Tech Forum

When the stake reimburses a family that hosts missionaries, should the host family write up a receipt and fill out the usual reimbursement form? What is the proper paperwork necessary to have an accurate reimbursement?

paulhilbig wrote:When the stake reimburses a family that hosts missionaries, should the host family write up a receipt and fill out the usual reimbursement form? What is the proper paperwork necessary to have an accurate reimbursement?

I don't see any reason why the host family would have to write up a receipt; after all, the check was made out to them and there's a record that they cashed the check. What's more important is to have documentation about the request for payment. That could come from the high councilor over missionary work in the stake, who could send a request to the stake presidency or stake financial clerk for payment for the specific host family.

Typically when you cut a check for a reimbursement the requester needs to attach the receipt of the purchase being reimbursed.

When the auditor checks for supporting documentation along with the reimbursement request form, what should he see in this situation? It seems you are saying the reimbursement request form is enough?

paulhilbig wrote:Typically when you cut a check for a reimbursement the requester needs to attach the receipt of the purchase being reimbursed.

This is close. A bill, invoice, or receipt should accompany a reimbursement request.

The housing support agreement made between the mission office (or stake in this case) and the hosting family meets the requirement of a bill or invoice. Of course the agreement would specify the duration of the agreement and the amount to be paid and at what intervals payment would be made. Each disbursement documentation could either include a copy of the agreement or a note explaining where a filed copy of the agreement is kept. This filed copy would then be presented to an auditor on request.

paulhilbig wrote:It seems you are saying the reimbursement request form is enough?

Having only a disbursement/reimbursement request alone is never adequate documentation. The presence of a bill. invoice, or receipt is required. There is provision for a suitable substitute when the bill, invoice, or receipt is lost or missing. But this would not apply in this situation.

Note that it is not necessary for the hosting family to submit a disbursement/reimbursement request any more so than a landlord does for a fast offering assistance recipient. It is the responsibility of those who incur the expense to request the disbursement/reimbursement. Since missionaries do not normally make housing arrangements then whoever did should submit the disbursement request. I would think the high councilor for missionary work probably made the arrangements and therefore should be the one to submit the disbursement request. This responsibility to make the disbursement request could be delegated to the stake clerk on the instructions of the stake president. The clerk would use the housing agreement to determine how often and when to process the request.

paulhilbig wrote:Typically when you cut a check for a reimbursement the requester needs to attach the receipt of the purchase being reimbursed.

When the auditor checks for supporting documentation along with the reimbursement request form, what should he see in this situation? It seems you are saying the reimbursement request form is enough?

No, I was saying that what is essentially an invoice would be enough to attach to the expense authorization form (I prefer to use the term "expense authorization" over "reimbursement request" since many expenses are not reimbursements). For many situations where a check is requested, an invoice up front is preferable to a receipt after the fact.

jdlessley covered well the details of what that invoice might look like.

wrigjef wrote:When I reimburse members for missionary housing, I process the check automatically without them doing any more than they already do. So that I have documentation for the auditor, I will fill out a reimbursement request form and in the signature bock I make a note referencing the last communication (letter) we got from SL authorizing payment of a certain amount to the family each month. Then I keep a copy of that letter on file so I can show the auditor when he asks for authorization documentation. Works fine for us.

I handled it exactly the same way wrigjef did and it worked great for us too.

I'm new to my calling as Stake Finance Clerk and received a letter requesting Missionary Housing reimbursement and instructed to set up the category "Other:Missionary Host Family" so that the payment will be automatically reimbursed by CHQ. I've searched here on the forum and the wiki on how to set up the category but can't find out how. I can not create the category myself. Is this something that CHQ does? If so, how do I go about requesting it?

This should be a reimbursed expenses account, not a normal other account and my understanding is that it does need to be set up by Salt Lake.

dongreen wrote:I'm new to my calling as Stake Finance Clerk and received a letter requesting Missionary Housing reimbursement and instructed to set up the category "Other:Missionary Host Family" so that the payment will be automatically reimbursed by CHQ. I've searched here on the forum and the wiki on how to set up the category but can't find out how. I can not create the category myself. Is this something that CHQ does? If so, how do I go about requesting it?

The category should already be set up in stake MLS -- no action is required by you or by CHQ. The exact name of the category is "Reimbursed Expenses:Missionary Housing" -- hopefully if you look for it with the correct name you'll be able to find it.

And if by chance it doesn't exist, you'll need to contact Local Unit Support. There's no way for you to set up any account that is automatically reimbursed.