Budget allocation into MLS

I deposited our check from the stake into "Budget: Administration", but I don't see where it is reflected anywhere. Do I need to enter that money someplace else so it is available in the ward budget? I'm just not sure how this works now.

And after January, how will it work? I understand our quarterly budget will be sent to our computer by the stake? where will I see those funds? will I get a notice? will they be available in the budget screens? I'm kind of confused about how this works now, and will work after January.

rexgj wrote:I deposited our check from the stake into "Budget: Administration", but I don't see where it is reflected anywhere. Do I need to enter that money someplace else so it is available in the ward budget? I'm just not sure how this works now.

I would highly recommend that checks from the stake be deposited into "Budget:Budget Allocations", since that is where future allocations will automatically be deposited. But if you deposited it into Budget:Administration, you should see it on an Income and Expense Report that includes that category.

But regardless of where you deposited the check, you need to move the money to individual subcategories, as described in the 26 Oct 2010 MLS Message, which is in the wiki under Issue: How do I allocate the budget?.

rexgj wrote:And after January, how will it work? I understand our quarterly budget will be sent to our computer by the stake? where will I see those funds? will I get a notice? will they be available in the budget screens? I'm kind of confused about how this works now, and will work after January.

The quarterly budget allocation will not actually be sent by the stake. Rather, before the end of the quarter, the stake tells CHQ what percentage of the allocation components should go to each ward. The ward will receive a direct transfer from CHQ at the beginning of each quarter for their portion of the allocation based on what the stake told CHQ.

You should have already received the pre-notice as an MLS message a bit over a week ago telling you what your ward will receive, assuming nothing else changes (the stake still has time to make changes to the percentages up to 31 Dec).

The funds will appear in Budget:Budget Allocations. Then, just as I described above, you will transfer whatever portions your bishop has determined (based on your ward's annual budget planning) into specific subcategories for each organization.

I understand changes to the Budget Report are coming in MLS 3.3, but for MLS 3.2.4, the Budget Report is confusing for Budget categories -- you're better off running Income and Expense Reports, which will accurately show you the beginning balance, income, expense, transfer, and ending balance.

Alan_Brown wrote:I understand changes to the Budget Report are coming in MLS 3.3, but for MLS 3.2.4, the Budget Report is confusing for Budget categories -- you're better off running Income and Expense Reports, which will accurately show you the beginning balance, income, expense, transfer, and ending balance.

Does that have to do with the budget report currently adding the budget allocation column with the balance column? That was throwing me off yesterday so finally I zeroed out all of the budget allocation info. Thanks for the tip on the Income and Expense report.

Gustaf wrote:Does that have to do with the budget report currently adding the budget allocation column with the balance column? That was throwing me off yesterday so finally I zeroed out all of the budget allocation info.

Yes, that's what I'm referring to. If you enter amounts in the View/Edit Budget screen, and also follow the instructions in the various CUBS instructions we have received to transfer funds from Budget Allocations into various Budget subcategories, then you will essentially be double-counting the transfers and thus your remaining balance shown on the Budget Report will be inflated and inaccurate.

This is somewhat related to this thread. Upon the CUBS transition, the ward sub-category Budget:Administration has a negative balance due to all existing expenses being reassigned to that category. My questions are: (1) How did these existing expenses arise? and (2) is it necessary to transfer budget funds from another sub-category or budget:allocation to eliminate the negative balance? Thanks for any help.

On 20 Oct 2010 it should have a balance of $0. It if is negative then, that is due to a bug with CUBS that should be fixed. Make note of the difference. Otherwise, it should only be negative if you continued to draw all your expenses from that category. Most people recreated their old budget categories and drew their checks from the appropriate one, meaning there should be many subcategories with negative balances.

CUBS recategorized all your old expenses to Budget:Administration. This has been discussed extensively here on the forum so some simple searching should be fruitful.

It is only necessary that your overall budget be positive. Otherwise, what you with your subcategories is a local decision. Again, there are a couple options of how to do this. Some quick searches of this forum will help you there, too.

The funds will appear in Budget:Budget Allocations. Then, just as I described above, you will transfer whatever portions your bishop has determined (based on your ward's annual budget planning) into specific subcategories for each organization.

By "transfer" what do you mean? Do we do an actual transfer to the various categories? or just indicate various amounts in each ward budget category in the "budget, edit budget" screen?

And, I presume, like in the past we will project our anticipated budget for the entire year, although we will receive the actual funds on a quarterly basis.

One final question. I've heard it both ways, so am unsure. IN 2011, will MLS not allow us to write checks if we do not have money in the budget? or can we still write checks, even if we're "overdrawn" a bit?

rexgj wrote:

Alan_Brown wrote:The funds will appear in Budget:Budget Allocations. Then, just as I described above, you will transfer whatever portions your bishop has determined (based on your ward's annual budget planning) into specific subcategories for each organization.

By "transfer" what do you mean? Do we do an actual transfer to the various categories? or just indicate various amounts in each ward budget category in the "budget, edit budget" screen?

The 26 Oct 2010 MLS Message (on the wiki at Issue: How do I allocate the budget?) said: "The unit can then create transfers to each of your budget subcategories in order to track budgets for each subcategory." Those are actual transfers. As I explained in this post, using the View/Edit Budget screen and printing Budget Reports can be confusing at this point.

rexgj wrote:And, I presume, like in the past we will project our anticipated budget for the entire year, although we will receive the actual funds on a quarterly basis.

That is correct. The Handbook still says that each unit is to prepare an annual budget (which will involve some estimating), but the actual money arrives each quarter.

rexgj wrote:One final question. I've heard it both ways, so am unsure. IN 2011, will MLS not allow us to write checks if we do not have money in the budget? or can we still write checks, even if we're "overdrawn" a bit?

MLS will not stop you from writing checks if the budget balance drops below zero, and the checks will be honored by the bank. The CUBS additional clarification said that "After a ward receives and deposits the check from the stake, the budget category in the ward should be positive at all times." I'm sure that there will be some exceptional circumstances where this is not possible. A negative balance will probably generate some sort of communication from CHQ requesting prompt correction of the situation.