cubs conversion - budget

Upon MLS CUBS conversion all payments posted to budget sub catagories have been reposted to a single budget (main?) catagory. This appears to be true for all past periods. I want to provide my bishop with a budget report for the current year. I am concerned that if I use the "transfers" system for posting budget expenses for any period (or the current period) to correct the budget sub-catagories the report will look very strange (all expenses prior to 10-17-10 will be in the transfer collumn and I will have no detail history to refer to or print up to support the dollars showing on the budget report.
So I propose to go back to all checks posted to budget for 2010 and re-post them to appropriate budget sub-catagorys, instead of the approach apparently recomended via the transfers system.

Is there some objection to my reposting of checks for 2010 from the Budger (main?) to budget sub catagories?

nj6a wrote:Is there some objection to my reposting of checks for 2010 from the Budget (main?) to budget sub catagories?

There is no particular objection. At least two clerks have already done this successfully. I would recommend that you figure out your starting balances before you do this, because you'll have fewer transactions to sift through, but you can do that afterwards, if you'd like.

I'm guessing the documentation recommends that you not do this because transfers are simpler. There's less risk of making additional errors.

If you have detailed budget reports from Jan 1- Oct 17, you could just give those to anyone who needs them, along with an Oct 24 - present report. Then you could take the simpler route of doing the transfers.

But it's really up to you.

The only objection I've seen comes from the new e-doc sent down tonight. It says:

Do not transfer previously recorded expenses from Budget: Administration. You may be tempted to adjust all of the old expenses to the new Budget subcategories. THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED. Doing so will not allow you to have an accurate picture of correct running balances.

Some potential work-arounds are mentioned at the bottom of this post.

The only other thing stopping you is time - budget a lot of it. A single transfer can take about 20 seconds now. Not all that bad for one or two, but when you have 600 to do, that's about 3.5 hours. See additional comments here.

Alan_Brown
Thank you for your hopeful and helpful post. I got another post from Crislapi which indicated that doing this is not recomended because it will cause inaccuracy in running balances. Did these two clerks you mention come up with this problem? Or is this running balance problem related to the CUFS for October that none of us have yet?

John

nj6a wrote:Alan_Brown
Thank you for your hopeful and helpful post. I got another post from Crislapi which indicated that doing this is not recomended because it will cause inaccuracy in running balances. Did these two clerks you mention come up with this problem? Or is this running balance problem related to the CUFS for October that none of us have yet?

The two clerks I mentioned are myself and Crislapi . There may be others, but we're the only ones that I've seen here on the forum who have specifically mentioned that we've done it.

Personally, I don't see how it would make any difference whether I have a running balance all consolidated in the Budget:Administration category, or spread through a variety of Budget subcategories. All that matters is the total budget balance, and moving items between budget subcategories won't change that one penny.

However, as I mentioned, it might be easier to get your balances straight before making any transfers -- waiting for the October statement will make sure that you have all the information in front of you at that point.

Alan_Brown wrote:Personally, I don't see how it would make any difference whether I have a running balance all consolidated in the Budget:Administration category, or spread through a variety of Budget subcategories. All that matters is the total budget balance, and moving items between budget subcategories won't change that one penny.

The only issue I see is that all the transfers, etc that have been set up with CUBS makes your balance exactly zero on Oct 17 (or thereabouts). When you recategorize expenses, it moves just the expense to the new category but the covering transfer remains in the original category (likely Budget:Administration). So when you look at just the new category, your balance will be more negative than CUBS would have it (all the expenses before Oct 17 have been essentially zeroed).

If you just look at your overall budget, this does not matter. However, when we move to next year, these subcategories may carry forward a more negative balance than you intended. The fix, then, is to not only recategorize the expense but also transfer a credit to the subcategory equal to the total of expenses pre-Oct 17. That way, your subcategory balance matches what CUBS would have.

I am holding off making this transfer until the end of the year. This is to spare my committee heads the headache of trying to interpret a new budget report. Instead, I will use view/edit budgets to reenter their 2010 total budget amounts and reprint budget reports for them. This will show their total 2010 expenses and their true remaining balance. If I do the transfer now, it'll add to the allocation amount, producing an artificially inflated balance. I would then have to either reduce the 2010 budget amount by the amount of the transfer and have to explain to them that no I didn't really reduce their budget, or leave the original amount the same and try to get them to accept that they have (significantly) less remaining budget than the report shows. It's just easier to hold off.

Oh, and I would add jshawut to the list.

crislapi,

Thank you for your helpful posts. I have been a finance clerk for several recent years. However, my membership has been changed to a new ward (a few months ago) and I am newly called for my new ward effective just in time for the CUBS conversion. I am dependent upon the stake finance and ward clerks for forwarding to me of any e-mail CUBS conversion instruction. I have not received the e-mail from either of these sources yet. Can I sign up for these?

John NJ6A (ham radio callsign)

nj6a wrote: I am dependent upon the stake finance and ward clerks for forwarding to me of any e-mail instruction CUBS conversion instruction. I have not received the e-mail from either of these sources yet. Can I sign up for these?

There's no mailing list to subscribe to. The most recent communication was emailed to stake clerks (not to the stake financial clerk or ward clerks). Hopefully the stake clerk would have forwarded the message promptly to the financial clerks (but I know that communication is not perfect in all stakes).

But the good news is that all this information was known on this forum even before it was sent to the stake clerks. Particularly during times of change, such as we are experiencing now, I find LDSTech to be the best source of information -- it covers all the official communications, and plenty of real-life lessons from the community. So I'd recommend that you keep an eye on what's happening here, and you'll most likely be on top of the latest news.

nj6a wrote:I have not received the e-mail from either of these sources yet. Can I sign up for these?

No need to sign up. The messages I have received have been sent down through MLS or posted here on the forum. The new e-doc can be found at this link. It should also appear in MLS with your Finance Statements as a pdf on your next send/receive. The original CUBS transition instructions can be found at this link or in your MLS messages received folder.

I had a thought about how you can keep up on new threads. I use google reader and an RSS feed to automatically receive notification of new threads on the forum. It only notifies you of the first post. You have to monitor the thread on your own from there.

See this post for more about it.

crislapi wrote:The only objection I've seen comes from the new e-doc sent down tonight. It says:
Do not transfer previously recorded expenses from Budget: Administration. You may be tempted to adjust all of the old expenses to the new Budget subcategories. THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED. Doing so will not allow you to have an accurate picture of correct running balances.

crislapi

For more than a few years wards in our stake have had budget funds allocated to them quarterly. Funds that are not used were retained by the ward and were available for future use by the ward in their budget. If this is not the same and the old system of auto-reimbursment of budget in some CUBS transition wards/stakes; then having no balance or a zero net balance in the budget section (as spoken of in recent e-mails makes sense in those wards/stakes and re-posting of budget expenses to the new accounts would cause budget imbalances again for those stakes (because those expenses in fact were auto-reimbursed).

Don't you think that is the reason that the recent e-mail instructions tell us not to do this reposting of budget expense that I am proposing and you have done?

Or did all US stakes move to the new system that I describe above pre-CUBS conversion?

nj6a wrote:Or did all US stakes move to the new system that I describe above pre-CUBS conversion?

There are no "transition units". The entire US has switched to CUBS at the same time: Oct 17-24 2010. So what is happening in your ward/stake is the same as every other ward/stake in the US.

nj6a wrote:...If this is not the same and the old system of auto-[reimbursement] of budget in some CUBS transition wards/stakes[,] then having no balance or a zero net balance in the budget section (as spoken of in recent e-mails[)] makes sense in those wards/stakes and re-posting of budget expenses to the new accounts would cause budget imbalances again for those stakes (because those expenses in fact were auto-reimbursed).

Don't you think that is the reason that the recent e-mail instructions tell us not to do this reposting of budget expense that I am proposing and you have done?

As Alan_Brown mentioned previously, your overall budget balance does not change one penny when you recategorize expenses or perform transfers. The warning, then, is related to what resolution you want when you look at the budget.

Here's an example (income & expense report, current year). I want to get the detail of the $500 that was in my Budget: Relief Society back. However, my I&E looks like this (sorry about the underscores - it's the only way I can build a table):

Category_______Bal.For.__Inc____Exp______Tran______Bal
Budget:Admin__$0.00 ____$0.00___-$5,00.00__$5,000.00__$0.00
Budget:RS______$0.00____$0.00___$0.00______$0.00_____$0.00
Total:__________$0.00_____$0.00___-$5,000.00_$5,000.00__$0.00

Take note of the values in "Total". They will not change as money moves around. However, the "Balance" value for subcategories will.

In my View/Update Expenses screen, I recategorize all my expenses. Now my I&E looks like this:

Category_______Bal.For.__Inc____Exp_______Tran______Bal
Budget:Admin__$0.00 ____$0.00___-$4,500.00__$5,000.00__$500.00
Budget:RS______$0.00____$0.00___-$500.00____$0.00_____-$500.00
Total:__________$0.00_____$0.00___-$5,000.00__$5,000.00__$0.00

This is good. The $500 in expenses is showing in RS again. However, Budget:Administration now has a $500 balance while RS has a -$500 balance. That is wrong, and that is the error. CUBS completely "zerored" all expenses on Oct 17. I just "undid" that for RS (and Administration).

Subcategories should start at $0 (have a balance of $0) on Oct 18 and only go negative as new expenses are drawn from it. However, recategorizing my expenses has made RS start at -$500. New expenses are only going to make it more negative. To correct this, you just need to transfer a credit from Budget:Administration to Budget:Relief Society equal to the total RS expenses up to and including Oct 17 ($500 in my example).

Category_______Bal.For.__Inc____Exp______Tran______Bal
Budget:Admin__$0.00 ____$0.00___-$4,500.00_$4,500.00__$0.00
Budget:RS______$0.00____$0.00___-$500.00___$500.00___$0.00
Total:__________$0.00_____$0.00___-$5,000.00_$5,000.00_$0.00

Problem solved. The detailed expenses are present in the desired subcategory and the starting balance on Oct 18 is $0. The RS balance will match CUBS exactly.

Despite all of this movement, true to Alan_Brown's statement, my overall budget balance has not changed one penny (bottom right corner).

For stake clerks out there, this same approach can be used to recreate your stake budget. However, only use Budget:Administration for expenses actually paid for by the stake. To recreate sub-categories for tracking ward budgets, this same idea can be used to recreate ward budget subcategories and remaining balances under budget allocations. Post-CUBS, all allocations were put in Budget:Budget Allocations. I used to have (and wanted back) sub-categories for each unit. Here's how I did it.

I recognize this will only work for the remainder of 2010 since ward budgets will go straight to the ward in 2011 but this makes disbursing remaining 2010 balances to each unit very simple.

A STAKE Income and Expense report (summary by subcategory, current year) might look like this:

Category__Bal.For.___Inc___Exp_____Tran_____Bal
Bu:Admin__$0 _______$0____-$7,000___$7,000____$0
Bu:Bu All___-$73,000__$0____-$24,400__$110,000__$12,600
Total:______-$73,000__$0____-$31,400__$117,000__$12,600

$12,600 is the total remaining balance for 2010 for the entire stake. Budget:Administration contains expenses the stake has paid from its budget account. Don't get too wrapped up in any other balances.

Now I added subcategories under Budget:Budget Allocations for each unit (for the sake of this example, 5 units and the stake). Since all 2010 disbursements are in Budget:Budget Allocations (i.e. none went directly to a unit so the stake has all the money; this is ONLY for 2010), I transferred each unit's total 2010 budget from Budget:Budget Allocations to Budget:Budget Allocations:Unit#. For the sake of this example. assume the following hypothetical 2010 budgets:
Unit1 - $4,500; Unit2 - $4,000; Unit3 - $5,500; Unit4 - $3,800; Unit5 - $3,600; Stake - $8,200.

Category_______Bal.For.___Inc___Exp_____Tran_____Bal
Bu:Admin_______$0 _______$0____-$7,000___$7,000____$0
Bu:Bu All_______-$73,000__$0____-$24,400__$80,000___-$17,000
Bu:Bu All:Unit1___$0______$0_____$0_______$4,500____$4,500
Bu:Bu All:Unit2___$0______$0_____$0_______$4,000____$4,000
Bu:Bu All:Unit3___$0______$0_____$0_______$5,500____$5,500
Bu:Bu All:Unit4___$0______$0_____$0_______$3,800____$3,800
Bu:Bu All:Unit5___$0______$0_____$0_______$3,600____$3,600
Bu:Bu All:Stake___$0______$0_____$0_______$8,200____$8,200
Total:__________-$73,000__$0____-$31,400__$117,000__$12,600

However, the only money remaining in the stake is the unspent money. The 2010 budget amounts need to be reduced by the amount of each unit's YTD expenses on Oct 17, 2010. These figures will be available on the next SFS (some have already received this).

Transfers will not let you move expenses (i.e. negative amounts), but you can make a sub-category more negative by taking a positive amount from it. I therefore transferred from each unit subcategory back to Budget:Budget Allocations an amount equal to their YTD expenses as shown on the October SFS. Again, for the sake of this example. assume the following hypothetical 2010 YTD expenses:
Unit1 - $3,350; Unit2 - $3,400; Unit3 - $4,000; Unit4 - $3,450; Unit5 - $3,200; Stake - $7,000*.
*I don't think your stake expenses will exactly match what is shown in Budget:Administration. I know not all my 2010 expenses were reclassified there. It just keeps the example simple.

Category_______Bal.For.___Inc___Exp_____Tran_____Bal
Bu:Admin_______$0 _______$0____-$7,000___$7,000____$0
Bu:Bu All_______-$73,000__$0____-$24,400__$104,800___$7,4000
Bu:Bu All:Unit1___$0______$0_____$0_______$1,150_____$1,150
Bu:Bu All:Unit2___$0______$0_____$0_______$600______$600
Bu:Bu All:Unit3___$0______$0_____$0_______$1,500_____$1,500
Bu:Bu All:Unit4___$0______$0_____$0_______$350______$350
Bu:Bu All:Unit5___$0______$0_____$0_______$400______$400
Bu:Bu All:Stake___$0______$0_____$0_______$1,200____$1,200
Total:__________-$73,000__$0____-$31,400__$117,000__$12,600

That's it. Your subcategory balances now tell you exactly how much money to give to each unit in the stake. When you cut the check for each unit, pull it from the corresponding subcategory and the subcategory balance will drop to zero, indicating they have received 100% of their budget. You obviously don't have to cut one to the stake. I guess it's even optional to include it as a subcategory. All you really gain is seeing exactly how much money is left in the approved 2010 stake budget ($1,200) as well as how much you received in excess of what you budgeted for back at the start of the year when budgets were approved/set ($7,400). It is surplus - the yearly allocations ended up being more than anticipated.

It is just as easy for it to be a negative number!! If it is, you may want to adjust how much you distribute back to the wards since the remaining negative will be yours to recover from.

Disclaimers: I hope I got this right. I'm going off memory and it's late. Also, please don't feel like you have to do this - you don't. If you do want to, this is not the only way to do it. There are several ways I can think of to achieve the same result. This just fit best with what I mentioned previously.

Thanks for the illustration and example.
But, you did not understand my question. In my ward our Oct. 17th budget balances do not add to zero (and they should not be zero - because CHQ has not taken our unused budget funds from us - they remain with us - since our/stake /ward remains on the no-autoreimbursment for budget expenses system. (caution-I do not have the reports or print outs available to me now;I am working from memory)
I believe that all US stakes/wards have now transitioned (with cubs transition) to a similar system as we have been using for some years now. If I am correct on this point then I believe that that explains why the transition emails say some things that don't seem to apply to my wards situation. Could I be correct?

nj6a wrote:But, you did not understand my question.

Fair enough. I wasn't exactly sure what you were going at so I took my best guess.

nj6a wrote:In my ward our Oct. 17th budget balances do not add to zero (and they should not be zero - because CHQ has not taken our unused budget funds from us - they remain with us - since our/stake /ward remains on the no-autoreimbursment for budget expenses system.

Excess ward budget funds have never left the stake. It was just common practice for stakes to pull in all remaining funds at the end of the year. Your stake was nice enough to let wards keep the funds. Disbursements have always been given quarterly to the stake, so it's not unreasonable that pre-CUBS some stakes gave their units quarterly disbursements as well. Why not ask your stake clerk how things were set up pre-Oct 17?

nj6a wrote:I believe that all US stakes/wards have now transitioned (with cubs transition) to a similar system as we have been using for some years now. If I am correct on this point then I believe that that explains why the transition emails say some things that don't seem to apply to my wards situation. Could I be correct?

I'd never say never, but I highly doubt it. I watched a stake clerk beg to be put on CUBS earlier than the rest of the US and be told that it was impossible - the system didn't work that way. However, you (or your stake clerk) would know better than I if you were on some beta version of something similar. For example, have you had to do reconciles? Have you had to enter your distribution center expenses and missionary payments? If so, you were likely on the same system as the rest of us. If you are unsure, the ones who would really know are LUS (Local Unit Support).

Thanks for the help. The info that you have provided let's me know that I am best off to take another look at my budget balances to confirm that they do/ or don't add to zero.

Thanks again.

crislapi

Ok. but I am familiar with the Budget Reports produced by the MLS budget pages. From my viewpoint these reports have in past years provided an intelegent budget report for planning and administration.

nj6a wrote:Ok. but I am familiar with the Budget Reports produced by the MLS budget pages. From my viewpoint these reports have in past years provided an intelegent budget report for planning and administration.

I don't doubt you are. Hopefully, however, you are aware that for CUBS, budget reports do not show you the true status of your budget. Please see this post. You are better off using Income & Expense reports, just make sure you are only selecting Budget categories.

I've been working on a couple wards while I've been replying and seem to have discovered what I consider a "bug" that would affect your balance. The issue seems to be related to 2007 (or later) expenses that deal with 2006 (or earlier) funds.

See this postabout Other balance and this postabout Budget Administration balance.

New member to the forum here and I’m hoping that those with far more experience at being a clerk than I have can lend some assistance, really I just want to make sure that I understand what’s going on so that I don’t make any mistakes with this change. I have been a clerk for about a year so I’m not exactly brand new at this but any knowledge that helps me do this job better is always welcome.

I guess the first thing I should put out there, so that my situation can be best understood, is that I am another of the clerks that went back through all the expenses for the year and put them into their correct categories rather than leave them in the Budget: Administration category, I actually did this before the church sent out the information saying not to do it. For my ward, which is a YSA ward, this was actually a simple change as we don’t have nearly as many transactions as most other wards and we don’t have near the amount of categories that they use either. Also, before the change to CUBS I didn’t really use the I&E report at all so that is not something I am extremely familiar with, though I figure it may be different from here on out.

I guess that’s my situation in a nutshell so now I’m hoping I can get some answers to a couple questions that I have as well as some insight as to where I stand from those who seem to know more than myself.

As to the questions, I am looking at the Budget report and the I&E report and wondering if there should be some correlation between the ending/remaining balance between the reports? Basically if my remaining budget balance is say $500 shouldn’t my I&E report ending balance be similar to that amount considering most of the transactions are immediately transferred to CHQ (tithing, fast offerings, etc.)? or am I just off in thinking that there should be/is some correlation between the two reports?

The reason that I ask that is because after recategorizing all the expenses to the correct category my remaining budget balance is way off the remaining I&E balance. For example, on my budget report I have a total allocated budget of say $1,000.00, with expenses of say $500.00, this should leave me with a remaining budget amount of $500.00 but when I look at my budget report I also have a transfer in the Budget: Administration category of say a positive $400.00 which makes my remaining budget amount $900.00. All of my category budget amounts are correct, except for the Administration as it has that transfer in it and I am not sure what I will end up doing with this, but I am assuming that this is what crislapi mentioned in his previous post that he would correct at the end of the year, of course if my assumption there is way off let me know. In contrast to that, and I’m going off memory here as I don’t have the reports in from of me, the I&E report shows that I have a negative balance, so in my example we could use a -$50.00, to me there shouldn’t be such a large difference between the remaining budget balance and the remaining I&E balance, is this maybe because as crislapi said I only moved the expense and haven’t done the transfer at the end of the year he was talking about?

Lastly, and maybe this would be better in a different forum thread but as I am already here I am going to ask away and hope that you don’t mind, I am thinking that for future budgets, meaning beginning with the new year in January, that the quarterly approach would be best, in that I will assign the budget for each organization based upon a percentage so that each quarter the budget goes up. If I do use this approach how am I going to handle organizations that are front-heavy in their spending, meaning that they spend the majority of their budget in the first quarter or first half of the year? Will the church allow for checks to be written that would exceed the amount in the ward account as long as that amount is made up by having the organization get out of the negative balance that is sitting in that category?

I do apologize for the somewhat long post, I really just want to make sure that I understand this transition so that our ward doesn’t have any issues that come up that need to be corrected later, I spent my first couple of months in this calling fixing all the past problems and don’t want to have to do that again. Also, I really do appreciate all the help I have already received just from reading all the posts already out there and if anything in the post needs further clarification please let me know and I will do my best to drill down to a better example.

jimmyrun wrote:As to the questions, I am looking at the Budget report and the I&E report and wondering if there should be some correlation between the ending/remaining balance between the reports?

It depends if you are a ward or a stake. If a ward, you remaining balance on 19 Oct 2010 should be $0. If you are a stake, you should have a remaining balance equal to the total remaining budget funds for the stake. However, to get the correct amount, CUBS shows a negative balance forward for 2010. The budget report does not contain this info and will therefore give you the wrong amount. In fact, budget reports cannot span fiscal years and therefore do not ever have balance forwards amounts other than $0 (when the starting date is 1 Jan. Balance forward amounts do show but only when the starting date is not 1 Jan, and then only show a balance forward from the current year. No prior year balances are included). See post #18 in this thread for more about this. So no, the remaining balance on these 2 reports will NOT match.

The budget report also contains an allocations column that is not in the I&E report. If you have re-entered your entire 2010 budget amounts in the View/edit Budget screen, then your total remaining balances from the two reports will definitely not match (and your budget report value will be wrong). You have essentially doubled your income because you have the starting amount you entered plus the transfers CUBS added to zero out all expenses up to the 17th of October (see below). Again, I&E shows you the correct amount in this scenario as well.

jimmyrun wrote:All of my category budget amounts are correct, except for the Administration as it has that transfer in it

This is because of the zeroing CUBS did. On 19 Oct 2010, you should see an expenses amount in Budget:Budget Administration equal to your YTD expenses to that date. You should also see a transfers amount equal to the YTD expenses but opposite in sign. This is how CUBS zeroed out your budget. The transfer is essentially the amount of your 2010 budget that has been spent. Because post-conversion everything has been zeroed, you starting balances in the view/update budget screen need to be the original amount(s) MINUS the total expenses from 1 Jan 2010 to 18 Oct 2010.

Given your example, it would appear that on Oct 18 your YTD expenses were $400 and was zeroed by the $400 in the transfers column. Since then, you have spent an additional $100, giving you YTD expenses of $500. Your subcategory started on Oct 19th with a balance of $600 (The original $1000 - $400 you had already spent). From how CUBS views you expenses (from date of conversion on), your total expenses are now $100 (everything pre-CUBS was zeroed) and your remaining balance is $600 - $100 = $500.

Because you have re-entered you total 2010 budget amounts (appear in the Allocations column), you have credited yourself the $400 twice. So your remaining balance is showing $500 + $400 = $900.

jimmyrun wrote:is this maybe because as crislapi said I only moved the expense and haven’t done the transfer at the end of the year he was talking about?

It seems mostly because you entered your total 2010 budget amounts. Because you recategorized your expenses, only your sub-category remaining balances will be correct. You have to ignore the Budget:Budget Administration remaining balance and the overall remaining balance as shown in the Budget report as they are incorrect.

jimmyrun wrote:...how am I going to handle organizations that are front-heavy in their spending, meaning that they spend the majority of their budget in the first quarter or first half of the year? Will the church allow for checks to be written that would exceed the amount in the ward account as long as that amount is made up by having the organization get out of the negative balance that is sitting in that category?

You are allowed to go negative. Checks will still be covered. The remaining monthly balance will follow them forward month to month and year to year. I suspect if your overall Budget amount is negative, it will appear as an action item on your CUFS, but the stake will be the ones who monitor this. Best would be to check with them how they will handle this.

Maybe a bit more detail will help. Let's begin just prior to CUBS conversion. Let's assume this is a ward with a $7,000 budget for all of 2010. For simplicity, I will only have two subcategories - Budget & RS. Also, let's assume Budget has been allocated $6,000 and RS has $1,000. Finally, let's assume that from 1 Jan to Oct 17th, Budget had spent $4,600 and RS had spent $400, for a total of $5,000.

At this point, Budget has $1,400 remaining for the year while RS has $600 (total of $2,000). If I had budget and income & expense reports for this, they would look something like this:

Budget report (1 Jan 2010 - 17 Oct 2010):
Category_______Alloc____Bal.For.__Inc_______Exp________Tran_________Bal
Budget______$6,000.00 ___$0.00___$0.00__-$4,600.00______$0.00____$1,400.00
ReliefSoc___$1,000.00 ___$0.00___$0.00____-$400.00______$0.00______$600.00
Total:______$7,000.00 ___$0.00___$0.00__-$5,000.00______$0.00____$2,000.00

Income & Expense report (1 Jan 2010 - 17 Oct 2010):
Category_____Bal.For.___Inc______Exp_________Tran________Bal
Budget:________$0.00 __$0.00__-$4,600.00___$4,600.00_____$0.00
ReliefSoc______$0.00___$0.00____-$400.00_____$400.00_____$0.00
Total:_________$0.00___$0.00__-$5,000.00___$5,000.00_____$0.00

Note that I&E did not show remaining balance pre-CUBS. Also note that the remaining balance is $2,000 ($1,400 and $600 respectively).

Just after conversion, all sub-category detail was lost along with all allocation information. All pre-CUBS expenses were moved to Budget:Administration and then zeroed w/ a transfer equal to the total expenses. So on 18 Oct, the same reports would look like this (18th is to ensure covering transfers for checks cut on the 17th are included):

CUBS - Budget report (1 Jan 2010 - 18 Oct 2010):
Category_______Alloc____Bal.For.__Inc_______Exp________Tran_________BalBudget:Alloc___$0.00 ___$0.00___$0.00_______$0.00_______$0.00______$0.00Budget:Admin___$0.00 ___$0.00___$0.00__-$5,000.00___$5,000.00______$0.00Total:_________$0.00 ___$0.00___$0.00__-$5,000.00___$5,000.00______$0.00

CUBS - Income & Expense report (1 Jan 2010 - 18 Oct 2010):
Category_____Bal.For.___Inc______Exp_________Tran________BalBudget:Alloc___$0.00 __$0.00_______$0.00_______$0.00_____$0.00Budget:Admin___$0.00 __$0.00__-$5,000.00___$5,000.00_____$0.00Total:_________$0.00___$0.00__-$5,000.00___$5,000.00_____$0.00

Note that both reports show a balance of zero. This is correct/expected. There IS a bug with the conversion that does in fact cause many wards to show a negative balance. That will be patched soon. For now, just know that on 19 Oct, all budget categories should have started with $0.

Let's assume post conversion I have decided to use Budget:Ward in place of my old Budget and Budget:RS in place of my old ReliefSoc. I have recategorized all my expenses, which moved $400 in expenses back to Budget:RS and $4,600 back to Budget:Ward. I have re-entered my budget allocations ($1,000 and $6,000). The reports now look like this:

CUBS - Budget report (1 Jan 2010 - 18 Oct 2010):
Category_________Alloc____Bal.For.__Inc_______Exp________Tran_________BalBudget:Alloc______$0.00 ___$0.00___$0.00_______$0.00_______$0.00________$0.00Budget:Admin______$0.00 ___$0.00___$0.00_______$0.00___$5,000.00____$5,000.00
Budget:RS_____$1,000.00 ___$0.00___$0.00____-$400.00_______$0.00______$600.00Budget:Ward___$6,000.00 ___$0.00___$0.00__-$4,600.00_______$0.00____$1,400.00
Total:________$7,000.00 ___$0.00___$0.00__-$5,100.00___$5,000.00____$7,000.00

CUBS - Income & Expense report (1 Jan 2010 - 18 Oct 2010):
Category_____Bal.For.___Inc______Exp_________Tran________BalBudget:Alloc___$0.00 __$0.00_______$0.00______$0.00_______$0.00Budget:Admin___$0.00 __$0.00_______$0.00__$5,000.00___$5,000.00Budget:RS______$0.00___$0.00____-$400.00______$0.00____-$400.00Budget:Ward____$0.00 __$0.00__-$4,600.00______$0.00__-$4,600.00Total:_________$0.00___$0.00__-$5,000.00__$5,000.00_______$0.00

The budget report shows a remaining balance of $7,000 instead of $2,000. Why? The values in the allocations and expenses columns are the same. The difference is the zeroing transfer that appears post-conversion. To start Oct 19th at zero, CUBS zeroed out all expenses by taking $5,000 of the budget and transferring it to Budget:Admin. When I re-entered my full budget allocation of $7,000, I credited myself that same $5,000 again. So the $2,000 true remaining balance plus the double credit of $5,000 is the INCORRECT $7,000 amount the budget report now shows.

In fact, because I still have not received a check from the stake, the I&E report is showing my true remaining balance as of right now - $0.

If we now move to the present, the I&E will show an increasingly negative amount. Let's assume since the conversion, the RS has spent an additional $100 (total of $500 for the year). Let's also assume the stake has given us the check for our remaining $2,000. I have deposited this into Budget:Alloc.

CUBS - Budget report (1 Jan 2010 - 15 Nov 2010):
Category_________Alloc____Bal.For._____Inc_______Exp________Tran_________BalBudget:Alloc______$0.00 ___$0.00___$2,000.00_______$0.00_______$0.00____$2,000.00Budget:Admin______$0.00 ___$0.00_______$0.00_______$0.00___$5,000.00____$5,000.00
Budget:RS_____$1,000.00 ___$0.00_______$0.00____-$500.00_______$0.00______$500.00Budget:Ward___$6,000.00 ___$0.00_______$0.00__-$4,600.00_______$0.00____$1,400.00Total:________$7,000.00 ___$0.00___$2,000.00__-$5,100.00___$5,000.00____$8,900.00

CUBS - Income & Expense report (1 Jan 2010 - 15 Nov 2010):
Category_____Bal.For.___Inc_________Exp_________Tran________BalBudget:Alloc___$0.00 __$2,000.00_______$0.00_______$0.00___$2,000.00Budget:Admin___$0.00 ______$0.00_______$0.00___$5,000.00___$5,000.00
Budget:RS______$0.00_______$0.00____-$500.00_______$0.00____-$500.00Budget:Ward____$0.00 ______$0.00__-$4,600.00_______$0.00__-$4,600.00Total:_________$0.00___$2,000.00__-$5,100.00___$5,000.00___$1,900.00

Note that while my budget report remaining balance for my new sub-categories are correct, the total remaining balance is even more incorrect.* While it did have the new $100 in expenses deducted from it, the allocation amount has been added to the already incorrect remaining balance. However, the I&E reflects the true total remaining balance (but not sub-category balances) of $1,900 ($2,000 at time of conversion minus new $100 in expenses).
*Budget report would show the correct remaining balance if, when it's run, I unselect/don't include the Budget:Alloc and Budget:Admin subcategories.

The budget report is extremely useful, especially in detail form, for the auxiliaries. It is desirable to get it to show the correct amounts. However, that will involve some manipulation. To regain correct subcategory information, you have to decide which report you want to use. You cannot use both (at least not how we used to).

If I decide to recreate accurate subcategory information in the budget report, I must now do the following:
1) Transfer $400 and $4,600 from Budget:Admin to Budget:RS and Budget:Ward respectively (zeroes out pre-CUBS expenses)
2) Reduce the Allocation amounts to what was remaining at the time of conversion ($600 and $1,400)
Only the I&E report shows the correct total remaining balance*. Budget shows correct sub-category info while I&E only shows total expenses since conversion for each. If you go this route, you will probably have to do a lot of explaining to your committees about how you really did not reduce their total budget. For this reason, I am holding off doing the transfers until the end of the year.
*Budget report would show the correct remaining balance if, when it's run, I unselect/don't include the Budget:Alloc subcategory.

CUBS - Budget report (1 Jan 2010 - 15 Nov 2010):
Category_________Alloc____Bal.For.____Inc_______Exp________Tran_________BalBudget:Alloc______$0.00 ___$0.00__$2,000.00_______$0.00_______$0.00__$2,000.00Budget:Admin______$0.00 ___$0.00______$0.00_______$0.00_______$0.00______$0.00
Budget:RS_______$600.00 ___$0.00______$0.00____-$500.00_____$400.00____$500.00Budget:Ward___$1,400.00___$0.00______$0.00__-$4,600.00___$4,600.00__$1,400.00Total:________$2,000.00 ___$0.00__$2,000.00__-$5,100.00___$5,000.00__$3,900.00

CUBS - Income & Expense report (1 Jan 2010 - 15 Nov 2010):Category_____Bal.For._____Inc_________Exp_________Tran________BalBudget:Alloc___$0.00 __$2,000.00_______$0.00_______$0.00__$2,000.00Budget:Admin___$0.00 ______$0.00_______$0.00_______$0.00______$0.00
Budget:RS______$0.00 ______$0.00____-$500.00_____$400.00___-$100.00Budget:Ward____$0.00 ______$0.00__-$4,600.00___$4,600.00______$0.00Total:_________$0.00 __$2,000.00__-$5,100.00___$5,000.00__$1,900.00

If, instead, you chose Income & Expense reports, you must do the following:
1) Transfer $400 and $4,600 from Budget:Admin to Budget:RS and Budget:Ward respectively (zeroes out pre-CUBS expenses)
2) Transfer from Budget:Alloc to each subcategory it's remaining balance at the time of conversion ($600 and $1,400)
This results in total transfers equal to 2010 allotment
2) Remove the Allocation amounts from view/edit Budget.
Both reports show the correct remaining balance. Both reports shows correct sub-category remaining balance as well. The confusing thing is that it will appear on the budget report that each sub-category started the year w/ $0. This is going to be confusing for members and even clerks to understand. It is harder to read from the report what the yearly allotted amount is.

CUBS - Budget report (1 Jan 2010 - 15 Nov 2010):
Category______Alloc____Bal.For.____Inc_______Exp________Tran_________BalBudget:Alloc__$0.00 ___$0.00__$2,000.00_______$0.00__-$2,000.00______$0.00Budget:Admin__$0.00 ___$0.00______$0.00_______$0.00_______$0.00______$0.00
Budget:RS_____$0.00 ___$0.00______$0.00____-$500.00___$1,000.00____$500.00Budget:Ward___$0.00 ___$0.00______$0.00__-$4,600.00___$6,000.00__$1,400.00Total:________$0.00 ___$0.00__$2,000.00__-$5,100.00___$5,000.00__$1,900.00

CUBS - Income & Expense report (1 Jan 2010 - 15 Nov 2010):Category_____Bal.For._____Inc_________Exp_________Tran________BalBudget:Alloc___$0.00 __$2,000.00_______$0.00__-$2,000.00______$0.00Budget:Admin___$0.00 ______$0.00_______$0.00_______$0.00______$0.00
Budget:RS______$0.00_______$0.00____-$500.00___$1,000.00____$500.00Budget:Ward____$0.00 _______$.00__-$4,600.00___$6,000.00__$1,400.00Total:_________$0.00___$2,000.00__-$5,100.00___$5,000.00__$1,900.00

Having beaten this to death, let me say that I'm still undecided which path is best. I believe CUBS is easier to understand if I use I&E reports because CUBS does allow for balance forwards from one year to the next. The I&E report can handle this; the budget report cannot. Also, it is harder to get inflated remaining balance info when using I&E reports. The budget report is much more susceptible to producing balance errors.

However, considering those who will use the reports, I think for most people the budget report is much more readable and easy to understand than the I&E. Starting amount in the left most column, adjustments as I read left to right, and remaining balance on the far right. Also, the view/edit budget screen allows us to set yearly budget amounts long before we have the actual transfers to cover them.

I'm torn, but will likely take the I&E path.

I will comment that I think a lot of the confusion will be removed when 2011 starts. Next year we won't have pre-CUBS expenses and covering transfers to worry about. All these tricks are just ways to get the new system to show you the old information in the same detail you had it before. If you understand what CUBS has done and can finish off the year without needing the prior info in detail, there is no need to do most of what is explained here.