Tech Forum

This is more of a suggestion or dream.

With paying tithing online our ward hardly spends any time doing tithing.

I would say we spending the most time printing checks.
I know we will always have to print checks. I know that is not going away. (even though technically the church could send us money through the same bank account we pay tithing with?)

Really what I suggest is a way to pay some of the bigger companies straight through some ACH transfer. Companies like Rocky Mountain Power, Questar Gas, maybe some bigger hospitals.
Meaning the church would talk to these companies and set up some online bill pay system. I realize we would have to fill out some specific form for each company.
I'm not sure of all the details. I also realize you would have to have some way for two people to OK the payment. (so the ward clerk isn't just paying his own power bill). There would have to be a way for the church to void or get money back if errors happen.

I would say we have spent over $100 on stamps (from ward funds) to mail checks out.
Just thinking of other ways we can use the technology of today to make things easier for us all.

Thanks

We are now paying companies and members using an electronic bank transfer system through MLS, we don't use cheques anymore. We just use the members bank details, or the company details on an invoice, and enter these on MLS. I gather Brazil have been doing it for some time.

This is probably a case of different banking systems making it easy or tricky to implement.

tubaloth wrote: I would say we have spent over $100 on stamps (from ward funds) to mail checks out.

Somewhat of a tangent, but I used to spend a lot of time getting fast offering checks where they needed to go. It is always up to the bishop, but please consider that letting fast offering recipients "drop off the bills" to be paid might be doing them a bit of disservice. Most of our checks are now delivered back to the recipient to give them the opportunity to expend some effort to get the payments where they need to go. Obviously, these checks are still made out to the service providers as per policy.