Missionary Account

Hi All

I have cleaned up the finances of our unit and I think I have a pretty good handle on things now. One of the nagging problems I see is that we have missionary accounts with a balance and the missionaries have long gone. Either moved away or returned. The money from missionary accounts automatically goes to the church each month and a balancing entry is made to account for this. Do these balances for the gone missionaries need to be zeroed. I haven't called the financial help line and wanted to run this by you guys first.

Thanks

You are describing two different situations, so I will address them separately.

1. A missionary has long since returned, but there is a balance showing under his name in the Ward Missionary fund. In this case, create a transfer to move the balance showing from the missionary's name to the general Ward Missionary fund. This will zero out the missionary's account and you can set it to "inactive" if you desire.

2. The parents of a missionary currently serving have moved out of the Ward, you are still seeing the monthly deduction from CHQ, and your Bishop would like the new Ward to assume responsibility for the missionary. In this case, your Bishop must contact the Bishop of the new Ward and get permission to pass the financial responsibility with an effective date. This date could be retroactive or anytime in the future. Once this is done, simply contact CHQ with the details of the arrangement and they will handle the rest.

Just to add - in the grand scheme of things, there's only the Ward Missionary account. Any subcategories for specific missionaries is just to help the clerk track what's going on. You can do whatever you want in shifting funds between the subcategories as you desire. It only shows up on your computer.

So as far as zeroing out any remaining balances, just do a transfer to another Ward Missionary subcategory or to the main category itself. It's just a computer entry. No checks need to be written.

One thing you can not do is refund any of the amounts. Not even if the missionary returns home early. Once donated to the Ward Missionary Account, that's it. You can fix errors, such as donations to the wrong place, but there are no refunds.

The church should not automatically be pulling any amounts out of your account except for missionaries from your ward who are still in the field. (Although any excess amounts are highly encouraged to be sent out of the unit - usually to the stake where they can either support another missionary or send it to CHQ.)

Hope that helps.

RussellHltn wrote:The church should not automatically be pulling any amounts out of your account expect for missionaries from your ward who are still in the field.

Just to clarify, if missionaries have changed home wards while out, CHQ will continue to pull from the original home ward unless specifically told otherwise. If for some (rare) reason the new Bishop refuses to take financial responsibility of the missionary, the old ward must continue to do so.

RussellHltn wrote:(Although any excess amounts are highly encouraged to be sent out of the unit - usually to the stake where they can either support another missionary or send it to CHQ.)

Yes, our Stake President recently asked us to return any missionary funds in excess of 3 "reserve" months for each missionary serving. I don't know if this is a church guideline or just one our Stake President came up with, so please don't anyone quote this as church policy.

Mikerowaved wrote:Our Stake President recently asked us to return any missionary funds in excess of 3 "reserve" months for each missionary serving. I don't know if this is a church guideline or just one our Stake President came up with, so please don't anyone quote this as church policy.

Our stake recently received a letter from President Rasband (of the Presidency of the Seventy) where we were asked to send excess funds in our stake's missionary funds back to the Church. The Church obviously knows how many missionaries are serving from our stake, and they also can add up the sum of the Ward Missionary accounts in all the wards and the stake (yes, there is a Ward Missionary account at the stake level).

The letter specifically mentioned the three months of reserve per missionary, and went on to calculate the total amount of that reserve for our stake. It then noted the difference between our stake's total Ward Missionary funds and that reserve amount and requested that we send in the difference (an amount that was specified to the penny).

Now we do have some families that "prepay" for a mission -- for tax purposes they choose to pay for all or a significant portion of the mission at the beginning of the mission. We researched what portion of the funds were prepays, and used the three month figure for all other missionaries. The stake collected the remaining excess from each ward and then sent the balance in to the Church.

The letter counseled us to not retain excess funds in our stake, because the funds can be used to support missionaries throughout the world who are in need. Wise counsel!

Mikerowaved wrote:Yes, our Stake President recently asked us to return any missionary funds in excess of 3 "reserve" months for each missionary serving.

Three months is the suggested amount in every letter I have seen. As with Alan, our stake expects that wards will also retain amounts that have been prepaid for a longer period, as long as the missionary is still serving.

One Sunday I had a young man ask me how much a mission would cost. I figured 24 times the going monthly amount, and he wrote a check for the entire amount. He reported to the Missionary Training Center that Wednesday.

Our ward did not return that money to the stake.

Thanks all for your help. From what I have read I will transfer funds from the missionaries that are no longer in the ward and no longer active to the General Ward Missionary fund. This zeros those accounts which can then be deacticvated.
Regarding the missionary who paid for his own mission up front that is impressive.

When I was finance clerk,some years ago, if the donation was made to the ward mission fund and not to a specific missionary the amount could be entered tabbing down without having to use the mouse to click through the ward mission donations.

Finance clerks know what I am talking about, when you get a ward mission donation for 1.00 and have to use the mouse to click through the ward mission to enter the 1.00 donation.

I was helping this past week (Fasting and Offerings Sunday) with donations and I noticed that ward mission donations can no longer be tabbed down when entering into the ward mission fund not to a specific missionary fund. Like most Ward/Branch units Fasting and Offerings Sunday is by far the largest donation week and we have a lot of donors who donate 1.00 or 2.00 to every category, the donation entry goes apace except for ward mission when the mouse has to be used. It is somewhat nettlesome the mouse has to be used. I was surprised that ward mission donations not to a specific missionary can no longer be entered in without using the mouse.

I am requesting that the donation entry for ward mission go back to how it was, not having to use the mouse if the ward mission donation is not being entered into a specific missionary fund. Has this been requested before?

Yes, I typed above Fasting and Offerings not just Fast, I could never figure out how a Sunday could be Fast.

The finance clerk was excited when I demonstrated how the Tab, Page Down, and Alt S could be used when entering donations, pay methods and saving the donation without having to use the mouse. It really kept the donation entry process apace, except for the above mentioned ward mission donations.

kh_design, when you TAB down so Ward Missionary is highlighted, press the SPACE bar to open the pop-up submenu. From there you can enter a donation for the General Ward Missionary fund. If the donation is for a specific missionary, use the DOWN ARROW key to scroll down to the appropriate name and TAB over to enter the funds. When done, press CRTL-ENTER to close the pop-up.

Cheers,
Mike

Great work around, still nettlesome, however the best we can do until MLS Ward Missionary donation entry is simplified back to how it was with the earlier MLS versions.

Mikerowaved wrote:kh_design, when you TAB down so Ward Missionary is highlighted, press the SPACE bar to open the pop-up submenu. From there you can enter a donation for the General Ward Missionary fund. If the donation is for a specific missionary, use the DOWN ARROW key to scroll down to the appropriate name and TAB over to enter the funds. When done, press CRTL-ENTER to close the pop-up.

One additional keyboarding trick that may help:

Rather than pressing Down Arrow to scroll to the appropriate category name, you can just start typing the category name. If the desired category is a subcategory, you can type a colon. For example,

• Type W to get to the Ward Missionary parent category
• Type : to skip to the end of "Ward Missionary" and type a colon
• Type SM to get to "Ward Missionary:Smith, Joseph"

Depending on the exact list of categories, you may have to type more letters, or type a few letters, then a down arrow or two (if you have three Christensen missionaries serving, a down arrow would be the quickest way to get to the third one).

This same trick works for Budget or Other subcategories, too.

While we're at it, would it be possible to highlight the the category line as you scroll down through the amount fields. Similar to the way Excel highlights the row and column fields when you are in a particular cell. I think it would provide additional verification that you are on the correct line when you enter the donation amounts.

I am serving as stake clerk. We have also recently received these instructions. What is the proper way to handle these excess funds? Should the wards write checks to the stake or the CHQ directly? Exactly who should these checks be written to and sent to?

Ivan

Alan_Brown wrote:Our stake recently received a letter from President Rasband (of the Presidency of the Seventy) where we were asked to send excess funds in our stake's missionary funds back to the Church. The Church obviously knows how many missionaries are serving from our stake, and they also can add up the sum of the Ward Missionary accounts in all the wards and the stake (yes, there is a Ward Missionary account at the stake level).

The letter specifically mentioned the three months of reserve per missionary, and went on to calculate the total amount of that reserve for our stake. It then noted the difference between our stake's total Ward Missionary funds and that reserve amount and requested that we send in the difference (an amount that was specified to the penny).

Now we do have some families that "prepay" for a mission -- for tax purposes they choose to pay for all or a significant portion of the mission at the beginning of the mission. We researched what portion of the funds were prepays, and used the three month figure for all other missionaries. The stake collected the remaining excess from each ward and then sent the balance in to the Church.

The letter counseled us to not retain excess funds in our stake, because the funds can be used to support missionaries throughout the world who are in need. Wise counsel!

Ivan wrote:I am serving as stake clerk. We have also recently received these instructions. What is the proper way to handle these excess funds? Should the wards write checks to the stake or the CHQ directly? Exactly who should these checks be written to and sent to?

When we got the letter from President Rasband, it said precisely who to make it out to and where to send it. As I recall it was the Corporation of the President. I can look it up the next time I am at the stake center (in a couple of days).

We chose to have the wards send their excess funds to the stake, then we sent one check to CHQ. We wanted to make sure that we fulfilled the requirements of the letter, so we chose to be in the middle.

Wouldn't it accomplish the same thing by just writing a check to the ward from Ward Missionary and then donating it back into the General Missiionary category?

Greggo wrote:Wouldn't it accomplish the same thing by just writing a check to the ward from Ward Missionary and then donating it back into the General Missiionary category?

You'd have to ask President Rasband about that. He gave very specific instructions as to how the funds were to be sent to the Church. Financially, I suppose you're right, but at least in our stake's case, that was not what we were told to do. I would guess that it was done that way for tracking purposes.

Greggo wrote:Wouldn't it accomplish the same thing by just writing a check to the ward from Ward Missionary and then donating it back into the General Missiionary category?

Actually the money doesn't go to the same place if you just donate it back to General Missionary. If you have received a request to submit your excess funds, you really do need to mail in a check and indicate it's excess WM funds.

Alan_Brown wrote:When we got the letter from President Rasband, it said precisely who to make it out to and where to send it. As I recall it was the Corporation of the President. I can look it up the next time I am at the stake center (in a couple of days).

We chose to have the wards send their excess funds to the stake, then we sent one check to CHQ. We wanted to make sure that we fulfilled the requirements of the letter, so we chose to be in the middle.

The check is made payable to Corporation of the President and mailed to: Disbursing Office, 50 East North Temple Street Rm. 1521, Salt Lake City, UT 84150-3612. Please put surplus Ward Missionary on the purpose line.

The reason to send it to the stake first vs. having the ward send it directly to CHQ is so that the stake can assess the needs of all the units in the stake. And then if needed distribute any funds to units in need before sending in the excess funds. It is up to your stake to decide if they want the funds sent to them first or to send it directly to CHQ.

Mikerowaved wrote:2. The parents of a missionary currently serving have moved out of the Ward, you are still seeing the monthly deduction from CHQ, and your Bishop would like the new Ward to assume responsibility for the missionary. In this case, your Bishop must contact the Bishop of the new Ward and get permission to pass the financial responsibility with an effective date. This date could be retroactive or anytime in the future. Once this is done, simply contact CHQ with the details of the arrangement and they will handle the rest.

When a missionary's membership and/or his or her family have moved, the financial responsibility for the missionary does not automatically move. Our procedure for moving missionaries from a unit is as follows:

1. We ask that contact be made between the bishop where the funding is currently being charged and the bishop of the new unit where the membership has moved to.

2. The new bishop needs to agree to have the funding of the missionary in question moved to his unit.

3. If he agrees to accept the funding, then the two bishops agree on an effective date when the new unit will take over the funding. Based on this effective date, we will make a change to refund the current unit and charge the new unit for those payments.

4. After the two bishops have spoken, any member of the bishopric including clerks can contact us with full name of the missionary, the new unit number, the effective date and indicate that the new bishop agrees to the change.

Based on this information we will change the funding unit and make any necessary changes for the payments.

13thfloorrocks wrote:Actually the money doesn't go to the same place if you just donate it back to General Missionary. If you have received a request to submit your excess funds, you really do need to mail in a check and indicate it's excess WM funds.

The donations to General Missionary are used to support missionaries not serving from the US and
Canada. The funds that are sent from Ward Missionary are used to support the US and Canadian missionaries.

LSS wrote:The donations to General Missionary are used to support missionaries not serving from the US and
Canada. The funds that are sent from Ward Missionary are used to support the US and Canadian missionaries.

This is news to me. Do you have documentation on that? It's not that I doubt you - I just never heard it before.

The only documentaton I can readily access on this subject is from MLS Help which states "Funds contributed to General Missionary are used to support full-time missionaries worldwide. This fund is generally used for missionaries from impoverished areas whose families cannot support their full-time missions."

While it can be inferred that "impoverished areas" refers to outside US and Canada, I would certainly consider US/Canada part of "worlwide." I can imagine there are certain stakes of the church in US/Canada that can be considered impoverished and therefore FT missionaries from these areas are recipients of the general missionary fund.

Greggo wrote:This is news to me.

The general missionary fund has always been used to assist missionaries called from outside the US and Canada.

The ward missionary fund is used for missionaries serving from units in the US and Canada. The Church sweeps the ward fund based on the number of missionaries serving from the ward. Because the amount of $400 each is no longer enough, and because there is a desire to delay an increase in that amount as long as possible, the Church is doing two things.

1. Wards are being asked to return excess missionary funds to CHQ so that they can be used with the swept funds in the US and Canada.

2. Wards are being asked to house missionaries in homes, so that the missions can eliminate the cost of apartments.

The more successful we are at doing these two things, especially the second one, the longer it will be until the cost of missionary work rises to the point where the $400 must be increased to cover the costs of missionaries serving from the US and Canada throughout the world.

And no, you won't read about this in any Church publication. You might hear about it in a priesthood leadership meeting, though, or a bishopric training meeting.

I think you must remember that church is a worldwide organisation. You speak of USA and Canada but italian and brazilian (at least) are reading and can misunderstanding.
Ward found is for "local" missionary and "general" is for not local.
Maybe you have other informations but this what we teach here in Italy.

marianomarini_vi wrote:I think you must remember that church is a worldwide organisation. You speak of USA and Canada but italian and brazilian (at least) are reading and can misunderstanding.
Ward found is for "local" missionary and "general" is for not local.
Maybe you have other informations but this what we teach here in Italy.

I apologize if I offended anyone outside the US/Canada. It was not intended. I have actually served as a ward and stake clerk in another country (Japan), and I know that a country shouldn't be considered "impoverished" just because they need help in funding their missionaries.

It may be different now, but I know when I served my mission in Japan, a vast majority of those serving from Japan were the ony member in their family, and of those, I'm sure very few had the funds to support themselves. I'm sure this is the case with any country with very few 2nd or 3rd generation LDS.

marianomarini_vi wrote:I think you must remember that church is a worldwide organisation. You speak of USA and Canada but italian and brazilian (at least) are reading and can misunderstanding.
Ward found is for "local" missionary and "general" is for not local.
Maybe you have other informations but this what we teach here in Italy.

Thanks marianomarini_vi!!! It's a great true!

In Brazil, Greggo, more then a half of missionaries don't have all the money to a full time mission. Many missionaries is from 2nd and 3rd generations of LDS fellowship like you talk. Most are new members (with one or two years since their own baptism) that have the desire to serve to our Lord.

Is important that we always remember that US and Canada are blessed with the foundation of the Church and the resources of have the headquarters inside it own territory. Is important too to remember that US and Canada are countries with a good monetary system that help its citizens to be "more rich" than the people of other nations. Is important to remember that the first members of the Church have had problems of many kind, but don't lost the opportunity to serve in missions and other callings of the newborn Church.

But is important too to know that all countries have its own problems. In Italy, I believe, the Church have a small membership, with less money to help its missionaries (- members = - donations to missionaries funds). In Brazil we are a "development country" with 1.000.000 of membership, but 25% or more are "less active" from the Church. We have wards in places where the people don't have conditions to help, but boys and girls have the desire to serve. It's members walk by the faith and by the resources that members from "more rich" areas of the world can help and donate. I am is a good personal exemple. My father only can paid 50% of my mission. But I have the desire and go to serve.

We need to understand it. It's important because as a worldwide Church we need to understand these things. We live in different areas of the world, but inside a same family, or, the "family of Christ", and we need help our brothers and sisters anywhere and everywhere possible.

I understand your post above Greggo, and you are true in your words. But it's a important thing to all of these topic readers understand: The fund isn't the problem, help our missionaries is the question. The bank account isn't the problem, We need to spread the gospel to all the world!!!

(sorry for my bed English, guys).