Ward Missionary Summary

New Finance Clerk here, still waiting on training but I thought I'd throw this question out there.

We have missionaries who have returned but are still showing up on the Ward Missionary Summary (pg 4 of the Unit Fin. Statement).

Any thoughts/suggestions about how we might go about cleaning those up? Their individual records show that they are no longer serving, so I'm guessing that it has something to do w/ the balances remaining in their name. I'd appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction as my research thus far has been unfruitful.

Thanks

I don't know how long the categories remain, but you'll have to zero the balance out one way or another. (Most likely with a transfer between it and the ward mission fund.) You can't just wave a wand and make it disappear with "oh, they returned already".

Is there training guidance or hand book instructions on the ward mission fund other than HB1 4.6?

We have several individual missionary categories in the Ward Mission Fund that have a positive balance. I assume these are due to other members donating to the fund for this missionary, the parents not being told of this contribution and continuing to make the full monthly deposit.

We also have a very blessed family with 4 recent missionaries, some having finished their service and having a positive balance. Can the positive balances be transferred to the one currently serving?

Can any of the positive balances be put into the main Ward Mission category and used for currently serving missionaries?

There's HB1: 14.4.3 and 14.4.9.

While I don't see explicit instructions for what you propose, gut given 14.4.9, refunds are prohibited and the church has some flexibility in how the funds are handled. 14.4.3 would suggest that the proposed transfers are appropriate for the intended purpose.

clarkburbidge wrote:We also have a very blessed family with 4 recent missionaries, some having finished their service and having a positive balance. Can the positive balances be transferred to the one currently serving?

Can any of the positive balances be put into the main Ward Mission category and used for currently serving missionaries?

Although donations are made with the name of specific missionaries, the actual donation is to the ward mission fund and the bishop has full discretion on who those fund are used for as long as they are used for ward missionaries.

Transferring excess funds from a specific missionary to the general fund and transferring funds from the ward mission fund to a specific missionary are both perfectly fine and are the normal thing to do in these situations.

Thanks both for the replys! I also found https://www.lds.org/help/support/missio ... s?lang=eng which seems to support both of these last posts.

@eblood66 - This sounds correct but is there a reference? It would be great to back up my action with HB or training video chapter and verse!

clarkburbidge wrote:Thanks both for the replys! I also found https://www.lds.org/help/support/missio ... s?lang=eng which seems to support both of these last posts.

@eblood66 - This sounds correct but is there a reference? It would be great to back up my action with HB or training video chapter and verse!

I'm afraid I don't have access to HB 1 or training materials anymore so I can't give you specific reference but I suspect it's implied by the references russellhltn provided. Perhaps someone can find something more specific but I don't really remember anything like that existing.

The main points are that the ward is responsible for missionary support (not the parents or family) and that once someone makes a donation they no longer have control of how that donation is used (at least in the US this is a requirement in order for the donation to be tax deductible). The implications of this is that in reality there is only 1 ward mission fund and it's purpose is to support missionaries from the ward.

Now, generally the missionary and family make non-binding commitments to make regular payments equal to the amount required to fund the missionary. The sub-categories exist simply as a convenient mechanism for tracking whether they have fulfilled this commitment and to show the ward how much CHQ has charged the ward for each missionary.

Finally, consider what other courses of action you might have. If you have a positive balance in a missionaries account you can't refund it. That much is clear. But you need to do something with it. You can't just leave it in that account forever. The thing that obviously doesn't violate any policies is to transfer it to the top level ward missionary account. There may be a few other possibilities (like recategorizing a donation as tithing) but a transfer is the simplest. On the other hand, if you have a negative balance you also need to do something about it. Transferring funds from the top-level ward missionary account is the logical thing to do. If you never transfer funds from the top-level account then you'll never actually use those funds. They'll just sit there.

So making transfers both ways is really just common sense based on the general policies.

We were recently told during a stake leadership meeting during stake conference that we needed to clear negative balances for individual missionaries' accounts. We have a missionary who returned home this spring with a deficit in his account, but there is more than enough in the ward missionary fund to clear his balance. How does one do this?? Since this elder has returned home, he no longer shows on the system. How can I get him zero'ed out if he does not even show?

along the same lines, we have some other budget categories where funds came in to one account for girls' camp or other similar member funded activities, but the expenditures do not all appear to have come from there. Is there a reference somewhere that explains how to clean this stuff up?

thanks

Rberrett57 wrote:We were recently told during a stake leadership meeting during stake conference that we needed to clear negative balances for individual missionaries' accounts. We have a missionary who returned home this spring with a deficit in his account, but there is more than enough in the ward missionary fund to clear his balance. How does one do this?? Since this elder has returned home, he no longer shows on the system. How can I get him zero'ed out if he does not even show?

If his account doesn't show anymore, how do you know his account is negative?

Rberrett57 wrote:along the same lines, we have some other budget categories where funds came in to one account for girls' camp or other similar member funded activities, but the expenditures do not all appear to have come from there. Is there a reference somewhere that explains how to clean this stuff up?

thanks

The best way to fix that is to find the expenditures which were taken from the wrong account (using View/Update Expenses) and change the category. This will create a transfer from the wrong category to the right one while maintaining a link to the original expense.

Note that funds collected from members for camps should never be put in the Budget category. They need to be placed in the 'Other' category.