Reimbursment overpayment

Our financial audit revealed that multiple receipts on a reimbursement request were incorrectly totaled, resulting in an overpayment. The member is more than willing to return the overage - our question pertains to the mechanics of doing so, since there is no way for a member to donate directly to the local budget. Any suggestions on how the member can return the overpayment?

They should return using the manual method (put cash/check in a donation envelope and hand to a member of the bishopric or mail to the bishop). Mark the donation slip as "Other" and something like "reimbursement over-payment."

OK...say we have the member return the overage via donation slip...but how would we enter that donation? Put it in the _General Other_ account and transfer it to general budget?

No, not other. You should be able to enter it to budget in MLS.

Enter it back to the budget category where the original expense came from. 'Donations' to budget will now show up on the tax statement at the end of the year. They are not actually treated as donations.

Lots of good replies - thank you. However; we still don't have a way for the member to return the money via donation slip. We have to record donations according to the following categories: Tithing; FO; Gen Missionary; Ward Missionary; Humanitarian Aid; and Other. There is no _Budget_ option in _Other_ (probably give the Stake Clerk a heart attack if he saw that pop up) and probably not an appropriate use of a _Other_ category anyway. As you can tell, I am pretty much at a loss. I have asked the Stake how to proceed, but wanted to canvass this forum first.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/hel ... categories

Members are not authorized to contribute to stake or ward budgets. Deposits are only made to the “Budget” category for the return of unused funds from an advance.

We used this last year to return an overpayment of $2 to Budget.

wallaced wrote:Lots of good replies - thank you. However; we still don't have a way for the member to return the money via donation slip. We have to record donations according to the following categories: Tithing; FO; Gen Missionary; Ward Missionary; Humanitarian Aid; and Other. There is no _Budget_ option in _Other_ (probably give the Stake Clerk a heart attack if he saw that pop up) and probably not an appropriate use of a _Other_ category anyway. As you can tell, I am pretty much at a loss. I have asked the Stake how to proceed, but wanted to canvass this forum first.

I would have them put it in the Other category and identify what it is for. Then let the stake clerk know what happened so they would be aware of it. If you are uncomfortable with that answer, your stake clerk is your first escalation point for questions on procedures and policy. Those of us on this user-to-user help forum can give advice, but don't have jurisdiction for your stake.

wallaced wrote:Lots of good replies - thank you. However; we still don't have a way for the member to return the money via donation slip. We have to record donations according to the following categories: Tithing; FO; Gen Missionary; Ward Missionary; Humanitarian Aid; and Other. There is no _Budget_ option in _Other_ (probably give the Stake Clerk a heart attack if he saw that pop up) and probably not an appropriate use of a _Other_ category anyway. As you can tell, I am pretty much at a loss. I have asked the Stake how to proceed, but wanted to canvass this forum first.

You may notice that there is a difference between "donation" and "deposit". Members cannot donate to budget, but using MLS, you may deposit funds from a member to budget. This is done to correct overpayments as well as to redeposit unspent advance payments.

On the paper donation slip, they'd have to use "Other (Specify)" as there is no other line that would be appropriate.

wallaced wrote:(probably give the Stake Clerk a heart attack if he saw that pop up)

Only if he's a new stake clerk. This isn't uncommon and writing 'Budget' in the 'Other' box is the standard practice. I've never had an auditor bat an eye as long as it's obviously a refund, return of overpayment or return of excess of an advance. In fact, the instructions on how to handle advances used to explicitly indicate that the excess should be returned in this way. I don't have access to that part of the help center any more so I can't point to anything specific now but I think it still gives the same instructions.

eblood66 wrote:In fact, the instructions on how to handle advances used to explicitly indicate that the excess should be returned in this way. I don't have access to that part of the help center any more so I can't point to anything specific now but I think it still gives the same instructions.

I can't find anything about advances. All I could find is Donation Categories. The last item is of interest.

Yes, that is the item I previously quoted here.

thanks, everyone! I appreciate yall's responses.

In my MLS (USA) we clearly have a budget option when receiving a donation. I have used this method before for fixing an over-reimbursed amount.

So I bought a webcam to broadcast Sacrament Meeting using G Suite, and sent my receipt to the bishopric, asking them to reimburse me. They did it twice. So I wrote a check for the amount of the over-payment, and we did a special deposit. In MLS, I selected the Budget - Administration category.

In LCRF, the Donation Detail clearly shows Budget Administration. However, when I generated a YTD Donor Statement of Contributions for myself, the amount is shown under Other Categories. I suppose that is OK, since most "Other" donations are not tax-deductible.

The member could cross out "other" and write budget and then notate on the slip that it is for an overpayment. When we do tithing on the computer, there is an area for budget with a dropdown. Our overpayment is from the primary. Primary is not on the dropdown but other categories are there. Then I can transfer from one budget category to primary. I think that will work.

rdscofield wrote: Tue Nov 29, 2022 10:39 pm Primary is not on the dropdown but other categories are there.

Prior to the discontinuation of the Other:AMFA category in September, 2022, a budget category expense over-payment could be directly deposited into the budget category.

After the discontinuation of the Other:AMFA category there was a new implementation. Now, with the exception of Administration, Miscellaneous, and FSY, a budget category will not show in the Budget drop-down list-box unless the category has a subcategory. For the purpose of a budget expense over-payment advance with a return of excess payment a subcategory can be created to make the return of over-payment. In the example of an over-payment from the Primary category a subcategory in the Primary category such as 'Expense Over-payments' can be used. Any deposit made in a budget category subcategory will be flagged as not a donation, or not tax exempt, and will not appear on the donor's year end donor statement.

And would the member who received the overpayment still use a tithing donation slip and enter the amount next to Other? We had one occur this week and as a new bishopric we aren’t sure how the member should repay the funds.

I get that once we receive the funds, we can allocate it to the category it came from (in this case, YW) and we’d create a sub-category for Reimbursement Overpayment. But how should the member pay that back?

jakekleiner1 wrote: Thu Dec 22, 2022 9:35 am And would the member who received the overpayment still use a tithing donation slip and enter the amount next to Other? We had one occur this week and as a new bishopric we aren’t sure how the member should repay the funds.

I get that once we receive the funds, we can allocate it to the category it came from (in this case, YW) and we’d create a sub-category for Reimbursement Overpayment. But how should the member pay that back?

Yes, they would use a donation slip as normal and would enter the amount by Other and include something like 'Return of budget overpayment' in the Other box.

I'm not sure that there is any advantage in adding a sub-category for Reimbursement Overpayment. I would just put it back in the category it came from.