October Donations missing in MLS?

We got our YTD donation summary from the home ward last Sunday. It does not include the October donations. My wife says they announced in Sacrament Meeting that the data either wasn't in MLS or the summaries weren't picking them up for some reason (she didn't really understand what they were trying to say).

I haven't had a chance to look at the branch finances yet, but wondered if anyone else had run into this. Curious if my ward got crossed up during the transition, or if they are printing things incorrectly.

I printed our ward's before the transition, but you may just want to take a look at the top of the printout. You should find there what dates the report covers. You may find that October was not included. Just a guess.

I know at the stake level at least, all my donor and payee records got unlinked from the membership record even though the record remained. See this post for more. If the donations aren't linked to your membership record, they won't show up on your statement. However, it appeared this error only affected the stake.

Most likely the reports were printed earlier. Check the date of your statement to see when the last possible donation date was.

Final thought: donations can only be linked to a single donor (same as before). Whose YTD statement did you receive? One for each of you or just one? If just one of yours, it is possible the donations were put on the other's donor record.

If your statement date should include those donations, I would first have your clerk verify that the donations were included in the appropriate donation batch(es). If they are there, see whose name they were put under. If that is the name that is on your donor statement, then have your clerk go to add/update donors and see if 2+ donor records exist for that name. If there are, have him merge them all down to a single donor record linked to the appropriate/desired membership record.

The date printed is October 31, so it should have everything. Report is in my name as it should be.

The possibilities Crislapi suggested might be the problem. The home ward clerks are great men but not tech wizards. I think I might be the only one from my stake that looks at the forums and WIKI.

Thanks, I'll go talk with them. If they are getting recorded incorrectly, tithing settlement will be no fun for them.

We have totals for the donation batch, but not individual names, therefore it is not registering on the donor statements. It is showing CFAR History by the total. Also when we click on review it doesn't show any names for this date Oct 10th. As mentioned above, good ward clerks, however not technical enough to figure out what to do next, and we have tried several times to get in touch with MLS Support, however have been unsuccessful, like many others. Trying to figure out what to do next, or look at to fix this issue. Thanks, a very frustrated clerk/STS.

tyinit wrote:We have totals for the donation batch, but not individual names, therefore it is not registering on the donor statements. It is showing CFAR History by the total. Also when we click on review it doesn't show any names for this date Oct 10th. As mentioned above, good ward clerks, however not technical enough to figure out what to do next, and we have tried several times to get in touch with MLS Support, however have been unsuccessful.

No names at all? So there are no donors listed and the donation is just a line item of a single amount for each donation category or are there rows for each individual donation but no assigned name?

crislapi wrote:No names at all? So there are no donors listed and the donation is just a line item of a single amount for each donation category or are there rows for each individual donation but no assigned name?

There are rows that show the donation amounts, but no names listed.

I would suggest trying the following:
1) go to View/update donations and open the 10/10/10 batch
2) It should by default open in the "Review" pane. Select "Donation" instead (circled in red in the image below)
3) The screen for entering donations should appear. It should be blank, as shown below.
4) Navigate back through the donations that have already been entered by using the back/left arrow (circled in red)
5) For each donation, re-associate it with the correct donor by re-entering the correct name in the Donor field

For those curious, this is test ward data, not my own.

Hi I'm new here. We are seeing CFAR lump sums instead of individual donors for every week except the last 3. When I click on donation it actually lists CFAR as the donor with the lump sums totaled in each donation category accordingly. This is totally screwed up and nobody knows what is going on.

I tried calling Salt Lake tonight but they said they had high call volume. Anyway I could really use some help as we have tithing settlement beginning this Sunday and cannot get members accurate donation summaries. Thx.

Primetime5 wrote:Hi I'm new here. We are seeing CFAR lump sums instead of individual donors for every week except the last 3.

While the suggestion above might work, I highly doubt you have the time to go back through an entire year of donations and re-enter donor info. Sorry, but you are probably going to want to go through LUS to get this resolved. It won't happen tonight, but it'll spare you hours of work.

In the interim, the only other thing I can think of is to use the same technique given for recovering pre-CUBS financial information but this time to print individual statements instead of budget reports. This would only contain donations through the 17th of October, but that's more accurate than what you can currently get out of MLS it sounds like.

See this post for how to begin the process.

crislapi wrote:While the suggestion above might work, I highly doubt you have the time to go back through an entire year of donations and re-enter donor info. Sorry, but you are probably going to want to go through LUS to get this resolved. It won't happen tonight, but it'll spare you hours of work.

In the interim, the only other thing I can think of is to use the same technique given for recovering pre-CUBS financial information but this time to print individual statements instead of budget reports. This would only contain donations through the 17th of October, but that's more accurate than what you can currently get out of MLS it sounds like.

See this post for how to begin the process.

Luckily we've only been a ward since August, so we have about 14 weeks of data and 10 are showing that error. What is LUS?

Primetime5 wrote:What is LUS?

LUS stands for Local Unit Support (follow that link for a variety of contact options).

Primetime5 wrote:We are seeing CFAR lump sums instead of individual donors for every week except the last 3. When I click on donation it actually lists CFAR as the donor with the lump sums totaled in each donation category accordingly.

I am having the same problem for the Oct. 10 deposit only. I can't adjust the donor name because there is only one donor, "CFAR History", and I can't add additional donors to the same batch. I tried adding different "slips" to the one donations, but it wouldn't allow that either.

The problem is that some of the members in my branch are worried about their statements for tax purposes that one of their donations in the YTD Summary isn't showing up, and consequently won't show up in their tax letter after the end of the year.

I just can't figure out how to transfer the correct donor names to MLS so that it shows on their YTD.

bakahre wrote:I am having the same problem for the Oct. 10 deposit only. I can't adjust the donor name because there is only one donor, "CFAR History", and I can't add additional donors to the same batch. I tried adding different "slips" to the one donations, but it wouldn't allow that either.

The problem is that some of the members in my branch are worried about their statements for tax purposes that one of their donations in the YTD Summary isn't showing up, and consequently won't show up in their tax letter after the end of the year.

I just can't figure out how to transfer the correct donor names to MLS so that it shows on their YTD.

As crislapi noted in this post (which was a response to the post you quoted), there's not really anything we can do to help you on this issue -- you'll need to contact Local Unit Support.

Whenever MLS doesn't want to cooperate and there are
actual tax consequences I would recommend you re-create
the tax-document in Openoffice.org (Writer or Calc, as your
preference dictates) and enter in the changes manually.

As long as you print it on letterhead, and get the Bishop
to sign it, it should be legal.

It will require a little more clerk work, but it can save the
frustration of trying to get MLS to work properly or the
time spent trying to contact Local Unit Support.

- Atticus

atticusewig wrote:Whenever MLS doesn't want to cooperate and there are actual tax consequences I would recommend you re-create
the tax-document in Openoffice.org (Writer or Calc, as your
preference dictates) and enter in the changes manually.

I would use great caution in doing that. It is treading in tax law where none of us are professionals. Do we know for sure that the purpose contributed to meets all the requirements of a "charitable donation" for tax purposes? After all, not all funds given to the church are automatically "charitable".

Do you really want to risk legal problems for a volunteer job? Would the Church come to your aid when you've gone outside of their polices?

Personally, I would not do it, or even suggest doing it, unless that specific fund was cleared by CHQ and that's how they say to do it.

One of our units just called last night with this exact problem, the October 10 donations were not showing up under individual donor's records, and there was just the one CFAR history entry. I would appreciate hearing if anybody who has had this exact problem has had it resolved, and how, thanks!

apsmith wrote:One of our units just called last night with this exact problem, the October 10 donations were not showing up under individual donor's records, and there was just the one CFAR history entry. I would appreciate hearing if anybody who has had this exact problem has had it resolved, and how, thanks!

Part of the CUBS transition process was to review and make certain that all of the batches before CUBS were still in the database after the conversion.

See the CUBS instructions for the fix.

lajackson wrote:Part of the CUBS transition process was to review and make certain that all of the batches before CUBS were still in the database after the conversion.

See the CUBS instructions for the fix.

Yes, but those instructions simply say "If there is a missing donation batch, re-enter this batch." That's not a very comforting directive for a unit that is missing a lot of batches.

Alan_Brown wrote:Yes, but those instructions simply say "If there is a missing donation batch, re-enter this batch." That's not a very comforting directive for a unit that is missing a lot of batches.

Comforting, no. I agree. Nevertheless, it appears from the thread that the October 10th batch is missing. If that is the only one, I think re-entering the batch is the solution that will be given.

Granted, if a unit is missing a lot of batches, I would be on the phone to support and let them "help" resolve the issue.

What would concern me is that the missing batch was discovered when donations did not show up on year-end reports. That would imply that a thorough check was not completed at the time of the conversion in October.

lajackson wrote:Comforting, no. I agree. Nevertheless, it appears from the thread that the October 10th batch is missing. If that is the only one, I think re-entering the batch is the solution that will be given.

The problem is that the batch isn't exactly missing. The posts indicate that the batch is indeed there, but is missing all the detail -- there is one CFAR history entry, rather than all the individual donation entries attributed to each donor. So simply reentering the batch seems like it could be duplicating the credits, thus throwing off the balances.

Also, Primetime5 indicated that their unit had 10 such donation batches, which is a much bigger problem. If Local Unit Support can solve his issue, I would hope that the same fix would work for units with only one such batch.

apsmith wrote:One of our units just called last night with this exact problem, the October 10 donations were not showing up under individual donor's records, and there was just the one CFAR history entry. I would appreciate hearing if anybody who has had this exact problem has had it resolved, and how, thanks!

The donation batch is showing with the correct total. The problem is the donor information has been lost - there is now a single donor: CFAR. We weren't supposed to go through each batch and verify every donor was still there. We were just to look to make sure not batches were lost/added and that the totals were still there, which they are.

This is a a bug some units have encountered with the transition. I'm submitted feedback but have received no word on when it will be fixed.

The October 10 batch is there, it just is missing all the donor information. That's the bug. No batches are missing, everything adds up, except that some donor statements are missing one of their donations.

apsmith wrote:The October 10 batch is there, it just is missing all the donor information. That's the bug. No batches are missing, everything adds up, except that some donor statements are missing one of their donations.

Ok. From the last three posts, I understand the true nature of the problem. And I think you are right. I would not re-enter the batch (because it is actually there in an abbreviated form).

I think you are at the mercy of the developers on this one.

Some of you are lucky enough to have had a smooth transition to CUBS. Others of us are having some moderate problems (that we know of). While still other, from what I read, are having absolute nightmares with this. I requested via mls a Stake Financial Summary for Oct 19 so I can give the wards their end of year budget amounts. Still no answer. Often the advisors on this sight say to call support. I have ben trying for 2 weeks and all I get is a recording saying that the mailbox is full.
Some of you (like I think Alan) have said that you have had to spend 3 hours with each ward to get things fixed. And that is coming from someone who understands this much much better than most of us. What are we suppose to do? Maybe the church needs to send me one of their experts and after a week we may get the stake and all the wards sorted out. I feel real stupid when the stake president ask me how are things financially and all I can say is , "I don't know."

I was in a ward on 24OCT when CUBS was turned on.
I saw what a mess it created, with no real instructions from SLC.

I spent many hours on the phone and reading LDSTech Forum
articles to understand how to "correct" CUBS issues. I had to
burn some of my vaction time so I was honest with my employer.

The basic issue was that no clear instructions were sent by CHQ
on how to handle the required corrections. Clerk Support hotline is
overwhelmed with questions because no information or
training was provided.

After a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth and prayer and fasting,
I came to the conclusion that the only way to get through the problems
was to get through them. I have spent a lot of time with the
various unit clerks to encourage them to get past the
frustration and get back to work. The common corrections
usually took less than an hour to accomplish. The remaining
problems just need time and effort to track down and resolve.

My professional opinion is that CUBS was released before it
was ready due to other project deadlines. If you remember,
it was to be released in late AUG and then suddenly pulled
back with no explanation. My main comment is that whoever
allowed this fiasco to be forced upon the volunteer
clerk work force should be moved to some other position
before they cause more damage.

I know from various reports and sources that it is very obvious
in SLC that the CUBS conversion did not go smoothly. Until
the dust settles in SLC, we will have to live with the issues
caused by CUBS. I have tried very hard to get the financial
clerks past the worst of the CUBS problems so they could
concentrate on tithing settlement.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but it is the reality
we have at the moment. The only advice I continue to give
is "hunker down" and do what you can. The issues will
be resolved eventually, but SLC is overwhelmed right
now.

If you still have problems you can't resolve, email me and
I'll do what I can.

Good luck.

stott wrote:I requested via mls a Stake Financial Summary for Oct 19 so I can give the wards their end of year budget amounts. Still no answer. Often the advisors on this sight say to call support. I have been trying for 2 weeks and all I get is a recording saying that the mailbox is full.

I finally got mine in the mail last week. As for getting in, I've had good luck (and I acknowledge it is luck) with both the phone and email. I wish I could tell you a secret for getting through. I've had my best luck early in the morning (8am Mountain time).

stott wrote:Some of you (like I think Alan) have said that you have had to spend 3 hours with each ward to get things fixed.

I haven't spent that much time with my clerks, but then I have decided to address issues and questions as they arise. I'm afraid they won't remember a thing I say until they have a reason for listening. I've taken about 30 minutes to let them know the big changes and then as needed/requested. And I think we've had a fairly smooth transition.

Ok, I posted a message to the help email line, and they recommended completely re-entering the October 10 batch. That is, deleting the one there now which just has its CFAR History entry, and going through the tithing slips one by one again to enter the information. So, I guess the data was really lost somehow there...

apsmith wrote:Ok, I posted a message to the help email line, and they recommended completely re-entering the October 10 batch. That is, deleting the one there now which just has its CFAR History entry, and going through the tithing slips one by one again to enter the information. So, I guess the data was really lost somehow there...

I talked to my home ward clerk this morning and this is what they were told to do when they called LUS. He said once they did it, all the issues were resolved.

Perhaps this is in the instructions somewhere and I am missing it. How do you delete and reenter the batch without messing up the donations. Is there a way to enter a batch that doesn't have to match to a specific bank deposit?

kahunawa wrote:Perhaps this is in the instructions somewhere and I am missing it. How do you delete and reenter the batch without messing up the donations. Is there a way to enter a batch that doesn't have to match to a specific bank deposit?

For our October 10th batch it was showing up as one donor "CFAR" the amounts were correct but the donor detail was not included so the amounts were not appearing on people's statements. We deleted the October 10th batch and re-created it with all of the donor details. The totals for the new October 10th batch matched the old October 10th batch as far as amount of donations, checks, cash & etc so there was no change as far as SLC is concerned but the information now showed up on the individual donor statements.

b_flash98-p40 wrote:For our October 10th batch it was showing up as one donor "CFAR" the amounts were correct but the donor detail was not included so the amounts were not appearing on people's statements. We deleted the October 10th batch and re-created it with all of the donor details. The totals for the new October 10th batch matched the old October 10th batch as far as amount of donations, checks, cash & etc so there was no change as far as SLC is concerned but the information now showed up on the individual donor statements.

Okay, so I delete the batch which really means to delete the CFAR slip, but the donations are still there to balance against? Then we enter all the information for all the donors until the new slips match the old? We tried to enter new donors, and then delete the CFAR slip, but it said we couldn't do that because it was a closed batch. I am still missing something that is simple here in how to delete the batch. If I delete the batch, do I just show cash for the money amount to make it balance, or do I need to enter all the check numbers again for those that paid by check? Sorry to make a big deal out of this, but we tried all kinds of stuff last week and thought we had it done and then the system laughed at us because it was a closed batch. The more specific anyone can be, the more I will pray blessings upon your heads. thanks in advance for your help.

I was talking to the finance clerk in one of the other wards in our stake last night about this. Then after thinking about it overnight, I wondered if one could edit the batch to remove the CFAR donation and add all of the original donations back in to balance out the batch. I know I've deleted donations from old batches before due to bad checks, but I don't know if you can add donations to a closed batch. Something tells me, probably not.

On the other hand, if you delete the batch and create a new batch, how do you get around the fact that there is no deposit made to go with the batch? Does dating the new batch to October 10, automatically line it up with the deposit made on that day?