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Deposit greater than call.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:58 pm
by sklamm-p40
Recently I recieved notification that there was a mistake on a weeks batch. In my CUFS statement the error is showing up as "Deposit greater then call" with a positive balance of $500 in the Other catgory. Has anyone else made this mistake and can help with the best way to resolve it? -Thanks

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 3:30 pm
by aebrown
sklamm wrote:Recently I received notification that there was a mistake on a week's batch. In my CUFS statement the error is showing up as "Deposit greater than call" with a positive balance of $500 in the Other category. Has anyone else made this mistake and can help with the best way to resolve it?
This means that the amount deposited in the bank was $500 more than the amount of the donation batch in MLS. There are a few ways this could happen:
  1. A check was submitted to the bank, but was not included in the batch.
  2. The amount of a check was incorrect (e.g., it was for $2500, but recorded in MLS as $2000)
  3. The bank made an error, or read the amount on a check differently. This can happen if the written amount on the check (which the bank tends to trust) is different from the numeric amount on the check (which clerks tend to look at).
Each of these can be a bit tricky to track down. If your bank is helpful, they will help you by providing some details as to how they processed the deposit. They can certainly tell you what the check, currency, and coin totals were according to their records. This would help you narrow down the problem area. They can even provide details on the checks that were processed, which is probably what you ultimately need. Armed with that information, you can compare each check in the deposit with the bank's records and determine where the difference lies.

Once you have identified the problem, you'll probably need to make an adjustment to the batch. When that adjustment is processed by CHQ, the $500 currently credited to Other will go away. If it is determined to be an actual bank error, then the bank would make the adjustment and you would need to call Local Unit Support to inform them of the correction.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 4:11 pm
by jbh001
Interesting. We recently had the opposite problem where the deposit was less than call in the amount of $10. I had assumed that because neither we or the bishop had recieved any notification from the stake or bank we must not have needed to do anything about it. We only noticed it when we went to reconcile the CUFS.

Now I'm wondering if there is more to it than that, and where I might find the steps we need to go through. We already tried tracking down the error, but it is still even a guess as to which donation batch it applies to.

Can you provide any additional insight?

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 4:44 pm
by aebrown
jbh001 wrote:Interesting. We recently had the opposite problem where the deposit was less than call in the amount of $10. I had assumed that because neither we or the bishop had received any notification from the stake or bank we must not have needed to do anything about it. We only noticed it when we went to reconcile the CUFS.

Now I'm wondering if there is more to it than that, and where I might find the steps we need to go through. We already tried tracking down the error, but it is still even a guess as to which donation batch it applies to.

Can you provide any additional insight?
If you are using Deposit Concentration, you will never be notified by the bank. All communication will come from the Church. I don't think that there is usually a separate communication, other than the line item on the CUFS, but I'm not sure about that.

"Deposit less than call" can have most of the causes I mentioned above, except for the first option, rather than including a check that was not in the batch, somehow a check or $10 bill was not included in the bank deposit but was included in the MLS batch. In that case, you might want to look around the desk to see if a $10 bill fell behind the desk, or something like that.

It's been a while since I've had to deal with one of these, but as I recall, there is something in the "deposit less than call" line item on the CUFS that ties it back to the reference number of the donation batch. If that's not the case, generally such problems are reported by the bank fairly quickly, so if the date of that line item is say, June 25, then it was probably the June 21 batch.

It doesn't really matter whether the deposit is less or greater than the call; the process for resolving it is pretty much the same. As you reconcile the month in question, you'll have to create a Temporary Item until you resolve the issue. You do need to resolve it, or you'll not be able to reconcile without the Temporary Item (which of course you do not want to carry forward eternally -- auditors tend to take a dim view of such practices).

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:20 pm
by lajackson
sklamm wrote:the best way to resolve it?
In addition to the excellent advice Alan has given, you might just get out the envelope with all of the yellow slips from that deposit and review them with the batch to see that everything got recorded, or recorded properly.

Perhaps someone thought the yellow slip and check were recorded, but they got placed in the wrong pile and the check was added to the deposit but not recorded in MLS. A careful line by line review of the check list normally would catch that before the deposit went in.

Perhaps a donation envelope came in late in the process and got included, but not recorded. There are any number of ways that a distraction in the process could result in a mismatched deposit.

And, it is quite possible that the problem has nothing at all to do with the clerk and counselor who prepared the deposit.

Happy hunting. That is why there are two of you.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:34 pm
by sklamm-p40
Thank you for the insight into solving this problem. The information was just what I hoped for. Thanks again.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 8:25 pm
by mfmohlma
lajackson wrote:... with all of the yellow slips from that deposit ...
It's picking nits here, but the donor slips are white. The donors should be keeping the yellow copy for their own records. :D (Oh, and reviewing them is a great idea.)

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:18 pm
by sklamm-p40
As quick update on my circumstance. While waiting to contact the bank tomorrow for the specific information they could provide. I decided to take the suggestion of going through the tithing and offering slips and comparing them to the batch. I did find a slip in the amount of $50.00 that was not recorded on the printed batch report.


(Yes, the discrepancy was in fact $50.00 and not the $500.00 I had recalled when I made the initial post from home.):o


So if I understand correctly, I will go into that batch and make the edit/correction and transmit the change to CHQ. I will keep the temporary adjustment until I see an indication that it has been cleared from a future CUFS, and then clear the temporary item.


Again, to all. I appreciate your time and help in resolving this issue.

... and Matt, you can rest easy. The slips were white.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:54 pm
by aebrown
sklamm wrote:As quick update on my circumstance. While waiting to contact the bank tomorrow for the specific information they could provide. I decided to take the suggestion of going through the tithing and offering slips and comparing them to the batch. I did find a slip in the amount of $50.00 that was not recorded on the printed batch report.
That's why we keep lajackson around -- he's great at suggesting the obvious when some of us are lost in the details. :) I'm glad the simple solution worked for you in this case.
sklamm wrote:So if I understand correctly, I will go into that batch and make the edit/correction and transmit the change to CHQ. I will keep the temporary adjustment until I see an indication that it has been cleared from a future CUFS, and then clear the temporary item.
All you have to do is go into the batch and add a new donation. You're exactly right about how you handle the Temporary Item.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:29 pm
by lajackson
Alan_Brown wrote:That's why we keep lajackson around -- he's great at suggesting the obvious when some of us are lost in the details. :) I'm glad the simple solution worked for you in this case.
I will have to work on my colors, though. If the slips are yellow instead of white, they have probably been stored in the clerk's office a few years longer than they should have been. [grin]