Donations Received via Bill Payer Service

Discuss questions around local unit policies for budgeting, reconciling, etc. This forum should not contain specific financial or membership information.
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mkmurray
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#21

Post by mkmurray »

The Earl wrote:That discussion exists in part in the EFT thread mentioned above. Many share your opinion, but that discussion falls into a gray area that this forum is not really purposed for.

Thanks
The Earl
Yes, as stated in the EFT thread, this forum is not set up to discuss "the spiritual side", only the technical side. The spiritual side is a personal matter between you, the Lord, and your local leaders.

Thanks.
lajackson
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#22

Post by lajackson »

The Earl wrote:... and you have my sympathy. Your only other options are to keep pushing on your leadership.
Oh, thank you for your thoughtfulness, but I really am fine with it all. The contributions get paid. There is not too much fussing.

And I would never push on my leadership. Perhaps suggest and teach and train and encourage, but not push. They have enough problems to worry about when I walk in the room. [grin]
SheffieldTR
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#23

Post by SheffieldTR »

And as a point of clarification, the Aaronic Priesthood is suppose to ONLY receive Fast Offerings, not Tithing. Yes it happens, but in the perfect world they are not to deal with tithing. ;-)
jbh001
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#24

Post by jbh001 »

lajackson wrote:I had not considered having the bill pay check sent to our home. We might do that until there is a change in leadership or clerks.
That would have been my option #1. I don't see how having the bill pay sent to your son's home address, having your son fill out a donation slip, and then handing it to the bishop is a hassle for anyone (except maybe your son). It is certainly less messy than transferring money between disparate accounts.

The payee would be something as simple as:

Pay to the order of:
<My Ward/Branch>
C/O <Me>
<My delivery address>
<City, ST ZIP>

If getting it to the bishop is a hassle, then he could grab a stack of donation envelopes and slips for use at home, and then pay for postage for the mail carrier to give it to the bishop. We have several members that do this for various reasons.

PS: My current unit is the first unit I have been in that pre-stuffs the donation envelopes with the donation slips. Initially I though that was a lot of extra work, but I am sold on it now. This also gives the bishop an extra "task" he can assign out every now and then when someone is seeking assistance.
lajackson
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#25

Post by lajackson »

jbh001 wrote:I don't see how having the bill pay sent to your son's home address, having your son fill out a donation slip, and then handing it to the bishop is a hassle for anyone (except maybe your son).
It delays the process for the few days it takes to get the check. Otherwise, it is just the same as when I write a check out of my checkbook.

I was actually surprised that there were "checking" accounts where you could not write checks. Well, actually you can, but for a very stiff fee.

It would be nice if there were a way that donations could be paid electronically and the local unit get credit for things such as fast offering and ward missionary. I wonder, though, how many would actually be using it.

I believe that electronic payments to CHQ were established for those who were out of the country (deployed military, for example) so that they could continue to contribute without having to mail a check from the far reaches of the world.

The current system fits that purpose the way it is designed now.
jbh001
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#26

Post by jbh001 »

lajackson wrote:It delays the process for the few days it takes to get the check. Otherwise, it is just the same as when I write a check out of my checkbook.
But it doesn't delay the process any more by sending it to your address than the bishop's address, unless your ward regularly processes donations more than once a week and on a day other than Sunday. The bishop is still going to hang on to the check until Sunday. What is the difference between the Bishop holding it until Sunday and your son holding it until Sunday? The post office takes the same amount of time to deliver it to either address, and someone has to hold it until donations are processed. I still don't see the "inconvenience."

I apologize in advance for being clueless here.
lajackson
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#27

Post by lajackson »

jbh001 wrote:But it doesn't delay the process any more by sending it to your address than the bishop's address, ...
Remember, we were not sending the check to the bishop's address. The delay I was referring to, which does not really matter at all, is the delay in getting the check. My son was transferring the money to me electronically, and I was writing the check the same day. All of this happened on Thursday or Friday. Tithing was paid on Sunday.

With the new plan, he requests a check from the bank on Thursday or Friday, which takes four to five days to arrive, and his tithing is paid on Sunday, a week later. That extra week in getting the tithing paid is the delay to which I was referring.

I have assured him that getting the tithing paid is what matters, not how long it takes to get it paid.
SmithGW
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Donations Received via Bill Payer Service

#28

Post by SmithGW »

This is an answer to the question about putting the entire amount into "Tithing." You do this only if you receive money in an envelope with no slip, so that you do not know who donated the money and for what categories it was intended. Then you make out a tithing slip, write "Unknown" as the donor and put the entire amount in "Tithing." This situation should be rare.
jbh001
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#29

Post by jbh001 »

lajackson wrote:My teenage son has a checking account that does not allow the writing of checks. All payments are by electronic bill pay or cash withdrawal from an ATM machine.
Because our clerks have made it clear that they feel it is a real hassle, my son has three options.
1. Hassle them with bill pay....
lajackson wrote:Remember, we were not sending the check to the bishop's address
Again forgive me in advance for being dense, but when you "hassled" the clerks in the past under option 1, where were you instructing the Bill Pay to be mailed?
lajackson wrote:With the new plan, he requests a check from the bank on Thursday or Friday, which takes four to five days to arrive, and his tithing is paid on Sunday, a week later. That extra week in getting the tithing paid is the delay to which I was referring.
Again, this postal delivery delay is the same regardless of where you instruct the Bill Pay to be mailed. So under you option 1 above, tithing was still not being paid that Sunday, but the following Sunday, it's just that the delay wasn't obvious to your son because the bishop (or whomever your son instructed the Bill Pay to mail it to) was holding the check until Sunday instead of your son.

If I understand correctly, when the Bill Pay was mailing the check to the bishop (or whomever), the clerks felt "hassled" because they had to then process a donation without a donation slip. When the Bill Pay mails the check to your son instead, he feels hassled to have to hold on to the check a few extra days because the whole Bill Pay process is now blatantly obvious instead of being hidden.
lajackson
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#30

Post by lajackson »

We are making way too much out of this. What you are saying about the delay is correct, but you have missed what we are actually doing.

1. We did not hassle the clerks. That was an option that we never exercised because they said they did not want to do it. I was merely pointing out that that was one of our options.

2. Under our current method of operation, there is no delay because bill pay is not being used to process the donation. The donation is electronically transfered from his account to mine (no delay). I immediately prepare a check (no delay or mailing time) for him to put in his deposit envelope. He gives it to the bishopric on Sunday.

3. Using bill pay to send the check to either the bishop or to himself will result in additional time. I already mentioned that this is not an issue of concern. We had not considered sending the check to himself rather than the bishop.

4. It would still be better if there were a way to truly do this electronically in a manner that would give the local unit credit for fast offering and ward missionary fund contributions. But that is not something we see happening in the near future.
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