Tech Forum

Hi All,

We received some donations from members of another unit but they didn't provide their membership record number (MRN).

I am now trying to update their donor record with the MRN but the box is greyed out. Also, it seems as though when I add a donor as member of another unit without providing a MRN that MLS changes the donor to nonmember/misc.

I have tried creating a new donor record for the out of unit donor with included MRN and then trying to merge that with the older record, but the new donor record doesn't show up in the merge tool. What is the appropriate way to deal with this?

Any suggestions?

brotherofjared5 wrote:I have tried creating a new donor record for the out of unit donor with included MRN and then trying to merge that with the older record, but the new donor record doesn't show up in the merge tool.

The process described in the release notes for MLS 3.7.1 gives me the impression that the ability to create a donor record with a MRN for a member of another unit must be done at the time a donation is processed. This is what the release notes say:

Added the ability to enter the member record number (MRN) for a donor that is a member of another unit (for example, for a grandparent contributing to a grandchild’s mission fund). To enter the MRN, select “Member of another unit” when recording the donation. After Church headquarters has processed the donation, MLS will display a message and show the donor name entered and the donor name associated with the MRN.

(Bold added for emphasis)

It would be nice to be able to edit donor records and add MRNs or even create a new donor record with a MRN, outside a donation batch, and then merge. But I guess we are limited to creating donor records with MRN within a donation batch for members of another unit - for now.

So what are our options? I now have the same person listed twice as a donor. One with the MRN and the other as a non-member. Should we go back and edit the donations for the year for when they previously donated and switch to the donor with the MRN?

With the new year coming I tend to get a lot of requests for donor who live outside of our ward for their year end statements. I would prefer if they were associated with an MRN so that their new unit gets the donation summary from SLC at the end of January. Saves me a lot of time tracking down the addresses.

stschoey wrote:So what are our options? I now have the same person listed twice as a donor. One with the MRN and the other as a non-member. Should we go back and edit the donations for the year for when they previously donated and switch to the donor with the MRN?

It looks to me that the only option for now is to edit each donation to change the donor to the one with the MRN. Hopefully there will be a future change to MLS to enable merging a nonmember donor record with an out of unit donor record. But based on the effort to move MLS finance online I am not going to hold my breath for the change in MLS any time soon.