Tech Forum

When you write a check against the Budget category, especially near the end of the year, you may wonder what will happen if the check is written in 2008, but does not clear until 2009. Will it affect 2008's budget allowance, or 2009's?

Fortunately, since MLS transmits information about all checks that are written, a check written in 2008 will be charged to the 2008 Budget Allowance. This is a much nicer system than we had in the old FIS days, when we had to push people to cash their checks by December 31 or the checks would be charged to the new year's budget. With MLS, the only requirement is that the check is written and transmitted before the financial cutoff time (typically noon on the last business day of the year).

Even if a 2008 check is lost and later replaced in 2009, you still don't have to worry about it hitting your 2009 budget, since there will be a credit to the 2009 budget when the original check is voided that balances out the debit that will occur when the replacement check is written.

Alan_Brown wrote:With MLS, the only requirement is that the check is written and transmitted before the financial cutoff time (typically noon on the last business day of the year).

It seems that the exact noon Send/Receive time was given for the first time last year. Do we know what the official cutoff time is for 2008?

lajackson wrote:It seems that the exact noon Send/Receive time was given for the first time last year. Do we know what the official cutoff time is for 2008?

I have not heard anything about 2008. I would have expected some sort of notification on Sunday, but there was no MLS message on the topic. I did fire off a question to Clerk Support by e-mail on Sunday morning requesting clarification, but I don't know if they will have a chance to respond before the end of the year -- it is a rather busy time for them.

However, noon was not the cutoff the first time last year. I distinctly recall that the 2006 cutoff was noon on December 29 (which fell on a Friday, and was the last business day of 2006). The early cutoff caused quite a bit of confusion that year, since it was 60 hours before the end of the calendar year.

The cutoff this year is December 30th at 12:00 midnight. The checks must be entered in MLS and successfully transmitted by this time to assure they will post to 2008.

uofufan wrote:The cutoff this year is December 30th at 12:00 midnight. The checks must be entered in MLS and successfully transmitted by this time to assure they will post to 2008.

Thanks for the information (although it would have been helpful for that important piece of news to have been sent to all clerks through MLS messaging).

One clarification: I assume the cutoff does not apply to deposits, as the date of a donation batch is entered into MLS, and is not necessarily the same as the date of the deposit (as is necessarily the case when a donation postmarked on or before December 31 is processed and deposited in January).

Alan_Brown wrote:Thanks for the information (although it would have been helpful for that important piece of news to have been sent to all clerks through MLS messaging).

One clarification: I assume the cutoff does not apply to deposits, as the date of a donation batch is entered into MLS, and is not necessarily the same as the date of the deposit (as is necessarily the case when a donation postmarked on or before December 31 is processed and deposited in January).

That is correct - it does not apply to deposits. Hopefully there will be a tip coming out this week about that to explain this in better detail, but in short, deposits can be backdated in MLS to December 31, 2008 as long as the donation was received by the Bishop or postmarked by December 31, 2008.

uofufan wrote:as long as the donation was received by the Bishop or postmarked by December 31, 2008.

For purposes of documentation, I like to deposit everything the Bishop receives by Dec 31st.

And keep the envelope with the slips for anything deposited in 2009 but postmarked in 2008.

Since it's not to common to have someone show up at the Bishop's house, it's not hard to do and there's a sold paper trail.

uofufan wrote:The cutoff this year is December 30th at 12:00 midnight. The checks must be entered in MLS and successfully transmitted by this time to assure they will post to 2008.

Hummm.... not to murmur too loudly, but this information would have been really helpful about a week or two ago. I will have to somehow free up some time tonight to process the last of the checks instead of tomorrow morning as I was planning.

This information is also available on the Clerk and Technology Support Calendar.

http://tech.lds.org/forum/calendar.php?c=2

It was posted on the calendar as soon as the cut off time and date was made know to us. Also, there are other dates posted on the calendar related to tithing settlement and when year-end reports are due. Check it out at the above link.

This information is also available on the Clerk and Technology Support Calendar.

http://tech.lds.org/forum/calendar.php?c=2

It was posted on the calendar as soon as the cut off time and date was made know to us. Also, there are other dates posted on the calendar related to tithing settlement and when year-end reports are due. Check it out at the above link.

uofufan wrote:The cutoff this year is December 30th at 12:00 midnight. The checks must be entered in MLS and successfully transmitted by this time to assure they will post to 2008.