Tech Forum

MLS just downloaded install instructions for 3.4.1. You'll find it in your finance statements section. The message says

Dear clerk,

A critical MLS upgrade instruction document is posted in FINANCES > FINANCE STATEMENTS > OCT 2011 MLS 3.4.1 UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS requiring your immediate attention. Please print out and complete them prior to Sunday, October 16, 2011

Additionally, in the same document location you will find the "OCT 2011 MLS 3.4.1 CHANGES" document that describes important changes made to MLS finance reports.

I did not receive the document "OCT 2011 MLS 3.4.1 UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS" but perhaps that is because I am already on 3.4.1. Perhaps someone else can upload it if they receive it? Please note we have 9 days to get this message and follow the instructions so spread the word. If you don't happen to be the one on the computer when you get the pop-up about the message, you might never know about this.

As for the other document, it is attached below.

What is it that has to be done?

RussellHltn wrote:What is it that has to be done?

Just clarified the post - I didn't receive the update instructions so I'm not sure.

I noticed that the instructions got stuck in a temporary directory
and never made it to the Financial Statements part of MLS.

Please find the Instructions attached.

- Atticus

[Moderator note: The attachment was removed for security reasons. Follow instructions in this post or other posts in this thread to find the attachment on your MLS system.]

The "OCT 2011 MLS 3.4.1 Changes" document mentions a reconciling procedure for your I&E and Budget balances. I was unfamiliar with the names they used, so I provide a translation here:
1) A current year budget allowance summary report is a budget report with Type: Summary, Date Range: Current Year. Make sure all categories are selected.
2) You must print (or print preview) to see the field names they refer to.
a) Assigned Budget Balance is the total of your budget report balance column.
b) Unassigned Annual Budget is the last amount printed at the very bottom of the report. It should be the same as the amount at the bottom of your view/edit budget screen listed as "Difference". For me, however, it is not, but this appears to be due to a obvious bug (one of my assigned budget allocations is not showing on my budget report).

I will mention that my amounts do not reconcile, and they are off by more than the difference in 2b.

atticusewig wrote:I noticed that the instructions got stuck in a temporary directory
and never made it to the Financial Statements part of MLS.

That's going to cause some problems! Good catch - I found it on my computer here:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\LDS Church\MLS\data\sync\inbound\mlsswap

It may just be easier to search your computer for "upgrade instructions". I'm not sure if it got hidden on me because I was already on 3.4.1. Atticus?

crislapi wrote:'m not sure if it got hidden on me because I was already on 3.4.1. Atticus?

Not likely as the first instructions are to upgrade to MLS 3.4.1

atticusewig wrote:[Moderator note: The attachment was removed for security reasons. Follow instructions in this post or other posts in this thread to find the attachment on your MLS system.]

This is an edited version for those who, like me, just can't wait.

crislapi wrote:This is an edited version for those who, like me, just can't wait.

This looks like the instructions we wish we had received before the CUBS changeover last year. Just how dramatic will these changes be?

allenjpl wrote:This looks like the instructions we wish we had received before the CUBS changeover last year. Just how dramatic will these changes be?

As with the CUBS setup file, I imagine we will again lose any sub-sub-category classification. However, this time the setup file will be able to distinguish expenses by the default CUBS sub-categories in budget (the ones you can't edit or delete) so at least everything won't get grouped to a single category again. With that being said, many of us wished we had printed DETAIL reports of our budget, other (now AMFA) and ward missionary categories instead of the summary reports they suggest. I fully intend to that this time.

There will likely be some inconvenience in losing the sub-sub-category info, and some learning curve to getting used to the new way information is presented in the financial reports, but I don't expect this to be anywhere near as painful as CUBS.

This should finally bring MLS in sync with CHQ records and the UFS. There have been a LOT of units with discrepancies since the roll-over to CUBS (most of the units in the 22 units I've supervised since CUBS was released) and I imagine this is necessary to fix this.