Direct Deposit and reporting

[cwoolf]

My Stake President wants to know if donations (both tithing and fast offerings) that are paid by ward members via direct deposit to Church headquarters are included in the reports that he reviews on tithing and fast offerings. I have asked some ward clerks and they do not think that they do, but I wanted to see if I could get a more definitive answer. Thanks for your help.

Cory

[lajackson]

My Stake President wants to know if donations (both tithing and fast offerings) that are paid by ward members via direct deposit to Church headquarters are included in the reports that he reviews on tithing and fast offerings. I have asked some ward clerks and they do not think that they do, but I wanted to see if I could get a more definitive answer.

I believe it depends on when and how the member set up payment of donations to Church headquarters. I recently set up Bill Pay and my contributions are recorded both at headquarters and sent to my local unit as batches just as if my bishopric and clerk had entered them on Sunday. All of the MLS reports include my Bill Pay contributions, and therefore would be seen by anyone authorized to access local MLS.

Those who set up methods of direct payment earlier either had the option whether or not to let their local unit know of their contributions, or the default (and perhaps the system was not set up to do it) was that their contributions did not flow back to local unit MLS and were therefore not seen by local leaders.

Additionally, it is still possible today to contribute in kind and by several other methods directly to Church headquarters, and those contributions will not be seen by the ward.

But those who are setting up Bill Pay currently are told that their contributions will be seen by local leaders, and that is certainly the case in my situation and for others in our stake who have recently started making donations electronically using this process.

[cwoolf]

Thank you. This information is very helpful.