Bank Interest Posted to the Other Category

I noticed that about three months ago we started to get interest posted to the "other" category. I sent an email to CHQ and they indicated that we now get interest in two forms and have started to deposit this one form into our Other category. Since the Other category is supposed to be a pass through account for specific purposes this seems inconsistent.

Can anyone give me any additional information on this?

Thanks

ChuckP wrote:Can anyone give me any additional information on this?

I presume you want to know what to do with the interest accrued to the Other category? That is up to your bishop. Prior to CUBS the interest accrued on deposits to the Other category were most likely retained by the Church. They are now passing through that interest to the units that earned it.

The instructions provided in the current Other account training do not address this situation and are out of date. This interest is not from a donor but somewhat similar to fund-raiser funds in that a donor cannot be identified. Therefore the procedures found in How to deal with surpluseswould indicate that only two viable options are available.

The last option is to write a check and send it to the Corporation of the President. I find that a bit rediculous since the expense of writing a check and mailing it far excedes the value of the check. Of course the interest could be collected until enough is there to make that option worthwile. That may take years. I don't think that is practical.

The best option to me is to transfer the funds into a sub-category, such as a summer camp sub-category, in which the funds could be applied for the benefit of someone unable to provide their portion of the event expense.

The other account has always received interest if it was carrying a balance. Pre-CUBS, the interest was combined with the interest from and credited to the Ward Missionary account. Now it's credited to Other, and can make zeroing out other a pain.

If you can't zero it out by spending it, consider sending it to Ward Missionary again.

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions.

When reviewing the audit questions, I was reminded that Other:AMFA balances without a purpose are a no-no, so I created a transfer effective June 30 to distribute the interest earned to date.

daveywest wrote:When reviewing the audit questions, I was reminded that Other:AMFA balances without a purpose are a no-no, so I created a transfer effective June 30 to distribute the interest earned to date.

And when you get your June statement sometime later this month you'll find that some additional interest was credited to Other, so you still won't have a zero balance for the end of the audit period. There's no way to win on this one!

Wouldn't it make everyone's life easier if the church just put the interest just put back into a missionary account?

This is going to be a big problem for the stake as we carry a large other balance most of the time being an agent stake for the region, we collect funds from other stakes for regional YSA & SA events.

At the same time I can now go back to the wards and tell them that the only way to truly have a balance (including interest) in the other account is to make sure that it is 0're out as often as possible, especially the last month or so or the year.

Just do a transfer into your Other account each month. Surely you have an account where you accrue monies on a Stake level, Trek, YSA activities, Youth conferences, etc.? It really isn't this difficult. Keep a note or glance at your YTD transfer amounts so the transfers aren't tilted at any specific activity if someone asks and all should be good. Don't make this too difficult!

Quicky wrote:Just do a transfer into your Other account each month. Surely you have an account where you accrue monies on a Stake level, Trek, YSA activities, Youth conferences, etc.? It really isn't this difficult. Keep a note or glance at your YTD transfer amounts so the transfers aren't tilted at any specific activity if someone asks and all should be good. Don't make this too difficult!

The other account is not a place for long term storage of funds. In my opinion, if the other account is carrying funds year to year, it is not being used correctly.

Here's an example of an interest payment gone awry: We have a prison branch in our stake. Obviously, they do not carry missionary funds in any account. We did, however, receive a $.01 interest payment to the non-existent missionary fund. It has shown up as an exception in every audit since. SLC said it would be too much trouble to fix the problem. I could have the branch write the stake a check for the 1 cent and mail it to the Stake Missionary fund and use a 44-cent stamp to do it. That is a wise use of resources! KQ

Quicky wrote:Here's an example of an interest payment gone awry: We have a prison branch in our stake. Obviously, they do not carry missionary funds in any account. We did, however, receive a $.01 interest payment to the non-existent missionary fund. It has shown up as an exception in every audit since. SLC said it would be too much trouble to fix the problem. I could have the branch write the stake a check for the 1 cent and mail it to the Stake Missionary fund and use a 44-cent stamp to do it. That is a wise use of resources! KQ

It's definitely worth well over 44 cents to eliminate all the work that various levels of the audit mechanism go to in order to process an exception every six months. I would certainly recommend that the branch write the check and be done with it. But the stake doesn't have to be involved, and you can save 44 cents. Just have the branch deposit the penny in any charitable category, such as General Missionary.

I would also think that an auditor could use some reasonable judgment and overlook a one cent exception, but that's a decision for the local audit committee to make. I doubt that our stake's audit committee is going to consider any of this interest money in the Other account to be an exception worth writing up.

On reflection, I think the prohibition on 'parking' monies in Other accounts is an artifact of the years past practice of various wards trying to 'hide' monies that could not be carried over. With each ward now able to carry-over monies in a following years budget, I suspect the 'Other' account will be used more often for event accruals. KQ

It was CHQ who told us not to worry about the .01 in the missionary fund. I am still curious where it could have come from.

Quicky wrote:All the monies reside in SLC or an investment bank somewhere, the categories are merely an accounting method for keeping our heads straight with the funds.

I may be wrong (and consensus seems to agree) with my opinion. Regardless, this last statement is a poor argument. It does matter what money goes where and there are sections in the handbook and ample information here, in the wiki, and in the online trainings that testify to that.

Quicky wrote:Obviously, they do not carry missionary funds in any account.

Why not? Are prisoners not allowed to donate to the missionary fund? Ward missionary funds can be moved around by the stake to help other wards.

Quicky wrote:On reflection, I think the prohibition on 'parking' monies in Other accounts is an artifact of the years past practice of various wards trying to 'hide' monies that could not be carried over. With each ward now able to carry-over monies in a following years budget, I suspect the 'Other' account will be used more often for event accruals.

I'd agree, except you can now accrue the funds in your budget (if you are accruing budget money) in an appropriate subcategory. I guess I'm just a minimalist when it comes to using Other. I prefer to avoid/prevent problems by only using it when no other way will work.