Member name not found in donation screen

While performing a financial audit today it was noticed there was a problem with locating a member. In this case, there needed to be a correction of the donor name. When we went to change the name, it could not be found. We needed back out of the donation screen and open the membership screen, and add them. They would then appear as one of the names to select.

Apparently, names found in the donation screen do not always show the entire membership. There are times a nonmember may donate, which is the reason you can manually type in a name. For some reason MLS did not pull from the membership records. You would not want to add the name manually in the donation screen because it would not track with their membership number.

bhayashi wrote:While performing a financial audit today it was noticed there was a problem with locating a member. In this case, there needed to be a correction of the donor name. When we went to change the name, it could not be found. We needed back out of the donation screen and open the membership screen, and add them. They would then appear as one of the names to select.

Apparently, names found in the donation screen do not always show the entire membership. There are times a nonmember may donate, which is the reason you can manually type in a name. For some reason MLS did not pull from the membership records. You would not want to add the name manually in the donation screen because it would not track with their membership number.

If a donor record is not linked to a membership record number, then it will act like a nonmember record in many ways. Or perhaps the donor record was actually created improperly as a nonmember record when it is actually for a member.

In any case, the best way to fix this is not to create a new donor record, but rather to edit the existing donor record (via Add/Update Donors), and change the type to "Member" and then select the associated member record. That will link the donor record to a membership record.

If someone moves into a ward and starts donating immediately then a donor record is often created before the membership record arrives. It's a good idea for the finance clerk to check the donor list regularly to see if anyone who is a ward member is listed as something else. This can also happen when students move in and out of a family ward on a regular basis.

bhayashi wrote:Apparently, names found in the donation screen do not always show the entire membership.

That is correct. A member who has not made a previous donation will not appear on the list of donors in the donation screen. It is mostly spouses and children who have not yet made a donation that do not appear on the donor list. I have yet to find a head of household who has not made a donation that does not appear on the donor list. (Not valid evidence he/she will appear on the list of donors on the donation screen.)

To select a member of your unit who does not appear on the list of names when entering a donation follow these steps.

• Click the magnifying glass icon.
• In the "Select the donor" pop-up click the Add button.
• Click the Yes button for the pop-up that asks "Is the new donor a member of your unit?". This assumes that you have verified that the donor is a member of your unit by confirming the membership record exists in your MLS.
• At the "Select the Individual" pop-up find the individual. I normally begin typing in the last name until I see the individual I want displayed and then select that name. Alternatively you can scroll down the list of names until you find the desired individual.

Any member of your unit not found this way is because their records do not reside in your MLS. You may have not yet received them. Or the name of record may not match the name you are searching.

You can always create a donor record for a "member of another unit" while waiting for a member record to arrive. In the situation where an investigator makes a donation prior to being baptized enter them as a non-member. Once the record is received or created you can merge the donor and member records.