Financial Clerk & MLS

[brofisher]

We have just called a new stake clerk. With the size of our stake geographically he would have to travel 30 minutes to get to the Stake Centre. Can he log onto MLS in his home ward and access the Stake needed info without having to drive to the stake centre? Better yet is there a chance that he might do the work from his home?

Thanks any insight would be helpful

Mike

[jdlessley]

Can he log onto MLS in his home ward and access the Stake needed info without having to drive to the stake centre?

The policy for remote operations (logging onto MLS from anywhere except at the computer MLS is installed - in this case the stake clerk computer) is expressly prohibited. See Meetinghouse Technology Policy, 4.10.

Better yet is there a chance that he might do the work from his home?

A majority of MLS functionality is available online at Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR). This makes doing most of the routine functions available from anywhere there is internet access. This includes another church computer, such as a ward computer or from a personal computer at home.

[russellhltn]

Can he log onto MLS in his home ward and access the Stake needed info without having to drive to the stake centre? Better yet is there a chance that he might do the work from his home?

From the Meetinghouse Technology Policy:

4.10 Remote access of Church computers is expressly prohibited except in cases where all of the following are true:

4.10.1 When done by official Church support personnel or under the direction of a stake president by a stake technology specialist, stake clerk, or member of a stake presidency.

4.10.2 When used to ensure a Church computer is functioning properly or to help someone use the system.

4.10.3 When not used to enter data into MLS and not used to access sensitive information.

4.10.4 When the software used is properly licensed.

4.10.5 When the software is set up to utilize standards-based encryption (AES-128 or better).

In a word, no. But he is welcome to use the LCR website. Quite a few functions are available there, but I don't know as all of them are.

[eblood66]

In a word, no. But he is welcome to use the LCR website. Quite a few functions are available there, but I don't know as all of them are.

Pretty much everything can be done on LCR from anywhere. There are really just two exceptions now: donation/deposit batches and printing checks.

Donation batches do not currently involve LCR at all and must be done in MLS on the stake computer. However, stakes generally do not have to do batches very often. Mostly stakes just have to deposit checks from other units and now most of those can be done via transfers in LCR instead.

Checks can be printed from LCR but by policy they must still be printed on the unit computer and printer. But the number of checks can be reduced by encouraging stake leaders (and others needing stake reimbursement) to setup their accounts for EFT reimbursements which can be done in LCR from anywhere. That can reduce the number of checks significantly.

I was called as stake finance clerk about 2 months ago and so far I haven't had to use MLS on the stake computer yet. I've been able to do everything from home.

[brofisher]

Thank you all for this helpful feedback.
Very much appreciated and will be very helpful in getting our new clerk up and running.

[sbradshaw]

Can he log onto MLS in his home ward and access the Stake needed info

As far as I'm aware, there's not a policy that the stake's MLS account has to be set up on the in the stake clerk's office, just that it needs to be on a Church-controlled computer in a clerk's office, and it can only be on one computer at a time. Multiple units can use MLS on the same computer, so the ward and stake clerk can share the same computer. However, setting up the stake MLS on a computer in a different ward building might be inconvenient for any assistant clerks that need to use MLS. In one stake I was in, we had a single room that served as the clerks' office for all 12 wards and the stake (all wards in the stake met in the same building, which admittedly is unusual – a BYU building). If I remember correctly, there were 6 computers, on folding tables lining 3 of the 4 walls (the stake shared a computer with a ward, and one of the computers was shared by three wards). Having a single clerks' office was great for training and asking questions of other clerks.

[markdwhittaker]

I just was called as a Stake Finance Clerk. We had a Ward Boundary change and two missionaries that have a balance in their old ward needs to be moved to the other ward in the Stake. Can I do this Transfer with the web-based program or do I have to go the Stake Center and do this on the MLS system?

[eblood66]

I just was called as a Stake Finance Clerk. We had a Ward Boundary change and two missionaries that have a balance in their old ward needs to be moved to the other ward in the Stake. Can I do this Transfer with the web-based program or do I have to go the Stake Center and do this on the MLS system?

As a stake clerk you can't do the transfers yourself. It has to be done by the wards involved.

First you need to make sure that financial responsibility for the missionaries is transferred (so that future charges go to the correct ward). This doesn't happen automatically when the membership records are transferred. The old bishop needs to go into the missionary recommendation system and initiate the transfer. The new bishop then has to accept the transfer in the recommendation system as well.

As for the current balance in the accounts, that also has to be done by the ward. A ward clerk can go into LCR and initiate a transfer to the new ward using the Transfer tab on the Finance part of the site. But I'd advise waiting until the financial responsibility transfer has occurred to make sure that the old ward doesn't have a charges after the transfer is made.

[russellhltn]

As eblood66 has indicated, this isn't a simple transfer of funds. Usually when the financial responsibility is transferred, an effective date is chosen will which may solve the funds transfer issue.

[eblood66]

As eblood66 has indicated, this isn't a simple transfer of funds. Usually when the financial responsibility is transferred, an effective date is chosen will which may solve the funds transfer issue.

Although that is true I'd say it's simpler in a case like this to just do a funds transfer. Correctly calculating the right effective date takes some thought and only works if the current balance is an exact multiple of $400. A transfer within the same stake is very easy now and can handle any balance.

On the other hand, when the transfer is between stakes there is no easy way for the ward to transfer the funds directly to the other ward so using an carefully calculated effective date (possibly in the past) is easier than mailing a check.