Nice to have "General" sub-category of Ward Missionary Fund

I know that post-CUBS, ward finance clerks are not allowed to create sub-categories to the Ward Missionary Fund, but it would be nice to have a sub-category that explicitly defines those "general" funds not assigned to a particular missionary, such as Ward Missionary Fund: General. -- similar to what our ward had pre-CUBS. My bishop often asks for that amount. Now, the new Ward Missionary Fund is the rolled-up total. It's still easy enough to calculate the non-assigned amount (Ward Missionary Fund - total of sub-categories), just not explicit. Some families might donate large amounts (i.e. thousands) ahead of time instead of $400 a month, and if the Bishop just looks at the Ward Missionary Fund total, he might not get an accurate amount of how much is really available -- for other missionaries or perhaps to transfer to HQ. Church HQ even had an example of this "Ward Missionary" general category (different than the total amount) in the Oct 26 additional instructions - but this sub-category is not available post-CUBs. Perhaps it's related to the tax implications or "earmarked" donations to a specific missionary discussed elsewhere on this board.

Just wishing over a minor issue. Thanks for all the informative posts

mrdunk45 wrote:I know that post-CUBS, ward finance clerks are not allowed to create sub-categories to the Ward Missionary Fund, but it would be nice to have a sub-category that explicitly defines those "general" funds not assigned to a particular missionary, such as Ward Missionary Fund: General. -- similar to what our ward had pre-CUBS. My bishop often asks for that amount. Now, the new Ward Missionary Fund is the rolled-up total. It's still easy enough to calculate the non-assigned amount (Ward Missionary Fund - total of sub-categories), just not explicit. Some families might donate large amounts (i.e. thousands) ahead of time instead of $400 a month, and if the Bishop just looks at the Ward Missionary Fund total, he might not get an accurate amount of how much is really available -- for other missionaries or perhaps to transfer to HQ. Church HQ even had an example of this "Ward Missionary" general category (different than the total amount) in the Oct 26 additional instructions - but this sub-category is not available post-CUBs. Perhaps it's related to the tax implications or "earmarked" donations to a specific missionary discussed elsewhere on this board.

There is no change in how the Ward Missionary Fund works in this regard because of the CUBS transition. The "Ward Missionary Fund" category is not the rolled-up total; rather it is precisely what you are asking for -- it is the exact value of all funds that are not otherwise allocated to subcategories of "Ward Missionary Fund".

The reason you may well have the impression that this changed is that during the transition, all transactions were changed to be in the parent "Ward Missionary Fund" category. You will need to follow the instructions to recreate the balances in the subcategories by transferring funds from the parent category to the newly-created subcategories. But once you do that, the parent category will indeed contain the amount you are looking for -- there is no need to have a "Ward Missionary Fund:General" subcategory. And as before, you can always run an Income and Expense Report, Summary by Subcategory for all the Ward Missionary Fund categories to see a total amount.

But I think you overlook the problem. In our ward, a family donated $100 each month for over a year before their son started his mission....

EDIT (by Alan_Brown): I moved this new topic to a new thread: Creating additional subcategories of Ward Missionary Fund.

GregAnderson wrote:But I think you overlook the problem. In our ward, a family donated $100 each month for over a year before their son started his mission....

No, I didn't overlook any problem at all. You are raising an entirely different issue. So I copied your post and the ensuing discussion of this new topic to a new thread: Creating additional subcategories of Ward Missionary Fund.