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www.dol.gov/esa
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| November 4, 2008 DOL Home > ESA > OLMS > Form LM-2 > FAQs > Computer & Software |  |
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Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)
Form LM-2 Frequently Asked Questions Computer and Software Requirements Additions are made regularly to the Frequently Asked Questions, so please check these pages often for updates. If you have a question that is not addressed here, you may email your question to olms-public@dol.gov.
Q. When will the Form LM-2 Reporting software be available? A. Go to the Form LM-2 Download Page. Q. Will there be a charge for the software? A. No. Q. How will the software be made available? A. The software will be made available for downloading from the OLMS Web site. Q. Will there be a network version of the software so that more than one person can work on the form at one time? A. No, the form can only be edited by one person at a time. However, multiple people can work on creating the data import files for the different schedules that can then be imported into the form. Q. Will the software auto-complete items when you start typing if you are entering the same text over and over? A. The software comes equipped with an auto-complete function that can be turned "on" under the preferences menu. Q. How will revisions of the software be introduced? A. Any revisions will be available for download from the OLMS Web site at www.olms.dol.gov. Q. How will information about the process and software be communicated to the unions? A. Information will be available on the OLMS Web site at www.olms.dol.gov and through the OLMS e-mail messaging service, which you can subscribe to on the Web site. Q. What are the hardware requirements for filing in the electronic format? A. Filers will need the following minimum PC hardware requirements:
Q. Which operating software should be used? A. Any of the following operating systems will support the electronic format:
Q. Is an Internet browser required in order to file Form LM-2 electronically? A. Yes. Any of the following browsers are acceptable:
Q. Are there any other software requirements? A. Yes. In order to complete the electronic Form LM-2, you will need Adobe® Reader® - version 6.0 Q. Must my union immediately buy a computer in order to file the Form LM-2? A. No. While having a computer will certainly make recordkeeping and filing easier, if your union does not have a computer you can request a continuing hardship exemption for a time period not to exceed one year. Q. Why does the download time to import large files take so long and sometimes lock up the computer? A. A union with a large volume of data files should use the software's attachment feature, as explained in the User Guide, which will drastically reduce the download time. Our tests have demonstrated that using the attachment feature and completing the schedules one at a time will enable users to achieve timely and accurate downloads. Q. Why can't we edit the attachments? A. As the User Guide indicates, the software was not designed to allow attachments to be edited in the viewer. Edits can be made by adjusting the import file and re-attaching the data, thereby erasing the old information. Individual schedules can be either overwritten by a new import, or individual items in the schedule can be edited within the form if the attachment feature was not used. Q. Why can't the importation process be stopped or canceled? A. The inability to cancel during the importation process is the result of an intentional design decision. This prevents partial imports and invalid data entries. When using any software program, it is always a good idea to save your work frequently to avoid lost data. Q. Why doesn't the software determine whether a receipt or disbursement should be aggregated or individually itemized on the form? A. The software was not designed to perform this function. As the Data Specifications Document (DSD), provided to the public on October 3, 2003, made clear, the union's import file must already indicate to which schedule a group of transactions should be allocated, and itemized transactions must be clearly marked as such. Prior to download, the aggregated transactions must already be summed by the union. Q. Why doesn't the data validation function detect more errors? A. The data validation function is designed to detect the errors that can be measured based on data entered relative to the filing instructions for the form. It is not designed to catch every potential error, but will help unions provide a more correct report, saving time and money associated with preparing amended reports. Q. What if an entity uses cents as well as dollars. Will the software round this? A. You cannot import numbers with cents because the import feature was not designed to round. However, the software does round numbers that you enter manually. Q. Why are unions forced into rounding before they can load their information into the Form LM-2? A. Form LM-2 has always called for whole numbers, and the software was not designed to round imported figures to the nearest dollar. Q. Why are individuals (or entities) in Schedule 1 who have the same name treated as one individual for purposes of reporting transactions? A. Entities with the same name downloaded into Schedule 1 are not treated as a single entity; the software does not aggregate data. Q. Why, in Schedule 12, which only requires reporting for employees who were paid more than $10,000, does the software process all records, including those with amounts of less than $10,000 (including amounts of $0)? A. Schedule 12 was not designed to aggregate data concerning employees whose annual salary is $10,000 or less, and who thus need not be individually reported. In fact, if a reporting labor organization chooses to provide itemized data for employees compensated below the $10,000 threshold, the information will be accepted. Q. Can the field lengths be extended? They were too short in the beta software for the length of actual data. A. Field lengths have been doubled, thus requiring fewer abbreviations. Q. Will the software truncate text that is too long for a field? A. No, the text must be no longer than the number of characters allowed in the field (usually 50). Q. Why does the software require an explanation every time a manual change is made in a beginning balance, even if the change is made simply to correct an erroneous entry? A. The software is designed to require an explanation when a beginning balance is changed because the software pre-fills this field with the ending balance from the union's report for the previous year. Absent an explanation, these figures should be identical. Q. Why is scrolling through the form so time-consuming? A. As stated in the User Guide, using the "thumbnails" on the left side of the screen is a preferred way of navigating the form. Q. Why did Schedule 1 of the beta version not permit the user to enter a liquidated receivable as a write-off? A. This bug was caught during the beta period; the software has been corrected and the corrected function fully tested. Last Updated: 03/22/07
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