Tech Forum

A family who has an active full-time missionary moved into our ward last year. The family paid a couple of months of missionary support to their previous ward, however the previous ward was not charged for those months from church headquarters. The bishop from the previous ward is asking if they can transfer those unused funds to our ward. I assume this can be done by simply having the previous ward send us a check. Is there another/better way to handle? I would have assumed church headquarters would transfer the funds automatically with the movement of the records, but guess not?

CHQ can change the effective move date. (But since this will result in the other ward being charged, that ward will have to approve the change.)

Other than having the ward send a check, I don't know of any other tools in the closet.

milleju wrote:A family who has an active full-time missionary moved into our ward last year. The family paid a couple of months of missionary support to their previous ward, however the previous ward was not charged for those months from church headquarters. The bishop from the previous ward is asking if they can transfer those unused funds to our ward. I assume this can be done by simply having the previous ward send us a check. Is there another/better way to handle?

Clearly you transferred the financial responsibility from the previous ward to your ward at some point. The best way to have handled it would have been at that time: as you can read in the RKATS article Missionary Finances, when that transfer is made, you can specify an effective date. If that date is, for example, 2 months in the past, then 2 months worth of expenses will be charged to the previous ward, and credited to your ward.

I imagine you can call Local Unit Support and explain that a mistake was made in the transfer process, and that it should have been dated earlier. That would result in the 2 months worth of funds being transferred to your ward.

milleju wrote:I would have assumed church headquarters would transfer the funds automatically with the movement of the records, but guess not?

No, financial responsibility for a missionary is not automatically transferred with the missionary's (or his/her parents') membership records. That's explained in the article I linked to above.

milleju wrote:I would have assumed church headquarters would transfer the funds automatically with the movement of the records, but guess not?

Think of it this way: When a missionary goes out the Bishop likely has a good understanding of the family's ability to make monthly donations to the ward missionary fund. Perhaps extended family is going to make donations and/or ward members pledge their support too. Perhaps the parents aren't active in the church and aren't offering any support. In any case, if the parents move and you automatically transfer financial responsibility to another ward without the Bishop's approval you could potentially throw things way off. I know that in almost every case there isn't a problem but, still, it's best not to have it happen automatically.

I recommend calling the toll-free help line and letting them sort out the correct date that the responsibility should have gone from one ward to the next (with each Bishop agreeing to the adjustment). The transfer and balance corrections appear on the next financial statement. This creates a more solid, traceable "paper trail" and, to me, it's actually simpler than one ward writing a check to the other.