ward budget allocations

on the budget allocation percentages from the stake there is default percentages already in place. wondering what other stakes are doing on the breakdown of these percentages. are you leaving as is or are you changing them to better suit your needs. that is how i understood it that you could put in the percentages that would best work for you.

farwest wrote:on the budget allocation percentages from the stake there is default percentages already in place. wondering what other stakes are doing on the breakdown of these percentages. are you leaving as is or are you changing them to better suit your needs. that is how i understood it that you could put in the percentages that would best work for you.

Our stake definitely changed the percentages from the default. Even pre-CUBS we were basically using that method for allocating funds to the wards, so we simply entered the percentages we've been using for a few years. We'll just keep operating as we have. But the default percentages would not have worked for us.

farwest wrote:on the budget allocation percentages from the stake there is default percentages already in place. . . . i understood it that you could put in the percentages that would best work for you.

Our stake changed them all. We would crash our budget using the defaults.

It was not hard, though. In the past we determined that a specific dollar amount would flow through instead of the entire allocation. So all we had to do was figure out what nn% of the $00.00 allocation will give us the amount we were flowing through.

We also factor in a greater amount for several of our small branches so that they can have at least one social a year. [grin]

We were already following the basic process. As an example only, now, instead of saying a unit gets $8 of a $10 allocation, we plug in 80% and the computer calculates the same $8 and sends it on.

Those are not real numbers, of course. Every stake is different.

My stake is also not using the defaults. We have used our own algorithm in the past to come up with budget allocations. It was dependent mostly on Sacrament attendance and ward size (YSA stake). While the original algorithm won't work, we have only modified it slightly. We now will enter the percentages it used to use to decide how much of the total budget each ward received. We will probably modify it a bit more as we get comfortable with it, but not too much.

I'm preparing a couple of scenarios for my stake president right now.

Reviewing past years budget, it appears wards were allotted roughly 70% of the stake budget. The stake spent the remaining 30%, while any remainder in the ward rolled up into an annual carryover.

We have a singles branch and a Spanish branch that we over fund with 100% in all categories. I've found putting 65% for Sac Mtg, 90% in YM & YW, 95% in Primary and 0% in YSA (except the singles branch) yields roughly 70% total to the units.

I'm just struggling with what to do with the accumulated carryover. The carryover was never re-allotted in the following year's budgeting, so it has grown significantly over the past few years to the point that the stake could (should?) give 100% to the local units this year. I'm just hesiatant to do this because it could create one year of feast followed by belt tightening that could be tough to take in 2012.

It would be helpful for other stake clerks to report how much they fund the wards in their area as a percentage of the stake budget as I've done here.

Bro_West wrote:We have a singles branch and a Spanish branch that we over fund with 100% in all categories.

That's fine -- you have that flexibility.

Bro_West wrote:I've found putting 65% for Sac Mtg, 90% in YM & YW, 95% in Primary and 0% in YSA (except the singles branch) yields roughly 70% total to the units.

If your target is 70%, then why not just put 70% in all the categories? That seems simpler.

Bro_West wrote:I'm just struggling with what to do with the accumulated carryover. The carryover was never re-allotted in the following year's budgeting, so it has grown significantly over the past few years to the point that the stake could (should?) give 100% to the local units this year. I'm just hesiatant to do this because it could create one year of feast followed by belt tightening that could be tough to take in 2012.

Just because the stake could give the accumulated carryover to the wards doesn't mean it is the best thing to do. It can be helpful for the stake to hold onto some contingency funds. That way if there is a lean year in terms of allocations, or some extraordinary (but reasonable and authorized) expense happens for the stake or one of the wards, the funds will be available. But this is the stake president's call, of course.

Bro_West wrote:It would be helpful for other stake clerks to report how much they fund the wards in their area as a percentage of the stake budget as I've done here.

We just do a flat 75% for the wards in all the categories. Of course, the percentage retained by the stake is only one factor; which expenses are borne by the stake or wards for events such as stake youth conference or stake YW camp will also have a huge impact on the appropriate distribution.

Bro_West wrote:I'm just struggling with what to do with the accumulated carryover. The carryover was never re-allotted in the following year's budgeting, so it has grown significantly over the past few years to the point that the stake could (should?) give 100% to the local units this year. I'm just hesiatant to do this because it could create one year of feast followed by belt tightening that could be tough to take in 2012.

A comment and then a thought.
First, the new system will allow the wards to keep their remaining balances so unless you actively pull them back into the stake, the days of your large carryovers are gone. The wards will keep them and you will just have your 30% each year.

My thought, then, is that if the stake is not using the money, why not give it back to the wards? It's doing nobody any good just sitting there. I'd suggest keeping some as rainy day funds, but the rest I'd encourage my stake presidency to use or return to the wards so they could use it. Per your concern, I'm not sure I'd do it all at once. I'd probably increase ward budgets for the next few years (higher percentages) and make the stake budget draw on the savings until they shrink to an amount I'm comfortable with.

Ok. I think I am losing it. Where is the ward budget allocation link. I know I have been to that screen before, but I have searched through everything I can find (except the right one, of course) and cannot find the link again.

lajackson wrote:Ok. I think I am losing it. Where is the ward budget allocation link. I know I have been to that screen before, but I have searched through everything I can find (except the right one, of course) and cannot find the link again.

From stake MLS, go to Finances, then click "Budget Allocations" on the Budget panel (lower left corner).

Alan_Brown wrote:From stake MLS, go to Finances, then click "Budget Allocations" on the Budget panel (lower left corner).

Thanks. I remember it being there last time. The link is missing. Here we go again. I hope this is not a new feature of MLS 3.3 but our reload last evening did not restore this link.

Help desk time.

lajackson wrote:Thanks. I remember it being there last time. The link is missing. Here we go again. I hope this is not a new feature of MLS 3.3 but our reload last evening did not restore this link.

It is not a new feature of 3.3. I have two units on 3.3 (one on XP the other on Windows 7) and both have this link still.

crislapi wrote:It is not a new feature of 3.3. I have two units on 3.3 (one on XP the other on Windows 7) and both have this link still.

I understand. I have seen the link before, as well. The "new feature" I was kidding about is that we seem to have a problem where links on the front page just seem to disappear from time to time.

It is very disconcerting.

Alan_Brown wrote:From stake MLS, go to Finances, then click "Budget Allocations" on the Budget panel (lower left corner).

I can get the budget allocations link to show up in the test stake, but try as I might, it will not show up in the real stake.

And thinking that MLS might be confused with two stakes on the computer, I totally deleted the test stake. Still no link in the real stake.

The link has been there in the real stake before but is not there now. A complete reinstall of MLS has not solved the problem.

Any suggestions?

lajackson wrote:Any suggestions?

Refresh? Otherwise it's call/email LUS.

RussellHltn wrote:Refresh? Otherwise it's call/email LUS.

Did the refresh before the reinstall. I also noticed that I lost the link on the test stake, too. So I was dead in the water this morning.

Then I realized that I have not had the link at all in Beta 5, so I thought I might have a corrupted copy of the download file. I went to get another.

Beta 6. Loaded and installed. Everything is fine. I was able to update the budget allocations and send them in.