How to deposit a check as a transfer?

Our ward received a check from another ward to move a missionary's funds over with their records. I'm used to doing electronic transfers between wards but have never done one with a paper check... So how do we deposit it, and put it into the correct account? I'm assuming that it's somewhat similar to tithing, but it's a transfer rather than a donation so would appreciate guidance from somebody who has done this (I'm guessing I'm probably the only clerk out there who has never done this). Thanks!

Deposit it like any other donation. If the other ward didn't provide a donation slip then write one out for them. Credit the donation to a payee with the name of the other unit (if I remember right you can mark the payee as another unit but if that isn't an option them mark them as a non-member) and credit the donation to the missionary's category.

Thank you for your response, doing it this way was my first thought...

However as I thought more about it I became concerned because the Church has already recorded these funds as a donation when they were originally donated. Now that they are being transferred to our unit, depositing this way will record the funds as a donation a second time, which is generally an accounting no-no for a non-profit organization. Unless perhaps they get counted as a disbursement when the check was cut, cancelling out the original donation in the accounting?

Since the donor record for the other unit does not have a MRN, it will not be processed as a donation for tax purposes.

ryanpatterson wrote:Now that they are being transferred to our unit, depositing this way will record the funds as a donation a second time, which is generally an accounting no-no for a non-profit organization. Unless perhaps they get counted as a disbursement when the check was cut, cancelling out the original donation in the accounting?

Although we say 'donation' this is really a deposit in this case. As drepouille said, since you are not recording it with the original donor's MRN it doesn't count as an additional donation from them for their tax purposes. As for accounting, when you deposit the check it will create a debit in the other ward's account and a credit in your account so everything balances out as far as the church's non-profit status is concerned.

Basically, you don't need to worry about the original donation. It is not affect by this transaction at all. The original donor (or donors) are credited for their donations and it shows up on their tax statements no matter what the church or units of the church do with it after that.

Got it, thank you your explanations are very helpful!

On another note, this still has to be done with MLS right? I don't use MLS for anything besides cash / check donations so confirming that they haven't enabled this in LCR yet.

ryanpatterson wrote:On another note, this still has to be done with MLS right? I don't use MLS for anything besides cash / check donations so confirming that they haven't enabled this in LCR yet.

Correct. Any year now. [smile]

You do it the same as any other deposit you might process on a Sunday. And it can be done in the same batch. You do not need to do it separately.

ryanpatterson wrote:Our ward received a check from another ward to move a missionary's funds over with their records.

I'm wondering if this was the correct procedure. A number of years ago when I was ward finance clerk, once we communicated to the church about changing the financial responsibility of a missionary from one ward to another (with the approval of both bishops), gave them an effective date, and they did the transfer of funds automatically from their end. Maybe things have changed, but sending a check sure seems like a big step backwards.

Mikerowaved wrote:I'm wondering if this was the correct procedure.

I wouldn't call it incorrect, but it's certainly not the most elegant, common, or easiest method.

Let's hope they didn't set an effective date and then transferred the balance without realizing what that did. It might be wise to make some inquires before depositing the check.

Yeah typically missionary funds are not transferred this way, this is an unusual case. I didn't want to bore you with details in the original post, but since you brought it up here's the story....

This was for a missionary couple; when they left on their mission the monthly cost decreased and they didn't realize so continued to contribute the full amount (their ward clerk probably should have noticed and notified them). Anyways, they returned with a large excess. They then moved to our ward, and are planning to serve another mission, and use those funds for towards that mission. Previous ward cut a check to zero out their mission fund, and we plan to put it in our ward's mission fund and earmark the funds for when they go on their mission. Previous ward could have electronically transferred the funds to our ward and saved me from starting this thread in the first place, but I suppose it doesn't hurt for me to learn how to deposit a check!