Stake budget check

There is a lot of interest in resorting budget category balances to the pre-CUBS transition budget category balances, and questions as to why budget reports where not on the requested reports to print on 17 Oct. It seems to be because Stakes are not required to give a post-CUBS 4th quarter budget check to each Local Unit equal to the Local Unit's remaining pre-CUBS budget balance.

I know of one such Stake where the Stake is distributing post-CUBS 4th quarter budget checks to each Local Unit that is only a small fraction of the Local Unit's remaining pre-CUBS budget balance, just enough to cover each Local Unit's family Halloween party and the Annual Curriculum order. In one case I know of every Local Unit in a Stake that in reality each Local Unit does have every budget category balances that are indeed zero, post-CUBS transition, and will remain zero until the 1st Quarter of 2011. Our attitudes remain good, we are being fiscally responsible in our Local Unit, all of the auxiliaries are working together to keep the 4th quarter expenses to a minimum and with a positive attitude.

kh_design wrote:I know of one such Stake where the Stake is distributing post-CUBS 4th quarter budget checks to each Local Unit that is only a small fraction of the Local Unit's remaining pre-CUBS budget balance, just enough to cover each Local Unit's family Halloween party and the Annual Curriculum order.

While that probably falls under the Stake President's prerogative, I'd be curious as to why. Is it to buy time until they can work out the remaining balance? Or does is the stake having a serous shortfall somewhere that they need to cover?

kh_design wrote:I know of one such Stake where the Stake is distributing post-CUBS 4th quarter budget checks to each Local Unit that is only a small fraction of the Local Unit's remaining pre-CUBS budget balance, . . .

We are using something similar to the following formula:

Add up the four quarterly budget allowances for the year.
Subtract the amount that the unit spent through October 17th.
Write them a check for the difference.

Those units who were well within budget are very happy.
Those units who were over budget are not happy.

It has been quite a reality check (pun intended).

kh_design wrote:I know of one such Stake where the Stake is distributing post-CUBS 4th quarter budget checks to each Local Unit that is only a small fraction of the Local Unit's remaining pre-CUBS budget balance, just enough to cover each Local Unit's family Halloween party and the Annual Curriculum order. In one case I know of every Local Unit in a Stake that in reality each Local Unit does have every budget category balances that are indeed zero, post-CUBS transition, and will remain zero until the 1st Quarter of 2011. Our attitudes remain good, we are being fiscally responsible in our Local Unit, all of the auxiliaries are working together to keep the 4th quarter expenses to a minimum and with a positive attitude.

I could see under certain circumstances where that would be necessary. Pre-CUBS we had to estimate the budget a year in advance. If attendance dropped, we ended up with less money than we predicted. If the stake clerks stay on top of that, they can adjust as the year goes on. However, if you do not pay attention and it drops, you get to the end of the year having spent more money than you received. I think this is one of the biggest reasons for switching to this new system.

I imagine that many stakes discovered their true remaining balance couldn't cover the MLS remaining balances of all their units. If I were in their position, I would try to find the most equitable way to distribute the remaining funds. If that were to just cover the immediate and necessary expenses, then that's how it would have to be, which sounds like what this stake is doing.

If, however, the stake is taking advantage of this circumstance to make a final last grab at ward money, I would take issue with it and would address my concerns to the stake president. I will emphasize, however, that I would seriously doubt this to be the case. The former is much more likely.

kh_design wrote:I know of one such Stake where the Stake is distributing post-CUBS 4th quarter budget checks to each Local Unit that is only a small fraction of the Local Unit's remaining pre-CUBS budget balance, just enough to cover each Local Unit's family Halloween party and the Annual Curriculum order.

RussellHltn wrote:While that probably falls under the Stake President's prerogative, I'd be curious as to why. Is it to buy time until they can work out the remaining balance? Or does is the stake having a serous shortfall somewhere that they need to cover?

Yes, my subject point to my post is indeed it is the Stake President's prerogative. Do not assume in all cases the Local Unit's remaining pre-CUBS budget balance will be re-distributed from the Stake post-CUBS 4th quarter budget check. I suggest before you reset the category budget balances back to the pre-CUBS category budget balances you know how much the Stake's post-CUBS 4th quarter budget check amount will be.

Our Local Unit has seen the attendance rise in the past year, from the dedicated service of the auxiliary leaders and members. I am grateful all of the auxiliary leaders in our Local Unit is working together through this with a positive attitude, I have once again seen the strength in the leaders I have the privilege and blessing to work with. The weight I feel is for the leaders who will dig more deeply, sacrifice even more of their own monies to buy the items they need for the service of their auxiliary members, and never admit to spending their own money giving us a chance to reimburse them. I do feel this in my heart, I know we will grow stronger through this.

kh_design wrote:The weight I feel is for the leaders who will dig more deeply, sacrifice even more of their own monies to buy the items they need for the service of their auxiliary members, and never admit to spending their own money giving us a chance to reimburse them.

Since this is a different topic from the one begun in this thread, I split out the discussion of this point into a new thread: Reimbursing members for expenses.

If you want to discuss reimbursing members, please do so on that thread; if you want to discuss the check written from stakes to wards for the remaining budget balance at the time of the CUBS transition, post to this thread.

Our check from the Stake was significantly lower than the Pre-CUBS budget we had, though not low enough to "shut us down" so to speak. When I queried the Stake Financial Clerk about it (OK, whined would be more accurate) he told me that they were erring on the side of financial caution given the uncertanty of the CUBS rollout and would provide more funding to units if needed.

We are advising our organizations to be financially careful for the rest of the year.

4ward4ever wrote:Our check from the Stake was significantly lower than the Pre-CUBS budget we had, though not low enough to "shut us down" so to speak. When I queried the Stake Financial Clerk about it (OK, whined would be more accurate) he told me that they were erring on the side of financial caution given the uncertanty of the CUBS rollout and would provide more funding to units if needed.

Although the stake president certainly controls the budget allocations, and thus may make changes as he sees fit, I find it curious that there seems to be so much uncertainty triggered by the CUBS transition. There is no fundamental reason for any change in budget allocations being caused by CUBS. After all, the stakes were given in hard budget dollars precisely the amount that remained in the budget allocation for all units in the stake after October 17. It's simply a change in accounting method, not a change in available dollars. Wards and stakes should be able to be pick up with CUBS on October 18 exactly where they left off with the previous system on October 17.

I certainly do understand that this transition may have caused some stakes to take a closer look at their finances, and thus they are now noticing some problems with overspending that they had not previously been on top of. But they could have done that review and made adjustments on September 1, or October 1, or whenever they wanted on the old system. Stakes should always have been monitoring ward's budget spending relative to the their budget allowance on the old system, and should continue to do so under CUBS. Stakes also have a responsibility to monitor changes in actual allocations from estimated allocations that may have been used to formulate annual budgets, and that hasn't changed either.

Our stake is distributing to the wards the exact amount remaining on their budget allowance at the end of October 17.

Alan_Brown wrote:I find it curious that there seems to be so much uncertainty triggered by the CUBS transition.

That might be exactly what it is - they're not trusting what the computer is telling them. The change has shaken their confidence. We've certainly seen enough reports to know there's a lot of confusion out there.

RussellHltn wrote:That might be exactly what it is - they're not trusting what the computer is telling them. The change has shaken their confidence. We've certainly seen enough reports to know there's a lot of confusion out there.

That's true. I must admit that I had some uncertainty and confusion, too. A big turning point was when I received the Stake Financial Summary for Oct 1-17. There I saw numbers that fit exactly into what I had been tracking all year. And there at the bottom of the Budget page was the amount of the remaining budget allocation for the stake as a whole (including all wards). It warmed my heart to see that it was precisely the same amount that was on the budget transfer that was given to the stake as part of the CUBS transition. Now everything in the stake account makes sense and is accounted for.

Armed with that information, it was easy to prepare checks to give to the wards for the remainder of their budget balance. Now I just need to have a few more of those 3-hour sessions with ward financial clerks helping them sort out their ward finances and all will be well.

I would love to just see my SFS so that I could begin writing checks to the wards. They will receive everything they have coming as soon as I am able to do so, but it is getting late in the year for a lot of their holiday planning. Most wards do not budget a specific amount of $ for Christmas here, but adjust Christmas party plans to live on the money that is left at the end of the year.

I am not understanding why the SFS hasn't shown up. My only solace is that the HQ financial folks have been working a lot of long hours but it is self-induced. My hours, on the other hand, have been dictated by HQ financial problems. How I wish there had been decent training prior to the rollout. While a discussion forum is great and needed, going to a discussion forum is not actual training. In reality it is a cheap and easy way of avoiding putting $ into developing decent training. KQ

Quicky wrote:I would love to just see my SFS so that I could begin writing checks to the wards. KQ

I got tired of waiting and called CHQ. They were very kind and immediately emailed a pdf version of the SFS to my Stake President, who then promptly forwarded it to me.

Quicky wrote:I would love to just see my SFS so that I could begin writing checks to the wards.

I can't give you a reason why they are not coming, but if your wards just need a rough idea, you can get that from your September SFS. There is a summary page that will show you each unit's total September budget expenses as well as their YTD total expenses. Subtract the YTD amount from what their 2010 budget was, and that will give them a ballpark figure to begin planning with. Sure, the actual amount is going to be a little bit less than that, but chances are their expenses from Oct 1 to Oct 17 will only make minor adjustments to estimate and shouldn't affect their plans for the party.

I received our Oct. 2010 SFS from the stake president yesterday. I would assume that he received it in his mail box on Fri. or Sat.

RWoodmansee wrote:I received our Oct. 2010 SFS from the stake president yesterday. I would assume that he received it in his mail box on Fri. or Sat.

A stake clerk in a neighboring stake received the Oct SFS from his stake president this weekend, who said he had just received it. This clerk is really on top of things, and had already prepared a spreadsheet and run the math using the numbers he had. All he had to do was input the Oct data and he is ready to issue checks this week.

crislapi wrote:I can't give you a reason why they are not coming, but if your wards just need a rough idea, you can get that from your September SFS. There is a summary page that will show you each unit's total September budget expenses as well as their YTD total expenses. Subtract the YTD amount from what their 2010 budget was, and that will give them a ballpark figure to begin planning with. Sure, the actual amount is going to be a little bit less than that, but chances are their expenses from Oct 1 to Oct 17 will only make minor adjustments to estimate and shouldn't affect their plans for the party.

Another option is to use the post-CUBS expenses total listed in the Budget:Budget Administration subcategory on Oct 19th, 2010. All current year expenses should have been collapsed to this category, so that should also give you a very good idea of how much money they have left for the year.

Tuesday evening: My Stake President called and said he had gotten the Oct. SFS in the mail today. He said it was through the 31st of the month. I was lead to understand that there would be a break-out of each ward's YTD totals (I have them through Sep. 30) through Oct. 17th. I will not see the SFS until Wed. eve. but does anyone know whether the expenses are broken down into two date ranges? Thanks, KQ

Quicky wrote:Tuesday evening: My Stake President called and said he had gotten the Oct. SFS in the mail today. He said it was through the 31st of the month. I was lead to understand that there would be a break-out of each ward's YTD totals (I have them through Sep. 30) through Oct. 17th. I will not see the SFS until Wed. eve. but does anyone know whether the expenses are broken down into two date ranges? Thanks, KQ

See this post.

How exactly does one "cut a check" to a ward? How does the ward process it so the money does not just get funneled back to Church Headquarters? Sorry, I'm kind of new to this whole thing and don't quite get it.

mjgainer wrote:How does the ward process it so the money does not just get funneled back to Church Headquarters?

When processing the "donation" the ward indicates that it's to go to a Budget category. (Not Tithing, Fast Offering, etc.)

mjgainer wrote:How exactly does one "cut a check" to a ward? How does the ward process it so the money does not just get funneled back to Church Headquarters? Sorry, I'm kind of new to this whole thing and don't quite get it.

For the stake to write a check to the ward:

1. Go to Finance > Enter Expenses
2. Make sure the Payee is the desired ward. The payee should be of type "Another unit" and have the ward's unit number specified.
3. Create the check as usual. In this context, the category would be "Budget:Budget Allocations" (or possibly a subcategory of that category, if desired).
4. Deliver the check to the bishop.

For the ward to process the donation:

1. In a normal donation batch (Finance > Enter Donations), process the check from the stake.
2. As you process the donation slip for that check on the donation batch, make sure the donor is the stake. The donor record should be of type "Another unit" and have the stake's unit number specified.
3. Put the money in Budget by clicking on the blue Budget link in the category list. In the popup that appears, specify the category as "Budget:Budget Allocations".
4. Specify the check number for that donation as usual.

Under CUBS, budget funds remain in the ward, just like ward missionary and Other. So you don't have to worry about the funds going back to CHQ as long as you put it in a subcategory of Budget.

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't know if this information was somewhere else already. I searched the forum and wiki and couldn't find it anywhere.