Cheques made out incorrectly

[Biggles]

b) cheque made out to wrong name .. ie made out to church instead of ward

The approved payee names on a check are the ward, the church, or the combination of the church and the ward. Any other payee name should be returned to the check issuer.

Handbook 1, 14.6.1 says that checks should be made out to the ward, not to the bishop or the Church.

If a check is made out to the Church, we will advise the member, but we usually try to deposit it, and the bank usually takes it.

In the UK the Church uses one bank account for donations and expense cheques, at Ward and Stake level anyway. One bank account throughout the UK means only one account name is available. I think this approach probably cuts down on admin costs, to the Church, as only one set of paying/deposit and cheque books needs to be maintained.

[draysonandrew]

Ideally should the cheque be written "ward name" "church name" or just "ward name"? And does it really matter in Canada?

[lajackson]

Ideally should the cheque be written "ward name" "church name" or just "ward name"? And does it really matter in Canada?

I do not know about Canada, but the Handbook says the check should be made out to the Ward. The bank deposit stamp used in the United States only contains the name of the Ward, not the name of the Church, so just Ward is proper here.

[gez2]

The approved payee names on a check are the ward, the church, or the combination of the church and the ward. Any other payee name should be returned to the check issuer.

Handbook 1, 14.6.1 says that checks should be made out to the ward, not to the bishop or the Church.

If a check is made out to the Church, we will advise the member, but we usually try to deposit it, and the bank usually takes it.

In the UK the Church uses one bank account for donations and expense cheques, at Ward and Stake level anyway. One bank account throughout the UK means only one account name is available. I think this approach probably cuts down on admin costs, to the Church, as only one set of paying/deposit and cheque books needs to be maintained.

What if the check is made out to the bishop/branch president by someone of another faith? Is the proper course of action still to return the check to the issuer of the check?

[jdlessley]

What if the check is made out to the bishop/branch president by someone of another faith? Is the proper course of action still to return the check to the issuer of the check?

That is the current policy and procedure. There may be someone who can post an experience where a check written to the bishop or branch president got through the system. But I have not heard recently in the past couple of years of these checks getting through.

[sbradshaw]

What if the check is made out to the bishop/branch president by someone of another faith? Is the proper course of action still to return the check to the issuer of the check?

That is the current policy and procedure. There may be someone who can post an experience where a check written to the bishop or branch president got through the system. But I have not heard recently in the past couple of years of these checks getting through.

Luckily, this should be easy to explain to whoever gave the check. If you think of the Church as a business, there's a difference between, for example, writing a check to Tim Cook and writing a check to Apple, Inc.

[lajackson]

There may be someone who can post an experience where a check written to the bishop or branch president got through the system.

If the bishop or branch president endorses the check over to the ward or branch, it should go through. There are accounting implications in doing this, of course, and it does not follow proper Church procedure.