Tools - Payment Request for Fast Offerings

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mcallaghan
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Location: Celebration, FL, USA

Tools - Payment Request for Fast Offerings

Post by mcallaghan »

This may sound odd, but let me finish before telling me why I'm wrong. :D

I just noticed that once a payment request has been submitted from Tools, the request that appears in LCR can have its budget changed to anything. As the Ward Clerk, I have proposed the following scenario to our Relief Society President.

Instead of emailing me all the gory details about a Fast Offering recipient or handing me a bunch of papers on Sunday, what if we did this instead?

• RS Pres receives docs from FO recipient (e.g., and electric bill).
• She submits a request through tools to the person/company being paid (e.g., Duke Energy).
• The only category she can select is Budget: Relief Society.
• She enters the purpose as "FO Electric bill for Soan Soe".
• She attaches the the documentation to the request.
• She submits the request.

At this point, no actual expense has yet been created. It is simply a request sitting in the Expense Requests queue. I open it and see that it's a FO request with the appropriate documentation and information. Instead of leaving the budget category as-is, I change it to Fast Offering: Utility and enter the FO member's name, leaving the amount and payee unchanged.

When I submit this, only then has an expense been entered, this time with the proper category. All documentation is attached and it is ready for the bishop's review.

Does anyone see any issues with this? The RS Pres insists that there will be an audit flag or finding because I changed the category. My position is that I didn't change anything. I merely entered an expense using the information provided in the request. I don't believe the request in the queue is actually official until it's been entered by the clerk.

Now, please feel free to tell me why I'm wrong and she's right.
russellhltn
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Re: Tools - Payment Request for Fast Offerings

Post by russellhltn »

In planning this out, make sure you have a plan to fix any errors that might happen along the way - such as forgetting to reclassify the expense.

Also, LCR could update at anytime such that you can't change a budget item to a non-budget item.
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mcallaghan
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Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:58 am
Location: Celebration, FL, USA

Re: Tools - Payment Request for Fast Offerings

Post by mcallaghan »

Errors can occur today with the current process. What I noticed today is that the expense requests come through with no budget or dollar amount specified. That may be a bug, and I am open to them changing that at any time. Likewise with your second concern.

The RS President's concern is from a paper trail and/or legal angle. Does anyone else share these concerns? I'm going to ask the Stake Clerk and possibly a stake auditor, too. As far as I can tell, the expense request vanishes as soon as I've entered it. I don't see any history of requests, so there would be nothing to compare the expense to.
eblood66
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Re: Tools - Payment Request for Fast Offerings

Post by eblood66 »

As far as I can tell, the payment request is really just convenience to allow the submitter to do some work the clerk would otherwise have to do. Once the clerk opens the expense its no different than if they had typed it all in themselves. In fact, as far as I know there is no way to tell whether a request came via payment request or whether a clerk entered it is the auto-generated payment request attachment. And the clerk can delete that if they want too.

The only possible audit problem would be that payment request attachment. It would request payment from a different category than used for the expense. You could have a standard document you upload that explains the difference or you could have the RS president attach an alternative payment request form and you delete the auto-generated one.

My biggest reservation would be the likelihood of forgetting to make one of the necessary adjustments.

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