Tech Forum

I have two questions related to missionary accounts in MLS:

1. How do I view the amount that has been put in a particular missionary's account, perhaps even print that out.

2. We have an elder who will be needing financial assistance and our ward missionary fund account has plenty of money in it, but how to we take the $400 from the ward missionary account and allocate it to the individual missionary's account in MLS?

Thank you,

Brad

Since posting this, I found the way to access the account amounts through the income and expense report. So my first question I was able to answer myself.

bhead wrote:How do I view the amount that has been put in a particular missionary's account, perhaps even print that out.

Go to Finance | Finance Reports | Income and Expense Report. Select Details by Subcategory in the upper right of the page and scroll down to the bottom of the category list to find the missionary account you need and select it. Click the Print button to print the report. Note this report should not be given to the family or individuals providing financial assistance as it may contributions from others. These other financial contributions are protected by privacy and may not be disclosed to anyone other than those making the contribution. If you need a printout of contributions made by the family or individuals providing financial support then you can print out a donor statement (Tithing and Other Offerings statement).

bhead wrote:We have an elder who will be needing financial assistance and our ward missionary fund account has plenty of money in it, but how to we take the $400 from the ward missionary account and allocate it to the individual missionary's account in MLS?

Transfer the funds from the parent Ward Missionary category to the specific missionary's account. Go to Finance | Enter Transfers. Enter a comment describing the reason for making the transfer such as "financial assistance", select "Ward Missionary Fund" in the left (transfer from) category box along with the amount, and select the missionary's account in the right (transfer to) category box with the corresponding amount. Do a send/receive to send the transfer to headquarters.

bhead wrote: 2. We have an elder who will be needing financial assistance and our ward missionary fund account has plenty of money in it, but how to we take the $400 from the ward missionary account and allocate it to the individual missionary's account in MLS?

Just create a transfer from the top level ward missionary fund category to the sub-category for the specific missionary. If the ward is providing all support or a specific amount each month then you can make a monthly transfer. If the amount of the ward's assistance is uncertain you can wait and transfer the appropriate amounts at other intervals. You can have a negative balance in a specific missionary category as long as the total of all ward missionary categories is positive.

In all the years I have done this, I have never "transferred" money into a particular Missionaries account, since Salt Lake just takes it out of the "Ward Missionary Fund". The divisions for individual Missionaries are just for the Ward's record keeping. SLC really doesn't care. If you don't do any moving of money around, you can keep an accurate accounting of just how much each Missionary has had contributed to his Mission, and if he returns home without enough being contributed to "his" account, then it is the Bishop's decision whether to talk to the family about it.

waynecooke wrote:In all the years I have done this, I have never "transferred" money into a particular Missionaries account, since Salt Lake just takes it out of the "Ward Missionary Fund". The divisions for individual Missionaries are just for the Ward's record keeping. SLC really doesn't care. If you don't do any moving of money around, you can keep an accurate accounting of just how much each Missionary has had contributed to his Mission, and if he returns home without enough being contributed to "his" account, then it is the Bishop's decision whether to talk to the family about it.

Actually that's what I've generally done as well and basically for that reason. But even so, at the end of the mission if there is a deficit you'll want to make a transfer to zero out the specific missionary category so that you can inactivate it.

But in all those cases the family was trying to provide at least some support. For a missionary without any family support I would probably make monthly transfers. The main advantage being that you can more easily see how much unspecified missionary funds you have as a ward.

eblood66 wrote:

waynecooke wrote:For a missionary without any family support I would probably make monthly transfers.

In the case of unsupported missionaries, I think I'd transfer the bulk of the Ward Missionary account (up to the amount needed to fund the mission) to avoid anyone asking for the "excess".

waynecooke wrote:In all the years I have done this, I have never "transferred" money into a particular Missionaries account, since Salt Lake just takes it out of the "Ward Missionary Fund".

I disagree. With CUBS the subcategories for each full time missionary are created in the system and funds are deducted from the subcategories. So your record keeping would make you look really lazy or irresponsible now when the reports show the ward mission fund with tons of excess funds and all of the subcategories with massive deficits. It doesn't take any more effort to deposit the donations in a subcategory on an ongoing basis than to zero out the subcategory at the end of a mission after putting the deposits into what would now be considered the wrong place. How does an Auditor react to seeing ward missionary subcategories with massive deficits?

By the same token: I have a family that cannot always afford their son's payment. But they have come to me and told me that "eventually" they will catch it up. He has been home a year and still has $500.00 or so outstanding. They have been paying $50.00 per month all year. I have talked to them several times and told them that I could cover it with excess ward mission funds. They insist it is something they want to do to fulfill their obligations.

So. I agree that deficits in individual missionary subcategories may look bad to an auditor, but in some cases it is justified. It allows us to keep track of what is owed rather than the family who often times don't know without pulling up a bunch of past bank records.

As to the "unfunded" missionary, one never knows when an aunt or uncle that is well to do is going to find out somewhere along the way and step up and pay for the mission. The more I think about it the more I agree that waiting until the end of the mission to reconcile it may be best. Or perhaps at the end of each calendar year when we decide if there are excess funds that can be sent along to the General Mission fund.

russellhltn wrote:

eblood66 wrote:

waynecooke wrote:For a missionary without any family support I would probably make monthly transfers.

In the case of unsupported missionaries, I think I'd transfer the bulk of the Ward Missionary account (up to the amount needed to fund the mission) to avoid anyone asking for the "excess".

Does the stake see the individual category balances or just the summary of all ward missionary categories? If the latter, then this won't help. I know that pre-CUBS the stake only saw the summary but I'm not sure what the situation is now.