Auto Pay DSL Bills

In our stake, most of the phone bills are paid automatically (Patech?) and show up on the CUFS as items in the other account. But for our DSL lines, we still receive bills directly from the telephone company, which we pay by writing checks out of budget. Do any of you know whether it is possible to set up the DSL lines to be paid automatically and charged to budget? We have 5 DSL lines in the stake, so having this handled automatically would be helpful.

I was able to negotiate with our stake's DSL provider (Qwest) so we could pre-pay an entire year's worth of DSL service all at once. So, we have this huge credit, and our monthly bills reflect the deductions from that credit.

Hope that helps,

Eric Cawley
Paramount Stake Clerk
Meridian, ID

I have a related question. As a Stake Clerk I pay for the local phone lines for each unit. Is it permissible to authorize the phone companies to autopay from the "reimbursed local phone" account? Or should I continue writing checks for each?

caj36 wrote:I have a related question. As a Stake Clerk I pay for the local phone lines for each unit. Is it permissible to authorize the phone companies to autopay from the "reimbursed local phone" account? Or should I continue writing checks for each?

I doubt that there is any way to properly set up an automatic debit to the correct subcategory -- all that accounting is done through MLS using CUBS, and I can't imagine how a phone company could code that debit properly. You'll just have to keep writing checks.

aebrown wrote:I doubt that there is any way to properly set up an automatic debit to the correct subcategory -- all that accounting is done through MLS using CUBS, and I can't imagine how a phone company could code that debit properly. You'll just have to keep writing checks.

I expected as much. Certainly would be nice functionality though...

aebrown wrote:I doubt that there is any way to properly set up an automatic debit to the correct subcategory -- all that accounting is done through MLS using CUBS, and I can't imagine how a phone company could code that debit properly. You'll just have to keep writing checks.

Or how that would play with the Church's system where MLS has to authorize the check.

RussellHltn wrote:Or how that would play with the Church's system where MLS has to authorize the check.

A direct debit wouldn't have those issues, since the Positive Pay system only applies to paper checks. But this is all hypothetical anyway, since direct debits can't be done this way.