Electronic reimbursements

[russellhltn]

However, there is nothing wrong with a full-size page scan that you upload to the website, in my view.

As long as everything is readable, I agree. The added effort to crop does little considering that once it's filed, it's not going to get very many views. One needs to balance the work needed to make it "neat" versus how little it will be looked at.

I will probably experiment with my wifi tablet to take a pic, email it to my gmail account, and then access the file from the clerk computer that way to upload the image.

What I like about the Microsoft Lens app (and presumably other apps like it) is it does the cropping and some clean up automatically. So, for about the same amount of effort, you get cleaner results. That is worth the effort, but as long as it's readable, I wouldn't reject something done in the regular camera app.

[davesudweeks]

What I like about the Microsoft Lens app (and presumably other apps like it) is it does the cropping and some clean up automatically. So, for about the same amount of effort, you get cleaner results. That is worth the effort, but as long as it's readable, I wouldn't reject something done in the regular camera app.

I cannot install the Microsoft Lens app on my Android 4.4 device. I have tried one other app that I can install and the legibility was not good enough. Most of the apps on the Google store will not work for my device or I have to pay for them or there are other issues with them that make them undesirable. I'm ready to upgrade the device, but have not gotten approval from the CFO (Chief Female Officer) yet

I did verify today that we can scan to a thumb-drive on the Library copier so I may resort to that though it is a bit inconvenient. We will probably leave most paper receipts in the paper process for the time being and use the digital process when the receipts are already provided that way. We are just starting this and have not done any yet on LCR with digital receipts.

[lajackson]

I cannot install the Microsoft Lens app on my Android 4.4 device.

I was using Tiny Scanner and it worked quite well for me.

[scgallafent]

We have been using this for about 2 weeks, and the approval process is mostly intuitive. However, it's not clear whether both approvers need to be physically present at the computer to review an expense before approving it. The instructions under the "Approve Expenses" tab says that " two approvers must be present at the computer or device." Cautiously, we have interpreted this as requiring both approvers to be present simultaneously. However, this seems to remove the value added by moving the process to LCR. Anyone know if, for example, I can approve in one location and, granted all material is available for a second approver, another party can approve from a second location?

If images of the receipts have been attached to the expense, the approvers can do that independently since each has the ability to review the online document. If paper receipts are being used (no attached images), the approval needs to happen simultaneously.

[davesudweeks]

I cannot install the Microsoft Lens app on my Android 4.4 device.

I was using Tiny Scanner and it worked quite well for me.

Thanks for the tip! I will try it out.

[jdlessley]

For scanning from my phone I use the Office Lens app on my android phone, which I assume is the same as the Microsoft Lens app.

[MurdockM]

I have "Tiny Scanner" on my Android tablet. However it looks like I have to fiddle with contrast settings as well as roughly crop on a touch screen. Ugh!

Also, a receipt may not lay flat when tabletop scanned. (However, ward leaders will likely email me receipts scanned that way.)

I'm thinking a Xerox scan (cover over glass holds receipts flat) will be most readable. However I am not afraid of using all options avilable. And, likely will prepare a brief page, to hand out in ward council, suggesting ways to get started submitting receipt scans to me, the ward Financial clerk.

[MurdockM]

Question;
Will a paper check from MLS be rejected by bank if Bishop was not given a heads up by Fin clerk that he (Bishop) needs to authorize the check on his Dashboard?

Do Bishops/Presidents receive an occasional email saying there are x expenses he needs to authorize on his Dashboard?

Long version;
Yesterday we cut a paper check using MLS. We had just finished transmitting our batch.

I then closed MLS and having also had LCR open went to logoff and noticed the Bishops Authorization tab was now red with the 0 replaced by the number of the 1.

The Bishops 1st counselor emailed the Bishop a cell-phone screen shot . The Bishop then logged on and authorized the paper check.

My concern was because this check needed to be hand delivered to a provider ASAP. And if Zions bank did not honor it,... things would go quickly from bad to worse!

PS: If Bishops don't currently receive a text or email, could that opt-in be added. (I like that my credit cards message me when something I want to know right away, has occured.)

OR, before leaving the church on Sunday could the Bishop Preauthorize an expense he knows a check will be cut for that day?

[MurdockM]

Having just installed MS Office lens I'm here reporting that it appears to automatically crop and then zoom in on the cropped section. Based on just seeing this much I will likely uninstall "Tiny Scanner" and use Office Lense.

Tiny Scanner seemed to require manual cropping and contrast adjustment.

Your mileage/opinions may vary.

[eblood66]

Question;
Will a paper check from MLS be rejected by bank if Bishop was not given a heads up by Fin clerk that he (Bishop) needs to authorize the check on his Dashboard?

I'm pretty sure that it's not required. We were enabled on the beta test for at least a couple weeks before I found out. So when I started using the new system I had multiple checks already sitting and waiting for the bishops approval. I'm pretty positive that at least some of these checks were cashed before he eventually approved them 2-3 weeks later. If I remember right he had about 20 expenses to approve that first time. Also I've not seen any warnings that the bishops approval is needed before a check can be cashed.

Do Bishops/Presidents receive an occasional email saying there are x expenses he needs to authorize on his Dashboard?

Yes, the bishop does receive an email if there are pending approvals but I'm not sure how quickly it's sent off. For electronic reimbursements it sends a notification email to all possible approvers within a couple hours. It also sends an another email if there are outstanding approvals. Based on how the notification is worded I think that it probably just checks periodically (maybe weekly) and sends an email if anything is outstanding.