Transferring extra funds into a missionary account

I am the financial clerk and the bishop text me saying that there are funds in the" Authorized-member financed activities" that should have gone to one of our full time missionaries. I am still fairly new to this so I figured I can just transfer the funds to the missionary or general missionary funds but it will not allow me to transfer anything into missionary funds. I ran into an odd situation with missionary funds a month ago and found that only the bishop could actually fix it. Is this similar and I need him to go in and fix it or am I missing something.

Rather than transfer funds, I'd reclassify the donation. That also fixes chartable donation status.

As russelhltn said, you need to adjust the category on the donation or donations. In LCR, go to the Donation Summary screen and find a batch with one of the donations. Click on the date of the batch. Then click on the name on the line for the correct donation. Then click Adjust Donation and make the correction. Print the documentation it provides at the end and file that with the original donation batch. Repeat for each donation that needs correction.

Reclassifying a donation assumes, of course, that the funds were, in fact, wrongly classified to begin with.

As an Assistant Area Auditor, I have seen wards try to "zero out" funds in the "Other" account by moving funds to budget, fast offerings or ward missionary funds.

If the funds truly are "Other" account funds, the church has other policies & procedures. See https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/wi ... r_category

A very excellent point. If you are going to adjust a donation batch, I would suggest that you find the original donation slip (if a paper slip exists), and attach a note describing the error and the adjustment, so the auditor will not be confused by a donation slip that does not match the online records.

waltbristow wrote: Wed Mar 09, 2022 9:56 amReclassifying a donation assumes, of course, that the funds were, in fact, wrongly classified to begin with.

Very true. I was assuming that was the case as the OP say the funds 'should have gone to one of our full time missionaries'. If it was a mistake during donation entry then re-categorizing the donation the the correct course of action. If they were actually donated to 'Other' in the first place and not used for that purpose they should be returned to the donor if possible. However, if that's the case and the donor wants to re-donate the funds to the ward mission fund, then re-categorizing should be acceptable as well (although it would be good to include a note with the batch documentation that the donor asked for the change).

However, if the funds were part of a fundraiser or if the donor hasn't approved the re-categorization then they funds need to be handled as described in the article waltbristow linked to (either used for the intended purpose, returned to the donor or turned over to CHQ).

Thanks for the directions. I am unsure what batch caused the issue and I cannot seem to find how the money got sent to that category anyway so I am going to work with the bishop and get some insight to that and then go from there. Being new I appreciate everybody’s advise.

I think it would have had to be a donation, but it might have been last year. I think if you did a income and expenses report you'll get a better idea. You'll either see it or see a carry over from last year.

It would be a good idea to reach out to your stake clerk or stake finance clerk for help tracking that down. They can also view your records (although they can't see who made each donation) and can probably help identify at least when the funds were put in the account if the bishop doesn't already know.

As always other issues pushed this quest to the back burner but we are back at this. Again appreciate the direction and I did the research and found that the funds were actually transferred from a different ward/stake so unable to check the batches and they were transferred under " Authorized-member financed activities" so now I am unsure who to go to next.

kyodabum wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 8:15 pm As always other issues pushed this quest to the back burner but we are back at this. Again appreciate the direction and I did the research and found that the funds were actually transferred from a different ward/stake so unable to check the batches and they were transferred under " Authorized-member financed activities" so now I am unsure who to go to next.

Well, that's a fun one. I'd get the stake clerk involved. He's responsible for your training. He'd also have the ability to contact that other stake if that's necessary (and probably would be to get the donation in the right tax status.)

There's a good chance that support is going to have to get involved as well. But I'd start with the stake clerk.