Financial Reporting System Elks Financial Reporting System (FRS)

The Financial Reporting System (FRS) was passed at the St The Financial Reporting System (FRS) was passed at the St. Louis Grand Lodge Session in July 2019. This reporting system DOES NOT replace the financial recording and reporting system at the local lodge level. It does replace the requirement that a local lodge perform a Annual Financial Report (audit or review] at the end of a lodge year as long as the local lodge submits its monthly data to the FRS.

The Grand Lodge Auditing & Accounting Committee will be reviewing the local lodge data periodically though out the year and at years end. This is what eliminates the need to submit the Annual financial Report. The other requirement of the FRS is that for the Lodge Year 2020-2021 lodges will use the Standard Uniform Chart of Accounts for their local financial reporting system.

The goal is to have all lodges up on the system by April 1st, 2020. The Financial Reporting System is a standardized reporting system and requires the use of a standardize set of accounts. Though not widely known or used there has been a standardized Chart of Accounts required to be used by lodges for over ten years and it has appeared in the Auditing & Accounting manual. That set of accounts was limited and in a lot of cases did not have the needed accounts to reflect the financial activities of the lodges. A new Chart of Accounts has been developed and is available on elks.org.

It will be mandatory that all lodges use the new Chart of Accounts and the Financial Reporting System starting April 1st, 2020. Every lodge needs to begin the conversion process immediately with the goal of not having to go to the expense and time of filing and Annual Financial Report (AFR) for the 2019-2020 lodge year. Remember the resolution passed iin July also stated that the only AFR that would be accepted would be a full audit or review. Compilations have been removed as a possibility. To accomplish this your lodge must be using the Financial Reporting System by December 1st, 2019 and it must have submitted lodge data for each month of this lodge year. There is more information, including videos, posted on elks.org about how to produce and input the lodge data into the system.

Lodges will not actually login to the FRS Lodges will not actually login to the FRS. The lodge’s data will be submitted by sending Excel files using email to Adaptive Services, the company that has set up the software that analyzes lodge information. Lodges will be able to get copies of the reports the FRS generates sent to them from their DDGER. The contract with the software company allows for a limited number of login users, this was how the annual cost for each lodge was kept to less than $175. If access for all lodges was provided it would have cost each lodge in excess of $600 per year. This is still an option which will be considered in the future.

Important items that everyone should remember; we will no longer use “subaccounts” in QuickBooks. every local lodge account must point at one of the standard Uniform Chart of Accounts numbers if they are not already one The mapping file only has to be submitted once unless an account number is added at the local lodge level The budget file can be submitted as often as necessary to reflect the lodge’s approved budget The actual file has to be submitted each month by the third Friday of each month. All Excel files must be saved as a “CSV (Comma Delimited)” file

The FRS requires that the local lodge submit four types of files to the software vendor for processing in the FRS. Each of these files is an Excel spreadsheet file saved as a “CSV” file. MAPPING FILE – This file contains data that identifies the lodge, the account numbers that the local lodge currently uses in its general ledger and a corresponding Uniform Chart of Accounts number. BUDGET FILE – This file contains data that identifies the lodge, the account numbers that the local lodge currently uses in its general ledger, the fiscal year that the budge information is for, an identification field that lets system know which year it is working and the annual amount budgeted for the account number.

ACTUAL FILE - This file contains data that identifies the lodge, the account numbers that the local lodge currently uses in its general ledger, the date for which the actual data is for and the actual amount for the account number for the identified month. The actual data is the daily transactions, which includes the debit and credit data. The total for all entries should be zero. NOTE: The actual data submitted monthly must be submitted by the 3rd Friday of the month following the close date of the report

Beginning Balance – This file contains data that identifies the lodge, the account numbers that the local lodge currently uses in its general ledger, the last date of the fiscal year prior to the first actual data being entered, and the actual amount for the account number h. The amount data is from the year end balance data for the fiscal year prior to the year being entered. The total amount for all entries should be zero. NOTE: The beginning balance data is only submitted once for the FY of the year prior to the first year of actual data submitted.

ElksStandardGLAccount The Mapping File contains a cross reference between the Lodge account number and the Grand Lodge Cart of Accounts and contain the following columns of data; LodgeNumber LodgeGLAccount ElksStandardGLAccount   LodgeNumber – This is simply your lodges number and appears on every row of data.   LodgeGLAccount – This is either the Lodges account number or the Grand Lodge Chart of Account number, which ever you are using at the current time. Remember starting April 1st, 2020 this will be an account number from the Grand Lodge Chart of Accounts. NOTE: must only be the lodge account number (does not contain any description ElksStandardGLAccount – This is the Grand Lodge Chart of Account number When this file is created and saved the file name needs to start with the word “Mapping.” An example would be “Mapping for Lodge No 9999 for 2019-2020.”

LodgeNumber LodgeGLAccount FYE Version Annual The Budget File contains the following columns of data; LodgeNumber LodgeGLAccount FYE Version Annual   LodgeNumber – This is simply your lodges number and appears on every row of data.   LodgeGLAccount – This is either the Lodges account number or the Grand Lodge Chart of Account number, which ever you are using at the current time. Remember starting April 1st, 2020 this will be an account number from the Grand Lodge Chart of Accounts. FYE – This is the Fiscal Year End, i.e., lodge year 2019-2020 would be 2020. It appears in each row. Version – This identifies the budget being submitted for each account number. The word “Budget” appears on every row. Annual – This is the amount budgeted for each account for the year. When this file is created and saved the file name needs to start with the word “Budget.” An example would be “Budget for Lodge No 9999 for 2019-2020.”

LodgeNumber Date LodgeGLAccount Amount The Actual Data contains the following columns of data for each month of the lodge year; LodgeNumber Date LodgeGLAccount Amount LodgeNumber – This is simply your lodges number and appears on every row of data.   Date – This column contains the the last date of the fiscal year prior to the first year actual data being entered date and the same date appears in each row.   LodgeGLAccount – This is either the Lodges account number or the Grand Lodge Chart of Account number, which ever you are using at the current time. Remember starting April 1st, 2020 this will be an account number from the Grand Lodge Chart of Accounts. Amount - This column contains the actual amount, debit and credit, charged against the account number for the date. When this file is created and saved the file name needs to start with the word “Actual.” An example would be “Actual for Lodge No 9999 for Month Ending 11-30-19.”

LodgeNumber Date LodgeGLAccount Amount The Beginning Balance Data contains the following columns of data for each month of the lodge year; LodgeNumber Date LodgeGLAccount Amount LodgeNumber – This is simply your lodges number and appears on every row of data.   Date – This column contains the date for the data being entered and appears in each row.   LodgeGLAccount – This is either the Lodges account number or the Grand Lodge Chart of Account number, which ever you are using at the current time. Remember starting April 1st, 2020 this will be an account number from the Grand Lodge Chart of Accounts. Amount - This column contains the actual amount, debit and credit, charged against the account number for the date. When this file is created and saved the file name needs to start with the word “Actual.” An example would be “Beginning Balance for Lodge No 9999 for 03-31-19.”

If you are using QuickBooks for your lodge’s accounting system the reporting feature allows you to create EXCEL files that contain much of the required information. The on-line videos can help explain more of how the files can be created and modified and input into the FRS. The files that are produced will be attached to an email message and sent to Adaptive@elks.cloud Don’t forget to include your file! When you’re ready Send the file. Within 5 minutes you’ll receive a reply with a success message or a detailed description of issues that need to be corrected 

For more information and help go to elks.org. Log in to your user account on elks.org Hover the cursor over the “MEMBERS AREA” and left click on Grand Lodge Officers & Committees In the left hand column left click on “Committees” Under Committees left click on “Auditing” Under Auditing left click on “Financial Reporting” Under Financial reporting left click on “Introduction” or any of the other options. In the introduction you will find several help links.