CUBS Budget:Other and Other:XXXX confusion

[lajackson]

The change is that "Other:Payable to Local Unit" became "Other:Authorized Member Financed Activities". Personally, I don't see any use for that intermediate level; they could have just had "Authorized Member Financed Activities" replace Other at the top level. But that hasn't happened.

I think they are struggling to come up with a name to cover two types of Other. There is the Other that the Church uses to handle things like bounced checks. And then there is the Other that the local unit uses for a very few proper reasons and then for reasons that are not so, well, proper.

Trouble is, by calling it "Other:Authorized Member Financed Activities", they have tried to include an entire training course on how to use the Other category properly into the sub-category title of the Other account.

Not that these are any better, but they are shorter:

Other:Church controlled
Other:Locally controlled

or even better:

Other:Hq
Other:Local

[crislapi]

The change is that "Other:Payable to Local Unit" became "Other:Authorized Member Financed Activities". Personally, I don't see any use for that intermediate level; they could have just had "Authorized Member Financed Activities" replace Other at the top level. But that hasn't happened.

That's odd. My stake computer shows just "Authorized Member Financed Activities"; there is no preceding "Other:". It is the first item on my Income and Expense report. However, we never used the Other account so it didn't even appear post-CUBS. The wards I have looked at, however, all show "Other:Authorized Member Financed Activities". They did use Other and did have categories appear after the transition.

[lajackson]

That's odd. My stake computer shows just "Authorized Member Financed Activities"; there is no preceding "Other:".
. . .
The wards . . . all show "Other:Authorized Member Financed Activities".

Our stake computer does not show anything, but that is totally unrelated to CUBS. However, because we will be in that situation for a short while longer, we have taken the position that it does not hurt to let the dust settle a little bit.

After we start receiving stake financial support, perhaps in a week or two, we plan to do a few Send/Receives, see what is left, and then start working from there.

And by then, it appears, all of the world's problems will have been solved. [grin]

(Well, we can only hope, eh?)

[HunsakerTG]

The "Other" (or Pass-Through) category contains TWO top-level sub-categories. The first is "Authorized Member Financed Activities", under which local units can add their own lower-level sub-categories (such as "Scout Camp"). The second top-level sub-category is the rarely remembered (because it does not appear on our tithing & offerings slips) "Temple Patron Assistance".

Technically, "Humanitarian Aid", "Perpetual Education", and "Temple Construction" also fall under the "Other" (or Pass-Through) category, but they appear as categories rather than sub-categories because donations made to them are automatically transferred to Church Headquarters at Send/Receive time. (Unless something has changed that I am not aware about,) we still have to send "Temple Patron Assistance" funds to Church Headquarters manually, thus its inclusion as a sub-category under the "Other" (or Pass-Through) category.

As one of those poor uninformed souls who spent 7 hours setting up all our Ward's "missed" sub-categories (such as Activities Committee!) under "Budget:Budget Allocations" (because that is where two other sub-category budget areas were already located by the conversion process), just to receive the notification that we should NOT do that an hour after I had finished the conversion, I REALLY would appreciate knowing how MLS & CUBS themselves use any special budget sub-category, such as "Budget Allocations" itself. I am refusing to use "Budget:Other" for ANY sub-sub-category until I run some test reports from the Other (or Pass-Through) category, to see whether any of those reports show the word "Other". If any of them do show the word "Other", then use of Budget:Other is out at our Ward. It simply would be too confusing to our quorums and auxiliaries. (Sigh.)

[crislapi]

Technically, "Humanitarian Aid", "Perpetual Education", and "Temple Construction" also fall under the "Other" (or Pass-Through) category, but they appear as categories rather than sub-categories because donations made to them are automatically transferred to Church Headquarters at Send/Receive time.

Just clarifying. Temple Patron Assistance is an automatically swept category while I believe it is Temple Construction that is not (at least not right now).

[HunsakerTG]

Just clarifying. Temple Patron Assistance is an automatically swept category while I believe it is Temple Construction that is not (at least not right now).

crislapi is correct. (I am now guessing Temple Patron Assistance is not its own category because it does not [currently] appear on the tithing and offerings slip. It would not have anything to do with the automatic sweep.)

[davesudweeks]

...We'll just end up creating the same sub-categories we had before but we'll be forced to put them into places where they won't fit as neatly.

This is the reason I recommended to my Bishop that we just live with the standard categories for the next 1.5 months. We told the organizations in Ward Council this week that they would have 1 budget line for the rest of the year and they will just have to live with that. For 2011, we hope to have a better understanding of how to best set-up their subcategories.

At first I really struggled with trying to think through how to make the new system match the old. I finally just decided to let it go, concentrate on the new system and learn how to work within it. I had the same problem with MLS at first until I let go of my pre-conceived notions as to how I thought it should work.

[idjeeper2]

I'm struggling with the categories and hope someone can shed some light, or at least some suggestions.

As a YSA branch, our biggest budget category has always been the Activities Committee. In CUBS, that committee has been banished. Does anyone have some ideas about where a sub-category for Activities Committee should be created?

I created one under Other, but I'm thinking that might be inappropriate. I just can't see any of the other categories that look better.

[crislapi]

I'm struggling with the categories and hope someone can shed some light, or at least some suggestions.

As a YSA branch, our biggest budget category has always been the Activities Committee. In CUBS, that committee has been banished. Does anyone have some ideas about where a sub-category for Activities Committee should be created?

I created one under Other, but I'm thinking that might be inappropriate. I just can't see any of the other categories that look better.

We are a YSA stake. I created most of my categories under Budget:Other because 1) they are mostly activities related (mingles, FHE, sports) and 2) they didn't seem to fit well under any of the other options.

For more reading, I'd recommend this thread. Basically, use whatever subcategory makes the most sense. If it's Other, that's fine. I don't think it's intended for every category to be in Other, but if that's the most logical association, then that's ok.

[russellhltn]

Isn't there a category Budget:Young Single Adult? Seems like that would be a good place.