New Unit Leader Process in MLS

Several months ago, a branch president was released. The new president was properly called, set apart, and installed via LCR. All of the paperwork was sent to SLC in a timely manner. He has received communications from SLC including letterhead, etc. He has no problem technically with any level of authority for a branch president. All is well.

This past week, the stake financial clerk wrote a check to the new branch president's branch as a reimbursement for approved expenses. When the pre-check form displayed on the MLS screen, the previous branch president's name and address appeared in the Payee/address location on the pre-check screen. The clerk caught the error and was able to correct that particular error by manually replacing the incorrect address on the check with the appropriate one of the new bishop.

Question: What did we miss doing in MLS finances when the new president was called and set apart that prevented the new branch president's name/address appear in the first place instead of that of the pre-President's? Ideas?
Thanks as always for your help,

jbuhl68 wrote:This past week, the stake financial clerk wrote a check to the new branch president's branch as a reimbursement for approved expenses. When the pre-check form displayed on the MLS screen, the previous branch president's name and address appeared in the Payee/address location on the pre-check screen.

This is confusing. If the SFC was trying to write a check to the BRANCH, then the branch name would be the payee name. But you said that the previous branch PRESIDENT's name appeared in the payee name field. Which is it? Standard procedure would be for the payee to be the BRANCH name. The branch president's name could be on a second line, something like:

Meadow View Branch
c/o President John Smith
123 Elm Street
Anytown, UT 88888

In that case, the previous branch president's name wouldn't actually be the payee name, but would be one of the address lines.

jbuhl68 wrote:Question: What did we miss doing in MLS finances when the new president was called and set apart that prevented the new branch president's name/address appear in the first place instead of that of the pre-President's? Ideas?

A payee record in MLS has nothing to do with leadership information. So although you did everything correctly on the membership and leadership side of things, nothing you did there would affect the payee record. So you just need to change the address information associated with that branch's payee record in Stake MLS to correspond to the new branch president.

That's pretty much the same thing you would do if any payee moved -- you would edit the payee record to reflect the new address. As far as the payee record is concerned, that's essentially what happened in this case -- the branch payee "moved" and so you need to update the branch payee record.

Using MLS, the stake clerk can transfer funds directly to the branch rather than issuing a check that the branch president will have to have deposited.

You are correct, I did confuse the situation in my post. I should have said that the Payee was the unit name. The address to which the check was to be sent was that of the previous branch president. Your response, as always, was just what we needed to hear. Thank you.

Before the clerks in my stake learned how easy it was to transfer funds to the stake using MLS, they wrote checks to the stake, and mailed them to the stake president's home (where they were often misplaced). The ward clerk of one of the wards that meets in the stake center wrote a check to the stake, and addressed it to the physical address of the stake center. That check was undeliverable, of course. Perhaps our clerk just didn't check the address before he dropped it into the mail. Since everyone switched to using transfers, all is well. The only issue with transfers is that the receiving unit clerk must move the incoming funds into the correct subcategory.

I am trying to enter unit number and Bishop for a new ward created today. I cannot find any info on doing this, can someone help?

wcovey wrote:I am trying to enter unit number and Bishop for a new ward created today. I cannot find any info on doing this, can someone help?

The stake president who presided at the meeting where the new bishop was sustained will complete the record of sustaining and setting apart. When Church headquarters receives that document, the new ward will be activated and the bishop will be recorded in his new calling. Then everything else will start to fall in place.

lajackson wrote:When Church headquarters receives that document, the new ward will be activated and the bishop will be recorded in his new calling. Then everything else will start to fall in place.

Note that this can take some time. Perhaps the better part of a week. Perhaps someone else can chime in with a more accurate time frame.

russellhltn wrote:

lajackson wrote:When Church headquarters receives that document, the new ward will be activated and the bishop will be recorded in his new calling. Then everything else will start to fall in place.

Note that this can take some time. Perhaps the better part of a week. Perhaps someone else can chime in with a more accurate time frame.

The last time we did it, we emailed a pdf scan of the form to the Church on Monday morning and the ward was activated early the same afternoon. It does not always happen that fast, but the time before that we sent the form on Monday afternoon and the unit was activated Tuesday morning.

Other things take time, like getting the CUBS file from the Financial Department for MLS Finance. That took most of a week. But the deposit slips and stamp did not arrive until the following week. That was the long pole in the tent.

lajackson wrote:we emailed a pdf scan of the form

So much of this depends on when/how the form is sent to SLC.

As an update, I just called SLC Monday morning and they connected me with the dept necessary; I gave them the information verbally and within two hours the unit was activated.
Thanks for the replies.