Quarterly report transmission failures

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
Locked
rick.winterton
Member
Posts: 61
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 5:08 am
Location: Midland, MI

Quarterly report transmission failures

#1

Post by rick.winterton »

I have 12 units in my stake. The clerks in these 12 units are all experienced and all have been in place for at least one year.

This month, four of them failed to transmit the Quarterly Report, even though it was finished and they all claimed to have transmitted it. I called SLC to ask about this and they said it was probably because one of the fields, either under the first tab or the second tab, has not been filled in. All of the clerks deny that this is the case.

One of the units in question is in the same building as the stake so I was able to visit that computer (the others are 2 to 4 hours away -- round trip so I wasn't able to visit them at this time). I called SLC to make sure that they had not received this particular report (it hadn't come through on the stake computer) and confirmed that it had not been received.

On the ward's computer I first checked to see if anything was queued for transmission, in case they failed to do that. There was nothing in the queue. I then entered the Quarterly Report. There were no fields in either the first or second page that were empty. I exited the report and did not get a "Cancel, Don't Save, Save" window. I re-entered the report, changed one of the numbers, exited the report and saved it. A dialog box announced that the report would be transmitted on the next transmission. I then re-entered the report, restored the number to its original value, saved the report (again getting the same dialog box). I then did a Send/Receive Changes. The transmission response report indicated that it had, indeed, been transmitted. It came through on the stake machine when I checked the next day and I received a confirmation via e-mail (see below) that SLC had received it.

If this had happened to one clerk, I would ignore the problem. Two clerks -- now I start to think that there might be something. Four clerks -- I'm pretty sure there's a problem with software on one end of the transmission or the other. I tried sending an e-mail to msrmail@ldsmail.net and the response I got back, in addition to confirming that the ward report I sent had been received, was a canned response indicating (to me) that the responder either did not read my e-mail or ignored it. I tried again and got another feeble response.

My question is: "Has anyone else documented any transmission problems with the quarterly report this quarter?"

Rick
lajackson
Community Moderators
Posts: 11460
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm
Location: US

#2

Post by lajackson »

rwinterton wrote:A dialog box announced that the report would be transmitted on the next transmission.
The dialog box is the key that the report has been queued for transmission. I have seen cases where the unit had to do exactly as you did, i.e., change a number and then change it back, before the dialog box appeared. One unit had to totally exit MLS and go back in to make it work.

We have not been able to duplicate the exact steps that keep the dialog box from appearing. I would suggest to the other clerks that they look for the box and, if it does not appear, change the data and correct it again to force the box to appear.

Poor workaround, but the best we have with a sketchy database. And this is not the first time I have had to walk clerks through it. There is usually a different one each quarter. We have 15 units.
rwinterton wrote:. . . and the response I got back, . . . was a canned response indicating (to me) that the responder either did not read my e-mail or ignored it. I tried again and got another feeble response.
After a very hopeful, painful and unproductive year, I stopped trying a second time for a response five years ago when the first response did not address the question. I have never looked back.
jwtaber
Member
Posts: 109
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 8:01 am
Location: Elsmere, Delaware, USA

#3

Post by jwtaber »

That probably explains at least one of the reports that didn't get to our stake's MLS. We have fifteen units - at the moment - and seven reports hadn't come in as of last night. I was at least able to assure the stake clerk that our impending boundary change won't affect the makeup of the outstanding reports, as long as the outstanding reports get submitted. (He apparently didn't know about the last-day-of-quarter benchmark on those.)
ohiomatt-p40
New Member
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:29 am
Location: United States, Ohio

Quarterly Report Transmission Failures

#4

Post by ohiomatt-p40 »

We're having troubles getting one of the unit's quarterly reports to transmit to SLC. Any other suggestions outside of what has already been posted on this link?

Thx!
User avatar
aebrown
Community Administrator
Posts: 15153
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
Location: Draper, Utah

#5

Post by aebrown »

ohiomatt wrote:We're having troubles getting one of the unit's quarterly reports to transmit to SLC. Any other suggestions outside of what has already been posted on this link?
It would help if you could describe the "troubles." Do other items transmit fine (membership changes, finances, etc.)? What indication do you have that it is not transmitting -- just the fact that it doesn't show up on the stake MLS? If you could supply more details about what you've tried and what the symptoms are, it will be easier for people to help.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
Locked

Return to “MLS Support, Help, and Feedback”