Okay, I thought I would write a list of the duties that I do in my job as Finance Secretary during the month.
Every Monday: I have a new Key Indicator Report waiting for me. On this report are the baptisms of the previous week, and the numbers of visits, contacts, lessons taught, service rendered, and many others. It is an Excel spreadsheet. I take those numbers and from it I type up the baptism names in another spreadsheet that is kept for each month. I type some of the other key indicator numbers into another spreadsheet, and that is copied for us to put in the file, and also emailed to Salt Lake. Then, I take some of the numbers from that list, and they are typed into IMOS (internet mission office system), which is the system we use that connects to SL.
Daily: I pay bills as they come in, and there are bills almost daily. We have 100 apartments, so the rent is paid once a month, around the 18th or 19th I do that, but the power bills, water sewer and trash bills, come in at various times for all those apartments. I enter the baptism records as they come in from the missionaries into a program that sends them to SL (this is the actual baptism record, not just a list of names like the Monday report). After I do that, then they get their membership number, and the wards will have them in their system. We have 4 credit cards in the mission that I deal with: the President has one, his wife has one, the man over Fleet (the mission cars) has one, and Gary has one for housing. So, daily I check the Bank of America website to check off the receipts I have received from each of these people for their purchases. I pay reimbursements to those who use their own money to pay for things. It could be a missionary who had to use his MSF (Missionary Support Fund) card to pay for gas if his fuel card didn't work (every car has a fuel credit card, but I don't deal with those, the Fleet person does....unless, occasionally they had to use their MSF card to pay for fuel, then I do the reimbursements). Reimbursements also are for things like paying for postage to mail packages off with our own money, paying for food for missionary luncheons (when there is a training meeting that lasts all day, there are luncheons that various people that live here locally put on, and I reimburse them). I take payments for things the missionaries buy, like name tags, mission sweatshirts, and things they buy like special things for the people they are teaching.....Book of Mormon Stories book for children, for example, or large print Bibles and Triple Combinations. I also take the orders for the name tags and mission sweatshirts, and submit them. Gary takes the orders for the proselyting supplies.....speaking of, his orders are huge! The other day he had 70 boxes of Book of Mormons delivered!! Then, if the missionaries have a problem with their MSF card, or need to know their balance, they call me to take care of it. I go to the bank to deposit money. I print checks to pay bills that are paid locally....most are paid and taken care of from SL after I check them off on IMOS for them to pay them.
The first Monday of the month, we have a Senior Family Home Evening at the Mission Home. The President's wife, Sister Watkins, cooks us dinner, we go and eat together, and then there is some type of small activity we take turns doing. My job is to call Sister Watkins about a week before to make sure it is still okay to do that night, then I email all the seniors, the mission Dr., nurse, the rest of the Mission Presidency, and remind them of the night and time for Sr. FHE. They are to respond to me so I can get a count to tell Sister Watkins by the Friday before, so she knows how many to plan on. Also, I remind the person who is over the activity that it is their turn.
The beginning of every month, I print off the email I get on budget, have the Pres. sign it and then file it. I also print off the WORKS (Bank of Amer.) pages dealing with the credit cards, and go over them again, then attach the receipts to them and file them.
By the 10th of the month, I do the funding for the 2nd half of the month for visa waiters. We have about a dozen of those waiting for visas to various places, mostly Brazil. When they arrive here, their MSF cards don't, as they are waiting for them in their missions. So, we have to fund their companion for the amount of money they need for the month, but only do a half month at a time, as we never know for sure when they will finally get their visas and be leaving. So I do the first half of the month around the 25th, and the second half around the 10th.
Also by the 10th, I have a use tax due for purchases made that aren't taxed, like the name tags. I fill out the form, email it to SL, and they take care of the tax.
I already mentioned doing rents around the 18th-19th.
25th, I remind the Pres. that he needs to sign off on WORKS (the credit cards)
Besides doing the funding for the visa waiters the 25th, I do extra funding needed for things like bus passes, those needing meds that aren't covered by family, those on special diets that cost more than the regular amount missionaries get, funding for Temple Square sisters, if we have some. Temple Square sisters serve a certain amount of time on Temple Square, then they go to other missions for a time to have that experience too. We get them for 3 months, so they are funded a month at a time. I don't have to do the regular missionary funding, because it is automatically done from SL, but I double check the report to make sure no one is missed, and to make sure the incoming missionaries are all listed. Also, I get the incoming missionaries MSF cards, and I make sure we have them all for those on the list to come.
I am approaching the end of year stuff......I will remove files from the file cabinet, and they are boxed up for the audit, and then we keep the records for 3 years. Then, I have to make new labels to put on the folders in the file cabinet for the beginning of the year. Items that are older than 3 years are shredded.
Transfer week jobs: Put everyone in their new areas...from the list that the AP's (Assistants to the Pres.) give me. This is all on IMOS, which is great! Once everyone is put in their areas, I can print off the reports, and it automatically updates the addresses and phone numbers, which are assigned by area. So, I print off the reports: phone lists, organizational roster, current organization, companionship roster, house rent, ID's; I send letters to apartment managers telling them who is now in the apartments; I send letters to the apartment inspectors to tell them who is in the apartments. The apartment inspectors are called by their stake Presidents to do that calling. They are our eyes and ears dealing with the apartments. Once a month, they inspect each apartment, telling Gary of problems that need to be addressed, and also encouraging the kids to keep them clean! On Thursday of Transfer week, the office staff have time in the new missionary orientation to talk to them. I go over their MSF cards, how much they get, how they need to budget their money wisely and try to keep track of their spending, but that I can give them their balance if needed. I talk to them about the baptism reports, and how to properly fill it out so I can tell what it says.......if you put 1/2/13 on a record, I don't know if it is Jan. 2 or Feb. 1....because the report actually asks for day/month year, but not everyone remembers that. So, I tell them it helps me if they write out the month....Feb for example...so there is no question. I go over the fact that I order name tags for them as they need them, and about the mission sweatshirt. I hand out the MSF cards, collect their luggage receipts from flying to the mission.....they get reimbursed for that amount. Also transfer week.....I take out the files of the missionaries who have gone home and file any financial records in them, and shred the rest.
