17 backup. Unfortunately, once it loaded, the financial section was locked out. I retried with a 10/13 backup they had. That worked. So for comparison, I'll have to use the printouts (expense report/batch report) for donations/expenses on the 17th to compare, but I have a printout of all other transactions.

Alan_Brown wrote:I'm not sure I agree. I was able to transmit multiple times on the 17th. I wasn't locked out until the system date rolled over to the 18th. So it seems to me that the system date is indeed a factor in the lockout.

This was my experience. It may or may not match up with anyone else's. After I realized I had forgotten to print the reports, I discovered that my Ward Clerk had downloaded MLS 3.2.3 recently, and the install folder was still on the church computer. I took that, along with the backups from 10/10, 10/16, and 10/17 and installed MLS at home on the 24th. I started with the data from 17th, but when I tried to access the data, I received the message that the financial stuff was locked out. So, I scrubbed the install, and restored from the 16th's. I received the same message. At that point, I logged out, changed the date on my computer to the 17th, and logged back in. I had full access. I printed out what I needed to, scrubbed the installation, and re-installed it, this time restoring from the 17th. As long as my computer date was before the 18th, I had full access. I breathed long sighs of relief, printed the info to both .pdf and hard copy, and scrubbed the install again.