CUBS and Donations in Kind

I have been going over the financials since yesterday, trying to determine why my pre-CUBS missionary balance was $12,000 and my post CUBS balance was $-9,000. I believe I've found it, but will need to make the call into SLC tomorrow to verify.

It's looking to me as though Donations-In-Kind that were made to our Ward Mission fund were not transferred over in the CUBS load. I pass this on for those who might be trying to get your balances to reconcile as well.

You're probably right, but in all honesty, I wouldn't call them this week for an issue like this. They're pretty busy, and they might even catch something like this automatically in the end.

wpierson wrote:I have been going over the financials since yesterday, trying to determine why my pre-CUBS missionary balance was $12,000 and my post CUBS balance was $-9,000. I believe I've found it, but will need to make the call into SLC tomorrow to verify.

It's looking to me as though Donations-In-Kind that were made to our Ward Mission fund were not transferred over in the CUBS load. I pass this on for those who might be trying to get your balances to reconcile as well.

Donation-In-Kind information has not been sent to MLS yet. It will be soon.

When I called and talked to them not to long ago I was told that donation in kind was no longer accepted. After reading this I am confused. Can you explain more?

happy-one wrote:When I called and talked to them not to long ago I was told that donation in kind was no longer accepted. After reading this I am confused. Can you explain more?

They may not be accepting future payments of donations-in-kind, but that does not change the fact that they have in the past accepted them. It would appear that the only donation information that has been sent down up to this point is actual monetary transactions. For those who have donated in-kind already, some future financial information will be sent down with a monetary equivalency. Until then, the pre and post CUBS donation information will differ.

This is my understanding. I have not personally dealt with donations-in-kind.

crislapi wrote:They may not be accepting future payments of donations-in-kind, . . .

Is there any further information on this apparent policy change? If it is true, this will totally decimate several of our members in December as they try to make their final donations prior to the end of the tax year.

lajackson wrote:Is there any further information on this apparent policy change? If it is true, this will totally decimate several of our members in December as they try to make their final donations prior to the end of the tax year.

I wouldn't read too much into one second-hand report. I find it very hard to believe that the Church would eliminate donations in kind. And if it did so, you can be sure that there would be some sort of official letter. Donations in kind can provide great tax advantages to the donor, and thus make it possible for the Church to receive greater donations than might otherwise be possible.

The moment I read that one post, I dismissed it as an inaccurate rumor. I've seen nothing to change my mind. I certainly wouldn't call it an "apparent policy change."

Alan_Brown wrote:The moment I read that one post, I dismissed it as an inaccurate rumor. I've seen nothing to change my mind. I certainly wouldn't call it an "apparent policy change."

I never processed one myself, but I don't think the Donations in Kind ever went though MLS. So CUBS inability to deal with it may not be an issue, and it would be a mistake to read that as a new policy.

However, it wouldn't be the first time that things changed without what I'd consider adequate notice, so it would be a good idea to verify it one way or another.

RussellHltn wrote:I never processed one myself, but I don't think the Donations in Kind ever went though MLS. So CUBS inability to deal with it may not be an issue, and it would be a mistake to read that as a new policy.

Donations in Kind should go through MLS if they affect any local account. So if all or a portion of a DIK is directed to the Ward Missionary Fund, for example, the unit will see a transaction appear on the CUFS. Under CFAR, the financial clerk had to make a manual entry in MLS to make the accounts reconcile, but under CUBS, such a transaction would originate in CUBS and then should be automatically downloaded to MLS.

I wouldn't be surprised if DIK transactions were downloaded a bit later than some others; we have already seen that not all transactions come down all at once.

RussellHltn wrote:I never processed one myself, but I don't think the Donations in Kind ever went though MLS.

This is correct in that they do not go through MLS. But any amounts designated for a local unit would be entered into MLS after a letter is sent from CHQ or when it appeared on the CUFS. The most common item that would be entered into MLS would be ward misssionary donations. Some of this is explained in Recording in MLSin the wiki article Donations in kind. With CUBS there will be no need to enter donations in kind for ward missionaries, or for any other donations designated for a local unit now, since that will already be taken care of at CHQ.

I suspect that the misinformation is that donations in kind are still accepted but that no action is required on our part for the donations to appear in MLS that need to appear there.

I spoke with Headquarters this morning, and they indicated that during the initial implementation of the CUBS changes to MLS they did indeed miss DIK. However, as of yesterday, they are not being sent to MLS. This evening, I'll go to our computer and do a "send/receive", and verify that it we are now receiving those fund transfers.