CUBS Additional Clarification

[childsdj]

The attached pdf file has been created to hopefully clarify a couple of questions that are coming in concerning the CUBS transition from calls and this forum. This document will also be sent via email to stake clerks.

I hope this clarifies a couple of questions.

Thanks.

[freedom55]

Hi DJC,

Thanks for posting this. It clarifies some of the questions in my mind.

I note that it says not to transfer old expenses from Budget:Admin - that makes sense. How about transferring the equivalent old expense amount from the previous subcategory (under Budget Allocations) to Budget Allocations in order to provide a Y-T-D summary of expenditures?

For example: we spent $1000 on widgets, charged to Budget:Widgets, prior to the changeover. After the change over we spent another $1000 on widgets (high use item) but the budget report only now shows a Y-T-D expenditure of $1000 instead of $2000. transferring $1000 from Budget:Budget Allocations:Widgets to Budget:Budget Allocations allows the budget report to show the Y-T-D spending of $2000.

I checked with CHQ before doing this with the stake budget and was told to go ahead but this document has raised a question mark in my mind.

Thanks for your time.

[russellhltn]

I think the thing I'd look at it how moving an expense would affect the resulting balance for the ward. Keep in mind that the budget has been zeroed out and the stake is only going to transfer the remaining budget (and not the year's allocation).

If one is going to move all the expenses to their proper place, we need to have some kind of "income" to offset those expenses, or else the results will mess up our balance.

It's just I'm not sure if moving the expenses will "break the magic" that zeroed the balance.

I suppose you could make a back up and try it. If the ward's balance changes when you move things around, then restore.

[jbh001]

Thanks. This is so helpful, and it makes me glad we waited before doing anything. It looks like the only accounts we will need to clean up are the Missionary accounts and the "other" accounts.

We can safely leave the "Budget" categories alone until we get a check from the stake.

[happy1z]

O.k. I read the document but still have a few questions. It sounds like we are supposed to leave all the expense history charged to the Budget:Administration category? We can't go in and change the Budget Category to the correct "New" Category? I am looking ot have more accurate expense trending. Please advise.

Also, For the budgets being reset to 0. I understand that they needed to be zeroed; however, what about the stake allocation amounts that were there as well as the budgeted amounts. Why would that get wiped out? How is the wards and stake supposed to know where there at in there budgets if they don't have the figures anymore?

Also also, When is the stake going to get more detailed information on doing budgets this new way for the wards? I Understand it is by percentages per quarter but a real world example would help me understand.

Final question, How do the ward use the budget screen in the new way next year. Does the budget allocation field change throughout the year? Is it even needed?

[crislapi]

Thanks for posting DJC. This really helps. I do still see a few issues that may still need addressing.

Budget allocations will be posted directly to the Budget Allocations sub-category. The unit can then create transfers to each of your budget subcategories in order to track budgets for each subcategory.

We still have view/edit budget capability but if we use that as well as transfers, we will get income 2X when viewing the budget report, the method most of us are used to using. See this post. Should we migrate over to the Income and Expense report?

For example, if the Primary had $1,000 left in their budget with pre CUBS MLS, you may want to transfer back $1,000 to the new Budget subcategory “Primary” or to a different subcategory, as desired.

I think a lot of the questions being asked of LUS is how to get the info on remaining budget back. The I&E report does have total expenses info, but for the past 4 years. If only the instructions had said to print current year as well. Even if a clerk knows how much was given to each sub-category over the last 4 years, he'd also have to know how much was leftover each year to back out a 2010 remaining balance figure. Is there a good solution LUS is giving clerks?

I can see why the instructions stated to print the I&E report instead of the Budget report - those who wrote it were probably familiar with CUBS. As mentioned above, with CUBS the I&E report DOES contain remaining balance info if you transfer balances to each sub-category.

Do not transfer previously recorded expenses from Budget: Administration. You may be tempted to adjust all of the old expenses to the new Budget subcategories. THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED. Doing so will not allow you to have an accurate picture of correct running balances.

Good point and that makes sense. Having been one of those who already recategoriezed all my old expenses, let me offer this to those in my place. The reason I did it was because I like printing the previous year's budget detail report and giving them to auxiliary and other leaders to assist with their budgeting for the next year. If I edit the budget with 2010 budgeted amounts for the entire year, recategorize the expenses, and only look at budget reports, the remaining balance is correct. At the end of 2010 I will enter a single transfer from Budget:Administration to each subcategory equal to the total expenses as of 10/17/10. That will make my balances correct for 2011.

Another option for those who want to use the I&E report and have already recategorized their expenses is to transfer a credit from Budget:Administration to the sub-category equal to the total expenses on Oct 17, 2010 (run a summary by sub-category I&E report from 1 Jan 2010 to 17 Oct 2010 to obtain this info). This way, your detailed expenses will still be available in the appropriate subcategory, but your starting balances post-CUBS will be zero. You may want to date the transfers Oct 17, 2010 so your reports don't have "artifacts".

[crislapi]

O.k. I read the document but still have a few questions. It sounds like we are supposed to leave all the expense history charged to the Budget:Administration category? We can't go in and change the Budget Category to the correct "New" Category? I am looking ot have more accurate expense trending. Please advise.

I've offered a couple solutions for how to do this.

Why would that get wiped out? How is the wards and stake supposed to know where there at in there budgets if they don't have the figures anymore?

Your financial information has been replaced with CHQ's records. The old system, CFAR, was not capable of holding any sub-category information so when the data was replaced, all the category information was lost.

Also also, When is the stake going to get more detailed information on doing budgets this new way for the wards? I Understand it is by percentages per quarter but a real world example would help me understand.

I found the instructions and sample given in the conversion instructions insightful. If you have not seen it, here is a link (pp 2-3). Also Alan_Brown's example in this thread is good (if is the former guess, not the latter. See here).

Final question, How do the ward use the budget screen in the new way next year. Does the budget allocation field change throughout the year? Is it even needed?

The Budget:Budget Allocations category will automatically receive budget allotments at the beginning of every quarter. No other sub-categories will automatically receive credits. If you chose to move income to your sub-categories, you must manually enter transfers every quarter.

Another option is to leave all the money in Budget:Budget Allocations and use the View/Edit budget and Budget Report screens (better for yearly budgeting). The only statement I can find suggest that your all your budget categories combined should remain positive:

After a ward receives and deposits the check from the stake, the budget category in the ward should be positive at all times.

[nutterb]

Thanks for posting DJC. This really helps. I do still see a few issues that may still need addressing.
We still have view/edit budget capability but if we use that as well as transfers, we will get income 2X when viewing the budget report, the method most of us are used to using. See this post. Should we migrate over to the Income and Expense report?

I just wrote a check this morning to see what would happen. When I wrote the check, it deducted it from the subcategory and appeared as a deduction in that subcategory in the Income and Expense report. If it continues to function like this, I would recommend discontinuing use of the View/Edit budget screen (except to calculate allocations to auxiliaries).

Personally, I think it'd be helpful if one of two things happened:
1) The View/Edit Budget screen automatically created transfers that would show up on the Income and Expense report, or
2) The View/Edit Budget dialog didn't affect the numbers on the Budget Report.

But with the way it is set up now, I see a lot of potential for confusion.

[crislapi]

But with the way it is set up now, I see a lot of potential for confusion.

Just a comment - how it is set up now is how it was set up before. It is just that before we did not transfer money to the sub-categories. Also, cut checks have always shown as expenses in the I&E report under the subcategory they were assigned to.

[nutterb]

Just a comment - how it is set up now is how it was set up before. It is just that before we did not transfer money to the sub-categories. Also, cut checks have always shown as expenses in the I&E report under the subcategory they were assigned to.

That's a fair critique. The salient change in the process though, is that now we're being encouraged to do transfers, whereas I don't recall having that direction before.

Just extending the thought: before, it didn't really matter whether you did transfers or allocations--the stake collected whatever money was left over at the end of the year (at least in my stake). Since the ward's balance was going to go to zero at the end of the year anyway, I don't see that it made much difference whether we used transfers or allocations.

Now that the wards get to retain the funds at the end of the year, I suppose the decision of transfers vs. allocations can be affected by what the ward intends to do with the money at the end of the year. If the ward intends to absorb any excess funds for administrative use, the allocations will work fine. But if the ward plans to let auxiliaries retain any money they've not spent, then transfers need to be used since allocations will essentially reset the starting balance.

If I've missed something important, please correct me.