New Reimbursement Function

Discussions around the Android version of the Member Tools application
eblood66
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Re: New Reimbursement Function

#11

Post by eblood66 »

According to the Access Table in LCR nobody in the Aaronic Priesthood organization has access to the payment request screen. I'm pretty sure that the payment request in Member Tools follows the same rules. That means it would have to be handled by the bishopric or a clerk who can enter an expense directly (without first making a Payment Request).
jdlessley
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Re: New Reimbursement Function

#12

Post by jdlessley »

murdock20m wrote:With the changes in the Young Men's leadership, who can now submit reimbursement requests for them?
The YM presidency is the ward bishopric. Therefore any payment requests using the LCR Payment Request feature and the Member Tools Payment Request is only available to the ward bishopric and ward clerks with finance edit permissions. Quorum advisors and quorum specialists do not have access to these tools.
murdock20m wrote:For example, one of the young men's, quorum adult Leaders, emailed me (cc'd the Bishop) a receipt for gasoline requesting reimbursement because he drove out to the young men's campout.
If you are a ward clerk with finance edit permissions then you can submit the payment request for the quorum adult leader and use a copy of the email and the receipt as the documentation for the payment request. For practical purposes the bishopric and ward clerks are the organization leaders for the young men fulfilling the responsibilities for the former YM presidency.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
BrianEdwards
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Re: New Reimbursement Function

#13

Post by BrianEdwards »

It's a bit confusing, since a bishopric member can submit payment requests for organizations, but not for the unit budget category. So for me, the default "Budget" page has the drop-down selected as "Unit Leader/Clerk", and no "Payment Request" tab shows. But once I change the drop-down to something like "Young Men", then the "Payment Request" tab appears. I'm not saying this is wrong, just that it's easy for a Bishopric member to miss this if they're not aware.
jdlessley
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Re: New Reimbursement Function

#14

Post by jdlessley »

BrianEdwards wrote:It's a bit confusing, since a bishopric member can submit payment requests for organizations, but not for the unit budget category. So for me, the default "Budget" page has the drop-down selected as "Unit Leader/Clerk", and no "Payment Request" tab shows. But once I change the drop-down to something like "Young Men", then the "Payment Request" tab appears. I'm not saying this is wrong, just that it's easy for a Bishopric member to miss this if they're not aware.
I'm on board with you that the payment request feature needs a bit of work. The original concept was to provide an electronic expense payment method as an alternative, or replacement, to the archaic paper payment request system. As currently implemented, it only makes the expense payment process from organization presidencies to approvers electronic and more stream lined. This does help the approval and documentation of a payment request. The general membership still has to either use paper submissions or email to submit a payment request. There is little improvement in efficiency there. Also unit leaders/clerk do not have a method to submit payment requests for themselves unless submitting under an organization's access; direct entry using the Expenses tab; or using a workaround method described below.

For the general membership the electronic payment request feature, as currently implemented, has no apparent advantage to how payment requests have previously been handled. There would possibly be a perceived improvement should they gain access. There may be an improvement in process efficiency provided the electronic payment request feature routed the request to the appropriate organization presidency first and only required a presidency member approval before the unit leaders/clerks complete the approval process.

The payment request methods available to unit leaders/clerks involve either using the archaic paper method, sending an email payment request to an organization presidency or another unit leader/clerk depending on the category to be debited, or direct entry at the Expense tab. I am sure most would agree the paper method involves a lot of work time and there are delays in completing the processing.

A significant negative of all the available methods listed above for unit leaders/clerks to submit their own payment requests is that the organization president/presidency is left out of the information/approval loop. Further communications are necessary and thus effectively defeating any timeliness and efficiency in the process.

A positive aspect of a unit leader/clerk using the payment request feature is that a submission as not automatically approved by the submitter. This avoids the issue of the submitter being an approver as well as the payee - an improper procedure and an audit exception. This positive aspect of the payment request feature can be developed further to cover payment requests involving ward budget categories not under the management of an organization as well as including organization presidents/presidencies in the approval process.

As I mentioned above there is a fallible workaround that allows a unit leader/clerk, someone with finance edit permissions, to submit a payment request for themselves against a category not falling under a unit organization and avoid being an approver. The procedure involves the unit leader/clerk submitting the payment for themselves at the Expenses tab. But immediately after submitting the payment he opens the payment again and rejects the payment with a comment such as "Approver cannot approve a payment to themself." The rejected payment now shows up at the Pending Expenses tab. Another unit leader/clerk can then review the pending expense and approve it as the first approver.

This workaround can fail if the person submitting the payment request does not remember to go back and reject the payment and another unit leader/clerk approves the payment.

Another failure could possibly develop when an electronic receipt is not attached. In this case the payment goes directly to the Print Checks tab. The chance the error would be caught at this point is low. This error can be corrected. One method to correct it is to attach paper receipts to the expense payment report and check stub. Additionally the payee must not sign the check as an approver. Another error correction method is to attach the electronic copy of the receipts to the completed expense payment as soon as the error is noted.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
MurdockM
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Location: USA

Tools payment request, attached image file?

#15

Post by MurdockM »

I am a Financial Clerk with a question.

In, "Tools-Finance-Payment Request", is there no way yet to attach a scanned file of a receipt?

For example a Relief Society President authorizes a teacher to buy supplies for a lesson. The teacher emails scans of the receipts to the President. I can't see a way, for now, that a scanned receipt image can be attached to a payment request. Is the only option taking pictures with the device camera?
eblood66
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Re: Tools payment request, attached image file?

#16

Post by eblood66 »

murdock20m wrote:For example a Relief Society President authorizes a teacher to buy supplies for a lesson. The teacher emails scans of the receipts to the President. I can't see a way, for now, that a scanned receipt image can be attached to a payment request. Is the only option taking pictures with the device camera?
It's hidden a bit but the option is there. Here's what I did:

1. Hit the plus button to start a request.
2. Add the payee.
3. Enter the purpose.
4. Click the plus button to add a receipt (ignore the text that says 'Add a receipt with your phone's camera')
5. Enter the category and amount.
6. Press the 'Please Add a Receipt' button.
7. Select 'Choose a file'
8. The receipt has to be downloaded to your device or stored on Google Drive (at least for Android)
MurdockM
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Location: USA

Re: New Reimbursement Function

#17

Post by MurdockM »

Thank you eblood66.

I had only browsed, yet not needed to complete a request.

The Ward clerk will be sending out an email to the Presidencies explaining electronic requests and reimbursements.
(Especially, encouraging everyone to opt-in to receiving electronic reimbursements.)
MCRACEJG
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Re: New Reimbursement Function

#18

Post by MCRACEJG »

Does anyone know if the general functionality supports reimbursement from a Ward unit to the stake? (i.e. Ward young women's president to the stake clerk)

Or is this still a manual process for the time being.
eblood66
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Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:17 am
Location: Cumming, GA, USA

Re: New Reimbursement Function

#19

Post by eblood66 »

MCRACEJG wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 9:25 pm Does anyone know if the general functionality supports reimbursement from a Ward unit to the stake? (i.e. Ward young women's president to the stake clerk)
Only stake organization leaders can submit reimbursement requests to the stake. But as at the ward level, they can request the reimbursement on the behalf of another member.
mulrich1
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Re: New Reimbursement Function

#20

Post by mulrich1 »

The reimbursement function on the Tools app is great, but as the finance clerk, I wish it allowed me to submit reimbursement requests for other people (unless I'm missing something, the functionality isn't available on my Tools app). We have members submit reimbursements through their auxiliary presidencies but some presidencies still give me paper receipts or I complete a reimbursement for the YM or bishopric. It's a lot easier to take pictures directly with the app than upload them from a computer.
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