Who is authorized to enter weekly donations?

Obviously a bishopric member must be present to assist with counting, but who else besides the finance clerk is authorized to assist with weekly donation processing if I (Finance Clerk) am unavailable?

The Ward Clerk, of course, but how about a Membership Clerk or Executive Secretary? Can two bishopric members process donations by themselves?

cougs wrote:Obviously a bishopric member must be present to assist with counting, but who else besides the finance clerk is authorized to assist with weekly donation processing if I (Finance Clerk) am unavailable?

Section 14.6.2 of the 2010 Handbook 1 says that donations should be verified by a bishopric member and a clerk or two bishopric members. There is no distinction among clerks -- a "Membership Clerk" is simply an assignment given to a brother called as an assistant clerk. Section 13.4.3 clarifies that clerks who handle finances should hold the Melchizedek Priesthood and be worthy of a temple recommend (which of course includes being a full-tithe payer).

So all of the options you listed are valid under the new Handbook, except for the Executive Secretary. There are other documents (such as the Processing Weekly Donations online lesson) that refer simply to two priesthood holders verifying donations, but the new Handbook 1 would supersede any such earlier documents.

I am curious now. Does anyone know if a clerk who does not have financial rights in MLS can still be one of those who authorizes a batch?

crislapi wrote:I am curious now. Does anyone know if a clerk who does not have financial rights in MLS can still be one of those who authorizes a batch?

Only an MLS user who has financial rights can authorize a donation batch. So that's a good detail to note in the context of this thread -- although a membership clerk can certainly assist a bishopric member in processing donations according to the Handbook, some MLS administrator would have to give him financial permissions in MLS (perhaps temporarily) if he needs to be one of the two people that authorize the batch.

I've been the finance clerk for a few years and just rec'd a call as Excecutive Secretary. We don't have a finance clerk yet and I would be more than happy to do the finances as well but from what I've read in the threads, I cannot now. Is there a way of just setting up a new "account" in MLS as Exec Sec but keeping the old account to help with finances until we have a clerk?

jvoran wrote:I've been the finance clerk for a few years and just rec'd a call as Excecutive Secretary. We don't have a finance clerk yet and I would be more than happy to do the finances as well but from what I've read in the threads, I cannot now. Is there a way of just setting up a new "account" in MLS as Exec Sec but keeping the old account to help with finances until we have a clerk?

You should have one account in MLS, and then be given the necessary permissions to do your calling. Theoretically, if you were released as assistant clerk (finance) and called as executive secretary, an administrator would change your existing account so that you no longer had finance access. Everything else would probably stay the same.

If the transition period was going to be a short one, our stake presidency here might authorize you to continue in the assistant clerk (finance) calling until a new financial clerk is called. According to the Handbook, and without changing your login in MLS, that would allow you to continue to assist until the new clerk is called. Whether this will happen or not would be a matter for your stake presidency to decide, probably in consultation with your bishop.