Can Finance Clerk access tithing declaration in LCR?

When our ward clerk logs in to the LCR page, he can see four tabs under "Tithing Settlement." One of those is "Tithing Declaration."

(I think the same happens for the bishop).

But when our financial clerk logs in, he sees only two tabs, and the "Tithing Declaraion" tab is not one of them.

Is there a way to fix this? The finance clerk had always been able to get this information through MLS.

jayriggity wrote:Is there a way to fix this? The finance clerk had always been able to get this information through MLS.

Apparently no longer at LCR. Only the bishop may make the tithing declaration. The clerk may assist him, but as of now, assistant clerks cannot.

You might wish to send Feedback and ask if the assistant clerk for finances should also be able to assist the bishop in recording tithing declarations. You will find out if it was an oversight or not.

The Access Table in LCR also says that only the Bishop and Ward Clerk can access the Tithing Declaration page. But I find this odd too. In the wards I've served in this has always been something the finance clerk has handled (unless the bishop does it himself). As far as I've ever seen there hasn't been any policy or instruction that says otherwise.

But maybe they decided tithing declarations should be treated more confidentially than they were previously. But it also means the finance clerk can't even print the blank page for the bishop to use to record declarations.

It was always available to the finance clerk in MLS -- meaning, it was available just a few weeks ago - so I have a hard time believing that it's a policy instead of just an oversight.

jayriggity wrote:It was always available to the finance clerk in MLS -- meaning, it was available just a few weeks ago - so I have a hard time believing that it's a policy instead of just an oversight.

Rights in MLS were not as fine grained as they are in LCR. So there have often been cases where MLS allowed things that were disallowed when they were moved to LCR. For example, most bishopric counselors could view membership records and move records in and out in MLS. But that isn't allowed in LCR. However, in those cases there was at least some wording the the handbooks or help center instructions that was consistent with the LCR restrictions.

It may be accidental but it is entirely possible that it was a new policy decision too. If so, I find it unfortunate because it increases the burden on the bishop and ward clerk for something that I as finance clerk could previously handle.

But even if it was a policy decision, it's possible that it might change given that there is no related handbook language that I know of. There have been other instances where the initial rights were very restricted and then were loosened after a further consideration.

eblood66 wrote:But maybe they decided tithing declarations should be treated more confidentially than they were previously.

That would be my guess as well. I noticed that in the Help Center article Conduct Tithing Settlement, it's the bishop's responsibility to record it.

Recording can always be done later. The only time-sensitive part is printing the report. But even that could be done ahead of time. It's still valid even if not completely up to date. And that is the part that I could see changing such that a Finance clerk could print it.

I submitted feedback and got a response that this was a policy decision.

I was just looking at the Tithing Settlement section and as finance clerk I can now see the Tithing Declaration and Declaration Summary pages so they may have reconsidered this decision. However, the access table still says that assistant clerks don't have access to those pages.

Branch counsellors also need access to the declarations. Right now I have a branch president who is in hospital following surgery and I have his counsellor doing the tithing settlement but he can't access the declarations he has to wait for the branch clerk!

stuartsampson wrote:Branch counsellors also need access to the declarations. Right now I have a branch president who is in hospital following surgery and I have his counsellor doing the tithing settlement but he can't access the declarations he has to wait for the branch clerk!

Sounds like a "acting branch leader" to me. In general, branch councillors don't need access.

So is there a way to set a counsellor as an acting branch leader?
The counsellor got the clerk to assist him but for future reference it would be good to know.

stuartsampson wrote:So is there a way to set a counsellor as an acting branch leader?
The counsellor got the clerk to assist him but for future reference it would be good to know.

According to this (admittedly old) wiki page (http://tech.lds.org/wiki/CDOL_Frequentl ... _Questions) the calling of "Acting Branch Leader" is intended for full-time missionaries who are called to serve as the branch president. So I'm not sure that is a possible solution (although you could check with your mission or stake president).

But I think the normal way of handling that is just like you did. The clerk is available and has the necessary access. He could simply print the declaration list at the beginning of the process, the counselor can mark it as he goes and the clerk can input it the results after tithing settlement is complete. That's how we did it when we had to use MLS and it's really not that much more work.

stuartsampson wrote:So is there a way to set a counsellor as an acting branch leader?

Since it would be the district/stake that sets the branch leader, I'd assume it's the district/stake that sets acting branch leader as well.

russellhltn wrote:Since it would be the district/stake that sets the branch leader, I'd assume it's the district/stake that sets acting branch leader as well.

This is not an assignment that can be entered by a stake or district. The change would need to be made by Church headquarters.

Thanks for the correction. No doubt, someone would have to explain to CHQ what's going on and why it's needed.

russellhltn wrote:

stuartsampson wrote:Branch counsellors also need access to the declarations. Right now I have a branch president who is in hospital following surgery and I have his counsellor doing the tithing settlement but he can't access the declarations he has to wait for the branch clerk!

Sounds like a "acting branch leader" to me. In general, branch councillors don't need access.

When I was a bishop, I had a financial clerk who thought he was being efficient by submitting the tithing report himself (this is from the older days when there was only MLS). Needless to say, I wasn't particularly happy with that, and had to correct things which he couldn't have known -- I had to keep the tally sheet where folks had declared full/part/etc., whereas he kind of made wild guesses. I prefer the fine-grained approach that LCR enforces.

It is evident to me that a great deal of thought (and experience) has gone into these allocations of permissions. During MLS audits, we found that the permissions available to individuals with callings were often quite surprising and overly generous when discovered. There can be headaches with the new way (stake folk can't record callings at the ward level to allow the permissions) when there's a bottleneck like an incapacitated branch president (or bishop). The report can also be delayed -- have your stake report to your AA 70 as to why it's delayed.