Auditor LUFAS question

I'm a stake auditor with access to LUFAS I have a question about LUFAS but it might take another auditor to answer. I thought I had seen a place where I could view itemized donations, not just totals, but the amounts and categories an individual donates. I can't find that now. Anyone know how to find it?

I don't think you can see an individual's donations. At least as an assistant area auditor I know I can't. Not can I think of any audit question that would require you to have access to that information. It's there a reason you think it would be necessary?

I must be missing something. Deposits question 17 reads

17. For the selected donation batch, do the names, categories, and amounts on each Tithing and Other Offerings form match the corresponding information in the Church financial system?

To me, this means looking at individual donation slips and comparing them with the names and categories that were entered into LCR. If this isn't the case, how do auditors get the information to answer this question?

wrigjef wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2024 5:28 pm I must be missing something. Deposits question 17 reads

17. For the selected donation batch, do the names, categories, and amounts on each Tithing and Other Offerings form match the corresponding information in the Church financial system?

To me, this means looking at individual donation slips and comparing them with the names and categories that were entered into LCR. If this isn't the case, how do auditors get the information to answer this question?

Batches refer to in-person Sunday deposits by the ward or branch. Those you should audit, per the instructions, with the paper records the unit has vs. what was recorded in LCR. You do not audit on-line donations nor do you look at total donations by a donor for the audit period or year.

I’m not trying to do anything here but understand. I know what a batch is, been clerking for years in all roles. But please verify, in order to audit per question 17, I compare the total on the deposit slip to the total shown on LUFAS. In order to match category totals, I add the total of a particular category from all donation slips and compare that to the category amount shown on the unit’s LCR and printout.

wrigjef wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2024 8:46 pm I’m not trying to do anything here but understand. I know what a batch is, been clerking for years in all roles. But please verify, in order to audit per question 17, I compare the total on the deposit slip to the total shown on LUFAS. In order to match category totals, I add the total of a particular category from all donation slips and compare that to the category amount shown on the unit’s LCR and printout.

This part of the audit has to be done in person. It cannot be done solely on line ahead of time. The rest should be obvious once you are doing it in person.

Is that why the category totals, from the units LCR, aren’t shown in LUFAS? Because you have to be on site anyway?

Yes. I'm sorry for the confusion of my earlier answer. The audit is concerned only with deposits made in donation envelopes given to the unit. That's when the risk of making a mistake happens. When a donor makes an online donation, SHE might mix up categories, but that's on her, not the unit. Audits identify errors made by the unit, not those made my members. For example, there is no exception if a member writes in the wrong categories on a donation slip, the unit accurately records those wrong categories and the member later recognizes his error and asks that they unit change the categories.

This question does usually require the auditor physically examine the donation slips and the LCR records. If that is not possible, the audit protocol does allow, as an exception, the auditor to do this virtually. Usually the auditor and clerk set up something like a zoom meeting. The clerk uses his camera to show the auditor the documents the auditor wants to test. This recent exception in audit protocol has been a blessing in areas where the auditor and clerk may have to drive a couple hours to be with each other - especially when the weather is bad

Just to be sure, this is what I believe LUFAS wants you as an auditor to do.

First, select the batches you want to test. You do this in LUFAS using the list of deposits under the Audit Discovery | Select Transactions | Deposits Selection tab. This list shows deposits the unit makes in LCR from donation envelopes the unit leader receives. It does not include any online donations.

Next, the unit clerk pulls the hardcopies of a selected batch. He then opens the batch in LCR.

The auditor then takes a single donation slip and compares the information on that slip with the data for that slip that is in LCR. Is the donor name the same? Are the categories the member used on the slip the same as the categories in LCR? Are the amounts the same? In other words, you are checking that the clerk who recorded the donation in LCR correctly recorded the donor name, categories the donor used and amounts the donor wrote in.

You then repeat that process for each donation slip on the batch you are testing.

If ANY donor, category, or amount on ANY donation slip does not match what is in LCR, you answer Q17 "No."

At least that's my understanding of the process. Does that help answer your question?

Yes, this exchange has been good.
I wish that the process didn’t involve the clerk needing to open their unit LCR but I understand that’s just the way it is.

I think it would be helpful to have an auditor forum here or as part of LUFAS so we could ask questions and get input from more experienced auditors.

wrigjef wrote: Tue Feb 06, 2024 4:48 pm I wish that the process didn’t involve the clerk needing to open their unit LCR but I understand that’s just the way it is.

This is just a guess but I think it's this way because the names associated with a donation are considered very sensitive information. As a stake clerk, I can see almost all aspects of each unit's finances but the one thing I can't see is the names associated with donations or the individual donations within a unit deposited batch. By making this information only available to auditors during the audit and through the unit clerk, it ensures the auditor only sees the exact information they need to see and it's only briefly available to them.

Does the unit batch report list the individual names, donations and categories? If I remember correctly they do list that information just as it was entered into their system. Units typically print those out so I could just compare individual donation slips to the batch report eliminating the need to use a second computer.

The instructions say to compare to the information in the church financial system. To me that says that it should be compared against LCR. Also, changes could have been made in LCR after the batch report was printed. Normally those would be corrections (which should have been printed and filed with the batch report) but if something fishy was going on then there could be inappropriate changes that aren't caught by the audit if you don't use LCR. That's unlikely, of course, but is also the kind of thing the audit is supposed to catch if it happens.