Is it possible/okay to edit last year's donation before closing year?

[joshuajohnwallace]

Recently, we identified some donations to fast offerings that really should have been donated to one of the Other categories. These donations took place in December of last year, and as the first Sunday of the new year hasn't occurred yet, we haven't closed out the previous year.

Based on the Church instructions for closing out the year (http://tech.lds.org/wiki/Closing_out_th ... ncial_year), it sounds like we can still edit the previous year's stuff before choosing to close out the year (i.e., we can postpone closing out the year, we won't be forced to do it the moment we log in to MLS), we just won't be able to enter anything new for this year until we close out. I want to confirm, is this the case that we can edit the previous year's data prior to closing out? And there won't be any complications from this?

The instructions also stay that the previous years' data can still be edited even after closing out the year. However, since this is reclassifying donations from a category that is tax deductible to one that is not tax deductible (I am in the USA), I am hesitant to do this lest it messes up the preparation of the year-end donor statements. Does anybody know if reclassifying things after closing out the year in this way will mess up the preparation and/or accuracy of the year-end donor statements?

[russellhltn]

I seem to remember that MLS refused to do anything until the year was closed out. So, you may not have a choice in the matter.

I would do the reclassifying ASAP before the tax statements are generated.

[drepouille]

The last Official US Tax Statement was generated on 31 Dec 2016, so I suspect the new statements, when they become available for download, will be dated 31 Dec 2017.

[russellhltn]

The last Official US Tax Statement was generated on 31 Dec 2016, so I suspect the new statements, when they become available for download, will be dated 31 Dec 2017.

Which, raises a big question in my mind because it's perfectly acceptable to record a donation for on January 8 for 2017 (if it was postmarked in 2017).

So, 31Dec2017 is a good "criteria" date, but not a good "run on" date.

[lajackson]

So, 31Dec2017 is a good "criteria" date, but not a good "run on" date.

You close out the year, then start a new batch with a 31 Dec 2017 date. You can have more than one batch dated 31 Dec 2017, and if you do it all this Sunday, you will also have a separate 7 Jan 2018 batch.

[aebrown]

The last Official US Tax Statement was generated on 31 Dec 2016, so I suspect the new statements, when they become available for download, will be dated 31 Dec 2017.

Which, raises a big question in my mind because it's perfectly acceptable to record a donation for on January 8 for 2017 (if it was postmarked in 2017).

So, 31Dec2017 is a good "criteria" date, but not a good "run on" date.

That's a critical distinction. So when drepouille said the statements were "generated on 31 Dec 2016," I'm pretty sure he really meant that they were dated with that date. For the actual report generation, there has to be some delay to allow the entry of transactions for the previous year that are not processed until the new year.

[russellhltn]

Right. The "run on" date is the date the report is actually generated. If it was actually run on 31 Dec, then nothing entered after that date would appear in the tax records - which seems kind of silly. I'd expect a "run on" date closer to 15 Jan, giving two Sundays for "catch up".

When the report is run, the criteria will be for batch dates from 1 Jan 2017 to 31 Dec 2017, inclusive - regardless of the run on date.

[drepouille]

Correct. When I open the PDF of the "Official US Tax Statement - 31 Dec 2016" Pre-Generated Donor Statements, the time-stamp at the bottom of each page is 13 Jan 2017 15:56:08.

[russellhltn]

When I open the PDF of the "Official US Tax Statement - 31 Dec 2016" Pre-Generated Donor Statements, the time-stamp at the bottom of each page is 13 Jan 2017 15:56:08.

Which suggests we may not have a second Sunday to fix things. Any changes that come to our attention after the first Sunday should be done immediately.

[drepouille]

And I have stake conference on January 14th this year!