Year-end donations

The following instructions are given regarding handling of a donation that was included in a 2012 batch that should have been included in 2011: "If a unit makes a deposit to a batch on or after January 1 that should have been counted in the previous year, they can make the adjustment from the new year by deleting it out of the batch and then adding it to a batch closed on or before December 31 of the previous year."

This seems easy to do by simply deleting a donation in the 2012 batch and creating a new donation for that person for the exact amount etc. in a 2011 batch. But doesn't that change the deposit information (amounts) for those dates and throw things out of balance? Or is that automatically adjusted by MLS?

Obviously, this hasn't occurred yet, but I was just curious.

khasay wrote:The following instructions are given regarding handling of a donation that was included in a 2012 batch that should have been included in 2011: "If a unit makes a deposit to a batch on or after January 1 that should have been counted in the previous year, they can make the adjustment from the new year by deleting it out of the batch and then adding it to a batch closed on or before December 31 of the previous year."

I believe these instructions are now outdated. From the release notes for 3.4.1:

Resending a Donation Batch in MLS. Units that are on Church Unit Banking Services (CUBS) will no longer be able to resend a donation batch. At this point, countries using CUBS are the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Guatemala. All other countries may still resend donation batches. For those on CUBS, if there is a problem with a donation batch, they should contact the administrative office.

The referenced instructions are on the wiki at Year-end donations. I have adjusted the text to reflect the new realities for units using CUBS.

One point of clarification, which is causing some concern and apprehension, are we allowed to enter donation batches out of sequence? In other words, can we create a make-up batch for the previous year after we have already entered a donation batch for the current year?

It was my understanding that you could post-date a donation batch after the new year, but only if you hadn't already processed a batch for the new year. Effectively you were fidgeting with the dates, but not the order. It makes me nervous to process the donations we will inevitably have Sunday Jan 1, knowing we will be creating another batch after it for donations which were postmarked 2011 that the Bishop hadn't received by church on the 1st.

Quetzal513 wrote:One point of clarification, which is causing some concern and apprehension, are we allowed to enter donation batches out of sequence? In other words, can we create a make-up batch for the previous year after we have already entered a donation batch for the current year?

You can create a batch with any date (as long as it is not in the future, of course) whenever you want -- there is no technical enforcement of creating batches in sequence. Of course you have to follow policy, but you need have no anxiety; you can create a batch dated 31 December 2011 after you have created a batch dated 1 Jan 2012.

In fact, for this particular year, it is entirely possible that a member mails a donation to the bishop with a postmark of Saturday, 31 December 2011. The bishop would not receive that donation until January 3 at the earliest (that's the first day with mail delivery in the US after December 31). The bishop may not even have any idea such a donation is on its way until he receives it. By policy, that donation must be processed as a 2011 donation by creating a batch dated 31 December 2011. And of course by then, the 1 January 2012 batch will have been created, transmitted, and closed. Fortunately, this scenario poses no problems, because a 31 Dec 2011 batch can indeed be created after a 1 Jan 2012 batch has been processed.

Quetzal513 wrote:In other words, can we create a make-up batch for the previous year after we have already entered a donation batch for the current year?

As answered, yes. I would add the additional comment that you can also have multiple batches for the same date. Expanding on aebrown's example, it is possible that on Sunday you create 2 batches - one dated 31 Dec 2011 for the remaining 2011 donations and then a 1 Jan 2012 batch for those received on Sunday. Then during the week, it is possible additional donations with postmark dates of 2011 are received. These can be deposited on the 8th in another (second) donation batch dated 31 Dec 2011.

Also to clarify for those not aware, the date of the donation is decided by either when a member of the bishopric received the donation or the postmark date and NOT by the date written on the donation slip or enclosed check.