How to get a report of expenses for a specific category for last year?

[jgoggan]

We're trying to do some budgeting for this year and I'd simply like to see a report of expenses for each category for LAST year so that we can see where the money was spent. For example, say I want to know what the Young Men spent their budget on last year. In LCR, I can get close by going to "Overview -> Income and Expense Details -> Previous Year" and then selecting "Young Men" in the Categories box. The problem with that is that it doesn't actually give the details of those expenses. It just gives who it was written to. I'd have to click on each one to see what it was actually for.

So, instead, I tried going to: "Expenses -> Expenses Summary -> Previous Year". That has exactly what I want. But, for some reason, "Young Men" does not show up in the Categories drop-down! Under "Budget" in that dropdown, all I have is "Administration", "Distribution Center Charges", "Miscellaneous", "Primary", and "Relief Society." So, a bunch of the usual budget categories are just missing from that list.

Is this just a bug? Is there some other way to generate such a report for each Category?

Note that I can "kinda" get what I need by just changing the Category there to "Budget" and then sorting by Category. So, then I've got a little section for "Young Men" on that big list and can use that for now. But it just seems like I should be able to just select "Young Men" and have the exact report I want -- if only "Young Men" showed up in the Category dropdown!

Thanks for any hints/tips!

[eblood66]

It may be easier to use MLS still. Under the Budget Report option you can select a Detailed report and have it print any or all all categories for the previous year.

As for LCR, I can't check it myself but it does sound like a bug if Young Men isn't one of the categories. It's a top level budget category so it seems like it should be there unless you don't have any expenses in the category or it's subcategories for the previous year (which doesn't sound like it's the case). You may want to send feedback in LCR about it.

[jgoggan]

I did submit a feedback report today about it. I think it may indeed just be a bug.

Attached is a screen clip showing the dropdown open -- it is simply missing a bunch of the Budget categories. And I made sure that they existed for that date range and such. Again, if I leave it on "All Categories", I can see all of the Budget categories in the actual data -- it just doesn't let me filter on them.

We'll see what I hear back from the Feedback submission.

[jdlessley]

So, instead, I tried going to: "Expenses -> Expenses Summary -> Previous Year". That has exactly what I want. But, for some reason, "Young Men" does not show up in the Categories drop-down! Under "Budget" in that dropdown, all I have is "Administration", "Distribution Center Charges", "Miscellaneous", "Primary", and "Relief Society." So, a bunch of the usual budget categories are just missing from that list.

Is this just a bug?

Yes it is a bug. The bug causes the filtering for Expenses > Expenses Summary > Previous Year to only show those categories for which funds have been debited against them in the current year. In testing for your situation I ran into the bug and reported it. I suggest anyone running into the bug to report it also.

For now you will have to do as eblood66 noted and go into MLS to get the information you need.

[jgoggan]

Ha! I was just adding this post when it notified me of a same-time post with you:

Oh! Hey! I figured out the bug. It doesn't re-adjust that dropdown based on the date range. So, when you go onto that page originally, the date range is set to "Current Year" -- and it only shows you Budget filters for that year. So, in my data above, for the CURRENT year, there are only those budget categories so far for the year. But, when you change the date range to "Previous Year", it does not re-fill the dropdown to filter by Category, so you still only see the CURRENT year categories. Definitely a bug.

So, we noticed the same thing. I did report it also. Thanks.

[jgoggan]

Just wanted to follow up on this. I reported the bug using the Feedback tab on the page. I got a message back saying to contact the Global Service Center for help on how to find Expenses. (I.e. they clearly just thought it was a user issue and ignored my reporting of the bug itself). I replied back that I would call the GSC as requested, but that I wanted them to know that this wasn't just a "how do I do this?" question and was instead the reporting of an actual bug.

I then called the GSC. She was polite, but it took quite a while to try to explain the situation to her. She could even reproduce it and kept going "I don't know why Young Men isn't showing up in the Category list." I kept trying to explain the bug to her and why it wasn't in the list when she switched to Previous Year (again, because there hasn't been an expense for that category yet THIS year). She finally seemed to understand it enough to agree that it was a bug and submit it to Tier 2 for review.

Today, I received this from Tier 2:

As for your request, Tier 2 inform that you can find that information under overview- income and expense detail. Unfortunately the expense tab does not show all the category but you can find the same information under income and expense summary.

So, no real acknowledgement of the bug itself. I'm not sure that they are getting it yet. And then a statement that is simply false. They basically say to just use the Summary page instead since "you can find the same information" there. That, of course, is absolutely incorrect. (That is why we have a SUMMARY page and a DETAIL page, of course, because they show different information. If I want to see the description of what the expense was actually for, then I need the Details page, of course.

I just wrote back asking them to please re-review it and send the bug to someone that can get it corrected. I explained that the Summary page that they suggested does not actually contain the "same information" because it doesn't have the details of the expense that I need.

I'll follow up when I hear back again.

[eblood66]

They basically say to just use the Summary page instead since "you can find the same information" there. That, of course, is absolutely incorrect. (That is why we have a SUMMARY page and a DETAIL page, of course, because they show different information. If I want to see the description of what the expense was actually for, then I need the Details page, of course.

Actually, if I remember right, they are correct. If you go to the Summary, select the previous year and then find the category and click on the category name, I believe that it takes you to the details screen for that category and I assume that it keeps the same date filter. I can't verify that myself anymore but I do remember clicking through from the summary page to the detail page.

[jgoggan]

So, actually, this is getting things confused. Neither the Summary page NOR the Details page actually give what I need. What I need is the list of actual expenses -- with the description of what they were used for. The only place to get that is by going to Expenses and then Expenses Summary. That is the only place I can find in LCR that lises the PURPOSE of the funds -- so that I can tell what it was actually used for. And, on that page, the bug makes it so that you can't select Previous Year and then a category (unless it already had an expense for the Current year).

If you go to Overview and then "Income and Expense Summary" OR "Income and Expense Detail", you cannot see the "purpose" of the expense without clicking on each individual item in the list.

Note that on the "I&E Details" page, you can select Previous Year and then the categories are all there. It just doesn't have the actual expense details/purpose listed.

If you go to the "I&E Summary" page, it doesn't list ANY Budget categories at all -- you can only select "Budget" because it is just the Summary page. You can then click on "Budget" and it takes you to the Details page -- and you can then select "Young Men" if you want -- but that was already working on the Details page.

The problem is still that the bug is on the "Expenses->Expense Summary" page -- which, as far as I can tell, is the only place to find a list of the actual purposes/descriptions for an expense in LCR.

[eblood66]

You're right. I forgot that the details page only lists payee and amount and not the description. That page would be a lot more useful if it did.

[jdlessley]

Just wanted to follow up on this. I reported the bug using the Feedback tab on the page. I got a message back saying to contact the Global Service Center for help on how to find Expenses.

This is the same response I got from them. I responded and explained to them it was not a user issue but a system bug on their end. I have not received a reply. I do not plan on contacting the GSD because it is not a user end issue and they seldom, if ever, elevate to someone who understands what the issue really is.