Old subcategories no longer zeroed!

If you're a finance clerk, you may want to check your balances in the subcategories.

First of all let me say that I think the general direction the church has taken on MLS Finance and the CUBS system is wonderful and I like it. With that said, the process after the CUBS update that clerks have had to go through to correct the balances was weird, made little sense, and was very time consuming. If you were a stake clerk, you needed to make sure that the ward finance clerks deciphered the scant instructions from headquarters correctly and that they fixed all the balances in the old and new categories after the update. This wasn't too difficult, but you had to stay on top of it.

After that exercise, the only thing left up in the air should be the budget allocation problems which is supposedly to be fixed in 3.3.1 which hasn't come down yet. However, after looking at several wards over the past couple weeks, I have noticed that something changed at the first of the year. Many of the old subcategories in Budget and Authorized Member Financed (Other) and maybe even Ward Missionary (I haven't even looked at that yet) no longer have zero balances. The balance forward figures have changed, thus effecting the current balance. This is a problem, at least in Authorized Member Financed (Other), with audits this month and all.

This was addressed in a prior post by 'ckmcdonald' titled "Old Budget Subcategories No Longer Zero" dated January 24. I agree with Russell in that post who mentions that the year end caused the 2007 data to be purged. But if this is the case, why weren't we informed that this would happen. This might not me cause, but I'd sure like to know what's going on. What's more frustrating is that the balances in the subcategory are now incorrect again. The overall balances in the main categories (Budget, Other, Ward missionary) are still correct, however. We can correct the subcategory balances by doing transfers again, but this is madness.

One other thing. I also noticed that some of the wards received a message or two from headquarters that I at the Stake have never received and they were important messages This make me even more crazy.

I assume other units are experiencing this but I see very little posting about it. I'd like to hear others feedback.

Paul Stephens
Stake Clerk
Ogden, Utah

brotherpbs wrote:This was addressed in a prior post by 'ckmcdonald' titled "Old Budget Subcategories No Longer Zero" dated January 24. I agree with Russell in that post who mentions that the year end caused the 2007 data to be purged. But if this is the case, why weren't we informed that this would happen. This might not me cause, but I'd sure like to know what's going on. What's more frustrating is that the balances in the subcategory are now incorrect again. The overall balances in the main categories (Budget, Other, Ward missionary) are still correct, however. We can correct the subcategory balances by doing transfers again, but this is madness.

Call it madness or maybe we should call it business as usual. Since my post on the subject and completing the associated Transfers to correct my budget sub-categories going out of balance, I have had this happen a second time! Recently I had two more old budget sub-categories magically change. It's getting to the point that I cringe every time I push Send/Receive. My advice.... check your balances each time you do a Send/Receive. I know of 2-3 other units experiencing the same problem.

I noticed some of my subcategories developed balances again after 2010 was closed out. It appears CUBS has a bug (:eek:) with computing balance forward correctly. What I discovered was that when I created the transfers (dated in 2010), all was good. However, when 2010 was closed, 2007 financial data was removed. Because the income/expenses my transfer was covering changed yet my transfer did not, my categories had a balance again. Normally, the balance forward from 2007 should have kept this from happening but, obviously, didn't.

Since then, I have resorted to tracking down the date of the income into each of these categories and creating transfers for 31 Dec of whatever year the income is in. That way, when the year is deleted, so is the transfer and I prevent this problem from reoccuring.

So far I have managed to bite my tongue and just press forward with trying to make sense of all that has happened with CUBs. I envy those of you in Utah where your stake may be enclosed within a three - four block area. Makes it simple to drop by and work on finance issues that keep popping up with the bugs that came with CUBs. Unfortunately, for us out in the boonies, just dropping by involves a drive of 60, 55, 85, 25 miles, or more (one way) and it is becoming quite burdonsome to keep having to refix something that we thought was already fixed. At this point I am beginning to believe that just letting the dust settle and giving the problems back to LUS may be the way to go.

It is not in my nature to do what I just said in the last sentence above but the frustration level is starting to push me in that direction. So far I will say that LUS has been a big help, as well as this forum, but already I have received conflicting directions from both this site and LUS that has caused me to spend multiple hours redoing what never should have been done in the first place.....transfering budgets via the transfer function vice just using the view budget feature. Nice that LUS sent out a message saying sorry for the conflicting instructions but it was too late to not cause more hours spent undoing the damage.

I know this sounds like sour grapes and probably I should just erase this post, but on the other hand, it does need to be stated that hours upon hours have been spent, as well as miles upon miles been driven, that could have been better spent doing other things (and I am retired and can spend the time). But how about those who have given of their time and efforts who do have occupations that require their time. I hope they receive blessings for all their efforts and time spent away from home out driving the miles to get to each unit to help. I am convinced that once the dust does settle there will be positives that will come from this conversion. Just wish the dust would settle already!

To end on a positive note.....without this forum (and LUS) many of us would have called it quits on the 25th of October, 2010 when things didn't quite come out as expected. Kudos to those who have hung in there and fought the good fight (and apparently still are).

Although traveling to the various units in my Stake has been a bit burdensome, a nice side effect of the CUBS woes has been the opportunity to get to know the clerks in our stake, to do training that otherwise may have been neglected as non-expedient, and to develop a better understanding of the capabilities and needs of the various clerks. Also, there is something rejuvenating about driving through the countryside on a beautiful Sunday afternoon while on the Lord's errand.

Your Ward Clerks are very lucky. I wish our Stake Clerk would come once in a while and train/assist/answer questions! And our Stake is only about 15 miles away from our ward building. In my personal opinion, one of the main duties of the Stake leadership is to train the ward leadership.

But, I still love my calling and enjoy helping out whenever I can. This forum has been a great help and LUS is always helpful when I can get through (I am one of those who cannot normally call during daytime hours to work out problems).

Sent my Moroni to Pahoran letter to the finance dep't. a couple weeks ago. Felt good to get it off my chest. I would really like to know the real purpose of the financial changes: who got the idea in the first place, do they still work there, is this a commercial finance program and somebody got a wild hare about adapting it, etc. It has made me a better clerk but has added many grey hairs. Quicky (My Stake President is a financial guy and he can't stand the new reports).

These comments are good. I'm encouraged by all those in this forum who take their stewardship so seriously. After taking a closer look this evening at some of the other units in the Stake, it appears that I'm premature in my assumptions. So far only one ward has been affected by what I've described.
In speaking with Local Unit Support this evening, the problem could have happened if LUS sent up some setup files to the ward. LUS couldn't confirm that they actually sent something and either could the ward, but the ward did initiate a phone call to LUS a few weeks back where something like that could have been discussed. The ward clerk was wasn't sure on this.
One thing I failed to mention in the earlier post was that these affected subcategories were not only zero balanced but also marked inactive which makes this all the more weird.
LUS says that update 3.3.1 should be going out this weekend. We'll see what happens with budgets now with this update.

davesudweeks wrote:Your Ward Clerks are very lucky. I wish our Stake Clerk would come once in a while and train/assist/answer questions! And our Stake is only about 15 miles away from our ward building. In my personal opinion, one of the main duties of the Stake leadership is to train the ward leadership.

I don't disagree with anything stated. However, I do feel it important to point out that there is no special "stake clerk training". We get the exact same info as ward clerks - no more, no less. We're operating just as blind as you are. In short, don't expect too much from your stake clerk. If you are confused and lost, chances are he is, too.

Those who have made heads or tails of the new system have earned it at the same cost as anyone else - lots of time and reading. If your stake clerk has not done that, chances are he won't have many answers for you.