MLS losing Tithing Donations

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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hawkenswva
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Location: Cebu, Philippines

MLS losing Tithing Donations

#1

Post by hawkenswva »

Hi all,

I am an Asst Ward Clerk with most of the time acting as the Ward Clerk, here in Cebu, Philippines. About a month ago I started to print things out for Tithing and Settlement and Noticed that some Donations were missing for some of the members. Today those members came in and reported to us and I asked for their copy of the Donations which they don't have. What can be done about this? And why does it seem the MLS loses this information? Is there anything that can affect the donations not being listed (i.e. Disfellowship,etc?)
Thank you for any help..
russellhltn
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#2

Post by russellhltn »

hawkenph wrote:I asked for their copy of the Donations which they don't have. What can be done about this?
You should be keeping a copy of all the donation slips and other paperwork from the weekly processing. You should be able to find it there.
hawkenph wrote:And why does it seem the MLS loses this information? Is there anything that can affect the donations not being listed (i.e. Disfellowship,etc?)
If the check is returned, the donation is canceled.

It's possible that the donation is there, it's just recorded improperly (such as being recorded under the wrong name.) It's also possible that for some reason, the member has more then one listing - you may need to combine donors to get everything together.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
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aebrown
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#3

Post by aebrown »

hawkenph wrote:Is there anything that can affect the donations not being listed (i.e. Disfellowship,etc?)
I would also note that changes in membership status (disfellowshipment or excommunication) will have no effect on the donor records -- there will still be a Donor Record associated with each donation. So you will still see all the donations associated with that individual.

The only things that would lead to a donation not being associated with a particular donor record have mostly been mentioned:
  • The donation was canceled
  • The donation was credited to the wrong person
  • There are multiple donor records for the same person
  • The donation was not actually processed (someone's memory is bad)
For all these situations, you should be able to go back to the original donation batch, both in MLS and in your paper donation batch records, and track down the error. Of course, it helps a lot if the member has a specific donation date so you can narrow down which batch is involved.
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nicklewis
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Check Add/Update Donors for Membership Status

#4

Post by nicklewis »

In Tithing Settlement reports there is one more thing to review on a member: Go to Add/Update Donors and take a look at their Membership Status. If the Donor was created without linking them to a member of record in the ward, his/her donations ill not show up. It's a simple thing to fix in Add/Update Donors.

Your problem can be compounded if there are also multiple donors for the same person. In that case, you may merge those records to make them show on the same report.
Nick Lewis
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Cocoa Florida Stake
greggo
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#5

Post by greggo »

Alan_Brown wrote:I would also note that changes in membership status (disfellowshipment or excommunication) will have no effect on the donor records --

I just wanted to point out that, by policy, an excommunicated member should not be allowed to donate tithing -- but this doesn't keep them from making other donations (such as for Missionary). However, I'm sure that MLS will not disallow it, and I don't know what kind of "red flags" will go up if it happens.

hawkenph, please let us know if the method for donating to the church is different from the "normal" method we use in the US. I know when I was overseas, for local currency donations, the church had to make a drastic change to how donations were made because of the uncommon use of checks for transactions in that country.
hawkenswva
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Thank u. another question

#6

Post by hawkenswva »

nicklewis wrote:In Tithing Settlement reports there is one more thing to review on a member: Go to Add/Update Donors and take a look at their Membership Status. If the Donor was created without linking them to a member of record in the ward, his/her donations ill not show up. It's a simple thing to fix in Add/Update Donors.
Hi,
I went to the Chapel today and I looked up the Donor and found that they have no Record Number listed in the Add/Update Donor. And he is only listed one time. By not having a record number on this list, Would that effect that their donations are not listed on their Tithing Settlement? When I looked on their Church records they have a Record Number.
Thank you again for all your help..
hawkenswva
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#7

Post by hawkenswva »

I don't know how its Done in the US. Since I never got a calling where I would know. What questions do you have about it? And I am more than happy to answer..
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aebrown
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#8

Post by aebrown »

hawkenph wrote:I went to the Chapel today and I looked up the Donor and found that they have no Record Number listed in the Add/Update Donor. And he is only listed one time. By not having a record number on this list, Would that effect that their donations are not listed on their Tithing Settlement? When I looked on their Church records they have a Record Number.
Indeed, if a donor record is of type "Member", but no Record Number is associated with them, then:
  • MLS will show an Urgent Task: "Some donors need to have their member record numbers recorded."
  • You can print a Year-To-Date Donation Summary for the donor, which will show all donations made during the year. The donor name will be listed on the very top line of the report. However, the "Member Name" on the second line of the report will be blank.
  • You will not be able to print a Tithing Settlement Statement for the donor -- donors who have no member record number will not even show up on the selection list as you go to print Individual or Household Statements under Tithing Settlement in MLS.
So now you need to associate the Member Record Number with the donor record. To do this:
  1. In MLS, go to Finances > Add/Update Donors (or you can click on the Urgent Task mentioned above).
  2. Find the donor name and click on the name to edit the donor record.
  3. Make sure the radio button for "Member of Unit" is selected.
  4. Click the Select button to the right of "Member of Unit"
  5. Find the member, click on their name, and click OK. (depending on how the donor name was spelled, it may be necessary to clear the field "Find Individual in List" in order to see the member's name in the selection list)
  6. Now you will be able to print a Tithing Settlement Statement for the donor.
Note that you must associate a member record number with each member donor before you submit the Tithing Declaration Report, so it's good to fix all donor records as soon as possible.
hawkenswva
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Location: Cebu, Philippines

#9

Post by hawkenswva »

Sorry, about this. I haven't seen a Urgent Task for the person. The problem is. When I do a print out for tithing settlement on this person( which has a record number listed on it). There are no entries of a Donation. But, we we look on the MLS on the Donations the person is found making Donations. But, when I check their status through the Donor/Update there is no records number listed. Since there is no record number for the person for Donation would this effect that there are no donations listed? I hope this makes since. I have found no way through the Donor/update function to add the record number.. How can I update the Donor's record number for the donation side? Thank you again for any help...
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aebrown
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#10

Post by aebrown »

hawkenph wrote:I have found no way through the Donor/update function to add the record number.. How can I update the Donor's record number for the donation side? Thank you again for any help...
Perhaps I wasn't clear in my last post. The six steps I listed will indeed attach a member record number to a donor record.

I think what might be confusing you is that there is no feature that is labeled as "add record number to donor". When you go to Add/Update Donors and update a donor who does not have his member record number recorded, you will see something like this:
Temp1.jpg
Temp1.jpg (9.76 KiB) Viewed 1323 times
Note that no name appears to the right of "Member of Unit". The process of attaching a member record number to a donor record is done by selecting a member. Click the Select button to the right of "Member of Unit". Select the member from the list. Then you will see something like:
Temp2.jpg
Temp2.jpg (9.83 KiB) Viewed 1322 times
Note that the member's name and age now appear on the donor record. That is the way the member record number gets attached to a donor record. I'm working with test data, but with your real data, you'll see the member's record number immediately below the donor's name.

Here's my summary of steps from my previous post:
Alan_Brown wrote:So now you need to associate the Member Record Number with the donor record. To do this:
  1. In MLS, go to Finances > Add/Update Donors (or you can click on the Urgent Task mentioned above).
  2. Find the donor name and click on the name to edit the donor record.
  3. Make sure the radio button for "Member of Unit" is selected.
  4. Click the Select button to the right of "Member of Unit"
  5. Find the member, click on their name, and click OK. (depending on how the donor name was spelled, it may be necessary to clear the field "Find Individual in List" in order to see the member's name in the selection list)
  6. Now you will be able to print a Tithing Settlement Statement for the donor.
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