Tech Forum

On my first day as stake clerk, I got three questions during Sunday School, two from my own ward.

First problem:The membership clerk asked me why MLS would not allow him to "sign" a donation batch, even though he has been assigned all roles and privileges under System Options.

Second problem: Several months ago, a new family made donations before their records came in. At that time, the clerk created a donor record for the couple ("Smith, Jim and Jean"). When asked if they were members of the unit, I believe the clerk answered NO. Last month, when the clerk tried to print a donation report for the family, the clerk noticed that no MRN was recorded for the donor. MLS will not allow the clerk to change the donor from "not a member of the unit" to a member, and match the donor to the head of house.

My answer for the second issue was to continue to record 2012 donations against the "not a member" donor, but starting in January, record the family's first donation as a NEW donor that is a member of the unit. I just thought they may as well record all the 2012 donations against the same donor record.

Oh, the third issue was not a financial issue. The ward clerk had forgotten his MLS password, but we couldn't reset his password because he had long ago associated more than one MLS username with his membership record. MLS refuses to allow you to make any changes as long as more than one active username is related to a single member.

Dana in Council Bluffs

drepouille wrote:On my first day as stake clerk, I got three questions during Sunday School, two from my own ward.

First problem:The membership clerk asked me why MLS would not allow him to "sign" a donation batch, even though he has been assigned all roles and privileges under System Options.

This is a recent change in MLS 3.5. A batch must be authorized by a bishopric member and a clerk with one of these callings (as listed in MLS): Ward Assistant Clerk - Finance, Ward Assistant Clerk, or Ward Clerk. The Ward Assistant Clerk - Membership calling does not provide the ability to authorize a batch. If the membership clerk needs to help out with processing donations then you'll need to either change his calling to one of the others or add an additional calling. My recommendation would be to add the Ward Assistant Clerk calling. That way there isn't confusion about who is the actual finance clerk and who is the membership clerk but the membership clerk can still help out with donations.

drepouille wrote:First problem:The membership clerk asked me why MLS would not allow him to "sign" a donation batch, even though he has been assigned all roles and privileges under System Options.

If my memory is correct I seem to have seen something that said with the upgrade to 3.5 in order to sign the donation batch the persons standard position had to be Bishopric, Clerk, Assistant Clerk or Assistant Clerk - Finance. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

drepouille wrote:Second problem: Several months ago, a new family made donations before their records came in. At that time, the clerk created a donor record for the couple ("Smith, Jim and Jean"). When asked if they were members of the unit, I believe the clerk answered NO. Last month, when the clerk tried to print a donation report for the family, the clerk noticed that no MRN was recorded for the donor. MLS will not allow the clerk to change the donor from "not a member of the unit" to a member, and match the donor to the head of house.

[My answer for the second issue was to continue to record 2012 donations against the "not a member" donor, but starting in January, record the family's first donation as a NEW donor that is a member of the unit. I just thought they may as well record all the 2012 donations against the same donor record.

I don't have MLS right in front of me so I'm going off memory. In the view/edit donor area of MLS one is able to edit donors this is where you would make the corrections. You click on the name and it opens up in order to edit it. If this is not possible then you would add the member again as a member of the unit and then merge the to records together. I suggest you do this now and not what for 2013 so the 2012 tithing statement and tax statement is correct.

drepouille wrote:Second problem: Several months ago, a new family made donations before their records came in. At that time, the clerk created a donor record for the couple ("Smith, Jim and Jean"). When asked if they were members of the unit, I believe the clerk answered NO. Last month, when the clerk tried to print a donation report for the family, the clerk noticed that no MRN was recorded for the donor. MLS will not allow the clerk to change the donor from "not a member of the unit" to a member, and match the donor to the head of house.

We had a similar problem come up during tithing settlement last week but in our case it had what looked like a temporary membership number and it wouldn't change when we tried to select the member again. I suggested to our finance clerk that he add a new donor linked to the correct membership record and then merge the old record into the new one. He was able to add the new donor but old donor record didn't show up as an option to merge from. He eventually worked it out though but I don't know how. If no one else has any ideas I'll ask him what he did.

eblood66 wrote:I suggested to our finance clerk that he add a new donor linked to the correct membership record and then merge the old record into the new one. He was able to add the new donor but old donor record didn't show up as an option to merge from.

That is the correct procedure. Once the new donor record associated with the member record number is created then the two records can be merged. The merge is done on Finance > Add/Update Donors. Click the Merge Donors button. The "From Donor" will be the donor record not associated with a member record number. The "To Donor" will be the donor record associated with a member record number. The difficultly will occur when the donor records are reversed. MLS will not allow you to merge from a donor record associated with a MRN to a donor record without a MRN. The "From Donor" selector will only list donors not associated with a MRN and a Status of "Visible". If it is "Merged" or "Hidden" it will not be available for merging.

drepouille wrote: Oh, the third issue was not a financial issue. The ward clerk had forgotten his MLS password, but we couldn't reset his password because he had long ago associated more than one MLS username with his membership record. MLS refuses to allow you to make any changes as long as more than one active username is related to a single member.

Dana in Council Bluffs

Can you inactivate one of his users?

eblood66 wrote:We had a similar problem come up during tithing settlement last week but in our case it had what looked like a temporary membership number and it wouldn't change when we tried to select the member again. I suggested to our finance clerk that he add a new donor linked to the correct membership record and then merge the old record into the new one. He was able to add the new donor but old donor record didn't show up as an option to merge from. He eventually worked it out though but I don't know how. If no one else has any ideas I'll ask him what he did.

It isn't a temporary membership number, really. What I saw was a blank first field, the second field contained the unit number, and the third field contained a unique integer. I suspect that is simply a unique key for a donor that isn't associated with a MRN.
Thanks,
Dana

drepouille wrote:It isn't a temporary membership number, really. What I saw was a blank first field, the second field contained the unit number, and the third field contained a unique integer. I suspect that is simply a unique key for a donor that isn't associated with a MRN.

But that is exactly what a temporary membership number looks like -- the unit number followed by a four-digit sequential number. Those are the numbers used for most nonmembers (but not "linked records") and other temporary membership numbers.

jdlessley wrote:That is the correct procedure. Once the new donor record associated with the member record number is created then the two records can be merged. The merge is done on Finance > Add/Update Donors. Click the Merge Donors button. The "From Donor" will be the donor record not associated with a member record number. The "To Donor" will be the donor record associated with a member record number. The difficultly will occur when the donor records are reversed. MLS will not allow you to merge from a donor record associated with a MRN to a donor record without a MRN. The "From Donor" selector will only list donors not associated with a MRN and a Status of "Visible". If it is "Merged" or "Hidden" it will not be available for merging.

So, per the wiki, the merge donor can be used to merge a husband and wife for tax statement purposes for tithing and other donations. But, this doesn't work, because you can't select the member spouse to merge in the "From Donor" box. A bit frustrating.

The other options I tried - clicking on the include spouse button. This is okay - but it still lists the husband and the donor, and the wife as the spouse. Not quite ideal.

Any other ways to get a tax statement that lists both spouses as donors?

kelvinwursten wrote:Any other ways to get a tax statement that lists both spouses as donors?

I assume you're talking about a situation where both are making donations under their own names, but you want a combined statement.

Can't be done.

Either you put all the donations under one and list the spouse, or you give them separate reports. I would ask them how they want it to be done.