Incorrect donor category

I've made category corrections for people after-the-fact as long as they correct and initial the original slip for our records (and the auditors). It's a simple enough error to make and I see no harm as long as it's all within the current calendar year.

Yes, donation can be changed to another donation category, as the donor is requesting the change from human error, have the donor update the donation slip.

It does not apply to this situation, however keep in mind that donations are NEVER to be returned to the donor. I think it would also be inappropriate for a donation be changed from a donation category to a non-donation category (non-donation categories are rare) even at the donor's request.

kh_design wrote:Yes, donation can be changed to another donation category, as the donor is requesting the change from human error, have the donor update the donation slip.

It does not apply to this situation, however keep in mind that donations are NEVER to be returned to the donor. I think it would also be inappropriate for a donation be changed from a donation category to a non-donation category (non-donation categories are rare) even at the donor's request.

I will certainly agree that it is appropriate for a donation slip to be changed by a donor, and then the donation in MLS to be changed by the clerk accordingly.

However, I see no reason at all for this claim that it would be inappropriate to change a donation category to a non-donation category (or vice versa for that matter). If indeed it was a "clerical mistake" on the part of the donor, go ahead and fix it. It doesn't matter what the categories involved are; it is appropriate for the clerk to correct the donation to match the donor's intent.

Alan_Brown wrote:I will certainly agree that it is appropriate for a donation slip to be changed by a donor, and then the donation in MLS to be changed by the clerk accordingly.

However, I see no reason at all for this claim that it would be inappropriate to change a donation category to a non-donation category (or vice versa for that matter). If indeed it was a "clerical mistake" on the part of the donor, go ahead and fix it. It doesn't matter what the categories involved are; it is appropriate for the clerk to correct the donation to match the donor's intent.

Here's an issue I'm noticing in one of our wards. Members made payments to "other" for a summer activity. Some were not able to go. Rather than being reimbursed, they all requested the payment be switched to tithing. The switches were made, but now the ward does not reconcile. The 4 switches were made in July and August. It has been a temporary item needed to reconcile ever since.

I checked the messages and did find that all 4 MLS adjustments were sent to HQ. Only one change was acknowledged in a reply message. I have confirmed that the switches were made in the batches, yet the other account is still off by 4*(payment amount).

I'm guessing the problem is that HQ has not actually switched the funds yet, leading to the difference in the reconciliation. Still, it's been at least 4 months. Does that sound unreasonable to anyone else? Am I missing something? I'll be double checking tonight to see if any of the statements show any of the category changes. If not, I'll be calling clerk support. I'll post the final solution when there is one!

crislapi wrote:Here's an issue I'm noticing in one of our wards. Members made payments to "other" for a summer activity. Some were not able to go. Rather than being reimbursed, they all requested the payment be switched to tithing. The switches were made, but now the ward does not reconcile. The 4 switches were made in July and August. It has been a temporary item needed to reconcile ever since.

I checked the messages and did find that all 4 MLS adjustments were sent to HQ. Only one change was acknowledged in a reply message. I have confirmed that the switches were made in the batches, yet the other account is still off by 4*(payment amount).

I'm guessing the problem is that HQ has not actually switched the funds yet, leading to the difference in the reconciliation. Still, it's been at least 4 months. Does that sound unreasonable to anyone else? Am I missing something? I'll be double checking tonight to see if any of the statements show any of the category changes. If not, I'll be calling clerk support. I'll post the final solution when there is one!

You definitely need to call Clerk Support. But before you do, you should carefully check each Church Unit Financial Statement from the date you sent the corrections up through your most recent statement. It sounds like you are planning to do this. If the Church actually made any of your changes across categories, you would see a transaction on your statement. The transaction would actually be a set of transactions in the Detail section of the CUFS: a debit to the Other category, a credit to Tithing, and also an automatic sweep back out of Tithing.

If you still have to include a temporary item in order to reconcile, my guess is that these adjustments never showed up on your CUFS, which means that as far as the Church is concerned, they never happened. Yet your MLS shows that they did happen. It's important to resolve this soon, since it involves 2008 Tithing and thus can affect the Tithing Declarations and the Official Tax Statements.

In my experience, requested adjustments happen within a week or two. If they don't, I've always gotten a message. So it doesn't sound reasonable that nothing would have happened 5 months later. Since a message can come in when any clerk does a Send/Receive, it's always possible that the reply message got inadvertently or mistakenly discarded. Adjustments aren't completely automatic; sometimes Clerk Support requests additional information in a reply message before they make an adjustment. But Clerk Support should have a record of any replies they sent, so when you call they should be able to clear that up.

Alan_Brown wrote:You definitely need to call Clerk Support. But before you do, you should carefully check each Church Unit Financial Statement from the date you sent the corrections up through your most recent statement. It sounds like you are planning to do this. If the Church actually made any of your changes across categories, you would see a transaction on your statement. The transaction would actually be a set of transactions in the Detail section of the CUFS: a debit to the Other category, a credit to Tithing, and also an automatic sweep back out of Tithing.

Ok, the issue is resolved. It did require a call to Clerk Support. It would appear that there were 2 issues. First, since all the adjustments were for the same amount and switching between the same categories, they had assumed that the 4 adjustments were just duplicates so only one adjustment was made. Second, the adjustment was pulled from the wrong category, so even though one adjustment did show up on the statement, it still did not balance with MLS and therefore was throwing off the reconciliation.

crislapi wrote:...since all the adjustments were for the same amount and switching between the same categories, [CHQ] had assumed that the 4 adjustments were just duplicates so only one adjustment was made.

I've run across this several times myself. Certainly something for anyone in a similar situation to keep a sharp eye out for.

crislapi wrote:Rather than being reimbursed, they all requested the payment be switched to tithing. The switches were made, but now the ward does not reconcile. !

How exactly did you "switch" the payments. My understanding is that funds cannot be just transferred between main categories (ie. Other, Budget, Tithing, etc.). Is this not correct?

I would think you would have needed to give each of the donors a reimbursement check and then have them endorse it back to the ward as a tithing donation. But this should not have caused the problem you experienced.

Greggo wrote:I would think you would have needed to give each of the donors a reimbursement check and then have them endorse it back to the ward as a tithing donation. But this should not have caused the problem you experienced.

That certainly sounds like a cleaner and more transparent way of making the adjustment. It's nice to be accommodating, but look at all the extra work it created. Simpler to cut a check to the member and then let them handle it from there.

Greggo wrote:How exactly did you "switch" the payments. My understanding is that funds cannot be just transferred between main categories (ie. Other, Budget, Tithing, etc.). Is this not correct?

I would think you would have needed to give each of the donors a reimbursement check and then have them endorse it back to the ward as a tithing donation. But this should not have caused the problem you experienced.

You can't simply transfer funds, but you can correct a donation to be in a different major category. That's what was done in this case.

But I agree that it probably would have been simpler (for the clerk, but not the donors) to issue a reimbursement check.

Greggo wrote:How exactly did you "switch" the payments. My understanding is that funds cannot be just transferred between main categories (ie. Other, Budget, Tithing, etc.). Is this not correct?

I would think you would have needed to give each of the donors a reimbursement check and then have them endorse it back to the ward as a tithing donation. But this should not have caused the problem you experienced.

jbh001 wrote:That certainly sounds like a cleaner and more transparent way of making the adjustment. It's nice to be accommodating, but look at all the extra work it created. Simpler to cut a check to the member and then let them handle it from there.

It's a matter of opinion which is easier. It's very easy to change a donation category. In this case, all the problems were due to mistakes made at CHQ. Had they done it correctly, there would be no problems, no outstanding checks to worry about, etc.