Does MLS allow online payments from one ward to another or to the stake?

I fear the answer is no but I hope the answer is: MLS, next iteration, will have this feature.

Cam up for Stake Girls Camp - check must be printed and mailed? Really, bro?

Well one person claims it can be done, but no one knows how.

Using the MLS transfer function, a ward or branch may send funds to the parent stake, and the parent stake may send funds to a ward or branch in the stake. We do it to collect funds for Young Women camp from the units in our stake, and to make special budget allocations to wards and branches in our stake.

The topic russellhltn linked to is about transferring funds to a different stake. I have not seen that done.

lajackson wrote:The topic russellhltn linked to is about transferring funds to a different stake.

Oops. I misread the title.

I have transferred funds to the Stake from our YW Camp fund. I have also transferred funds to a recently created Branch that received some of our ward members (from our budget to their budget) as directed by the stake.

It is very easy, but you must have a clerk and a bishopric member available to finish the transaction so don't try this alone. 2 electronic signatures are required, just like doing a deposit. I wrote up a work instruction that I provided to my Stake - it is at home so I will attach it this evening.

Thank you, lajackson, Russell, and Dave!

I have attached a work instruction that I wrote for the stake to share with our units. Feel free to use it if it is valuable to you. This is for transfers in the US - I don't know how it may work in other parts of the world.

Question I have regarding transfers, is how does the receiving organization know when (or if) it has received an incoming transfer?

noeljensen wrote:Question I have regarding transfers, is how does the receiving organization know when (or if) it has received an incoming transfer?

By checking regularly in LCR>Finances>Transfers, or in MLS when in the building.

I have only done transfers when requested by the Bishop or Stake President. I always report back that the transfer has been completed.

As with davesudweeks, we make transfers upon request (and with approval), and advise that the transfer has taken place. Otherwise, the receiving unit never notices unless they are paying extraordinary attention.

lajackson wrote:As with davesudweeks, we make transfers upon request (and with approval), and advise that the transfer has taken place. Otherwise, the receiving unit never notices unless they are paying extraordinary attention.

lajackson makes a good point that should be obvious. I believe a transfer is no different than a reimbursement (as far as documentation goes) so it does have to be approved by the bishop. I usually receive a transfer request via e-mail from the Bishop and file that as approval to transfer money from the ward. If I receive a verbal request from him, I fill out a reimbursement slip, mark as "transfer, not check" and have him sign it.

A bishopric member and a clerk have to complete the transfer, but that action does not prove the bishop's approval. Some may consider this extra work, but I know our auditor and have learned by painful experience what he will accept and what he will not accept during the financial audit.

Thank you all for your help!

How can I do transfer from my unit to my stake using the LCR?

We just had this situation. We don’t show a listing for the stake under out of out of unit transfers so we just printed a check to the stake to move the funds.

brightagbons wrote:How can I do transfer from my unit to my stake using the LCR?

LCR > Finance > Transfers > Enter Transfers. Enter a description in the "Purpose" field; select the category and the amount in the "From" box. Select "Transfer Out of Unit..." in the "To" box. A new drop-down selection box with the title "Transferring to:" with "unit" will be displayed. Click "unit" to see the selections available. The first option is "Transfer out of Stake/District". If you select that option the edit box title will change to "Search for an external unit". The external unit name or number can be entered for the system to find. If a unit within your stake, including the stake, is desired then scroll down the list to find the ward/branch or the stake name. Once the unit is selected the edit box title will change to the name of the unit selected and the drop-down list box will show the word "category". Click it and you can scroll through the list of categories available to transfer into. Enter the amount in the "Transfer Amount" to the right. If necessary, additional categories can be added with a corresponding amount by clicking "Add row". The total of the amounts for multiple categories in the "To" box must equal the total of the amounts in the "From" box. Documentation can be added if necessary. I usually add a document that contains the information necessary to explain the purpose of the transfer. For our unit we include all the information necessary for a reimbursement request.

Transfers will require two signatures to be completed.

I follow that procedure, but when clicking on the Category field in the out of Stake/District unit - no categories are listed and I can't complete the transfer without that. We're trying to transfer some missionary funds to a previous ward.

jwjohnson99 wrote:I follow that procedure, but when clicking on the Category field in the out of Stake/District unit - no categories are listed and I can't complete the transfer without that. We're trying to transfer some missionary funds to a previous ward.

Are you trying to transfer missionary funds to the ward a missionary moved from? If so, a better approach would be to have the service center make the adjustments when they transfer responsibility for the missionary funding.

We are. The church did do that, but funds were being deposited into our Ward Fund on this missionary's behalf by a trust. We didn't realize until now that they weren't being put into the missionary's individual account. Some of those funds should have properly gone to the previous ward.

jwjohnson99 wrote:We are. The church did do that, but funds were being deposited into our Ward Fund on this missionary's behalf by a trust. We didn't realize until now that they weren't being put into the missionary's individual account. Some of those funds should have properly gone to the previous ward.

One alternative would be to have the service center make the adjustments for you.

I may just go old school and mail them a check. Thanks for the suggestions.

I'm the stake finance clerk. All the units in our stake have set up an Other: Authorized Membership-Financed Activities : Afghan Refugees account. The idea is for people to donate funds at the ward level to be transferred to the stake. Two of our ward clerks have told me that they can't see the stake Afghan Refugees account when they enter the "To" portion of the transfer. The only Stake account that appears is Other: Authorized Member-Financed Activities. Do I need to make the transfer within the stake account after receiving the transfer from each ward? Is that a policy or is there a step we're missing in the account setup? Shouldn't a ward be able to transfer funds directly to the same account at the stake?

I have made transfers similar to what is described by azabrisk as a ward clerk. My experience is the lowest level of categories available to a ward transferring to the stake in the Other category is the the Authorized Member-Financed Activities category. What I have done is send an email to the stake clerk and the assistant stake clerk - finance alerting them to the transfer and the intended purpose or category. The stake clerk then transfers the funds from the Other:AMFA category to the Other:AMFA:[category name] category.

As jdlessley said, only the first level of sub-categories of Budget and Other are visible to other units. So the other unit has to transfer to Other:AMFA and then you have to transfer to the appropriate sub-category. Pay particular attention at the very end of each audit period to avoid having a balance in the top Other:AMFA category or you'll generate an automatic audit exception (it's added by the audit system and the auditor can't remove it).

I encourage our units to put the purpose and their unit name in the transfer description because sometimes the source unit is listed as 'Headquarters' instead of the actual unit for some reason. And having the purpose in the description helps if there are any questions about the transfer later. An email from the unit is nice too so that I know to look for the transfer and take care of it promptly.

Agreed. Wards can only transfer funds to the top-level stake Other:AMFA category. That is usually done for YW camp fund-raisers.

It is very important for the stake clerk to stay on top of this, and watch for any funds transferred from other units. He must transfer those funds into the appropriate subcategory. If he does not, then he will garner a financial audit exception if he leaves any funds in the top-level category.

eblood66 wrote: Mon Dec 20, 2021 1:48 pm Pay particular attention at the very end of each audit period to avoid having a balance in the top Other:AMFA category or you'll generate an automatic audit exception (it's added by the audit system and the auditor can't remove it).

I encourage our units to put the purpose and their unit name in the transfer description because sometimes the source unit is listed as 'Headquarters' instead of the actual unit for some reason. And having the purpose in the description helps if there are any questions about the transfer later. An email from the unit is nice too so that I know to look for the transfer and take care of it promptly.

Plus one! Exactly right!

I've submitted a suggestion on LCR (at least I hope it went to the right department) that the transfers process should have an additional step added.

I believe the transfer should not be completed until the receiving clerk designates the proper subcategory for the funds and that designation is approved by the bishop or president of the unit, almost exactly as if it were an outgoing transfer. This would ensure the funds landed in the right subcategory, and that the receiving unit was aware of their arrival.

If we can't have that, then the auditor should have the ability to waive the automatic exception if the funds were moved out of the Other:AMFA category before the audit.

I don't know when or if they might make such a change. It would be unnecessary if we all were to consistently follow eblood66's advice above.

On the new LCR tools I needed to transfer money from the ward to the stake.

I did that by go going Finance > Transfer > Transfer out of unit (on the to section).
Expenses is not the tool for that.