How to cancel expense that is pending for Bishop's approval.

[dtschell]

An expense was submitted by a payee (ward clerk). the ward clerk approved his own expense. Secound counselor in Bishopric is new to the calling and approved the expense. The expense is not in the Pending Bishop's approval area of LCR. How can the bishop cancel/delete the expense so that it can be resubmitted and approved by By bishopric members that are not the same as the payee?

[dtschell]

Edit to original post. The expense is Now in the " Pending Bishop's approval" tab. Bishop's is having problems deleting it. How can this be done once the expense is in that tab of lcr?

[lippmannjs]

I have dealt with a similar situation to what you have posted. Unfortunately, once a reimbursement request in LCR receives second level approval there is no way on the ward's end to stop the reimbursement from being made. Your situation will likely trigger an audit exception.

The solution is to train all of the individuals that are on the ward's signature card to --
1. Avoid entering or approving a reimbursement if you are the payee.

2. If you are performing the second-level approval of a reimbursement, do not simply "rubber stamp" it or approve it because it has received first level approval. Review the reimbursement carefully and do not hesitate to make any needed corrections (such as rejecting the reimbursement in this case) BEFORE granting the approval.

[jdlessley]

Unfortunately, once a reimbursement request in LCR receives second level approval there is no way on the ward's end to stop the reimbursement from being made.

That is true for electronic funds transfer payments. Paper check payments can be voided at any time before clearing the bank as long as the procedures in the Help Center article Voiding a Check
are followed.

[jim85133]

What about when an expense is still pending a 2nd level approval? Will the expense be processed to the members bank before the 2nd level approval? If it is pending 2nd level, can the bishop still reject it?

[jdlessley]

Will the expense be processed to the members bank before the 2nd level approval?

For an EFT payment, the expense payment does not enter the banking system until the second approval is made. Until then, anyone with finance edit permissions can either reject the expense or delete it. For a check see my previous response in post #5.

If it is pending 2nd level, can the bishop still reject it?

Yes, this is true for either an EFT payment or a paper check payment.

[garystroble]

For a paper check, going to be messy if 2 authorized persons signed the check and mailed it already. Or am I missing something here?

[jdlessley]

For a paper check, going to be messy if 2 authorized persons signed the check and mailed it already. Or am I missing something here?

User jim85133 was asking about the second approval not having happened while in the LCR system. It was more of a question about when does the payment request get sent to the bank; is the payment sent on it's way after the first approval or after the second approval. For both an EFT and a paper check nothing happens until the second approval. For an EFT the expense payment is in the banking system after the second approval, and not before that. For a paper check the check cannot be printed until the second approval is made under normal circumstances. There are are two scenarios for a paper check where the submitter, first approver, and second approver can all be the same person. But user jim85133 was not asking about either of those two scenarios since he wanted to know if the bishop could cancel the expense payment before the second approval. And the answer is absolutely yes.

Now if the paper check is manually written, before the expense payment request is entered into the system, then the bishop cannot cancel the expense payment. Rather, it can be voided, which is nearly the same as cancelling, as long as the process described in the Help Center article Voiding a Check is followed.

[garystroble]

Not to belabor the point, but if a paper check has paper documentation, the second approver is the second signature, and the check can be written in LCR. Voiding a check already written and mailed would be a stop payment.

[bjenks]

Something similar happened with us. I immediately called the Global Service Center and they were able to cancel the transaction.