New Missionary Finance Tips

[nbllds-p40]

Thanks for all the responses.

Two more questions:

When we are able to help the family understand how the Church funding of missionaries really works, and they make their first payment at the beginning of the month the missionary reports (or better yet at the end of the previous month), we find that they usually have completed the 24th (for elders) payment before the missionary returns.

1 - Does this mean that if the missionary is entering the MTC in mid-June that the church will take out $400 at the beginning of June? I.e. Should the family make sure the money has been donated by the end of May before the missionary has entered the MTC?

2 - If a missionary comes back a month early or extends, there would be one less (or one more) payment to make?

[aebrown]

1 - Does this mean that if the missionary is entering the MTC in mid-June that the church will take out $400 at the beginning of June? I.e. Should the family make sure the money has been donated by the end of May before the missionary has entered the MTC?

Yes, that's correct. Payments need to be made quite a bit earlier than people might suppose. Even if the missionary enters the MTC on June 30, 2009, the first payment will be deducted at the beginning of June. For a 24-month mission, that means the 24th payment will be deducted at the beginning of May, 2011.

2 - If a missionary comes back a month early or extends, there would be one less (or one more) payment to make?

Theoretically, yes. But in such cases, I would check with the Missionary Department to be certain of just how they are calculating the payments, since it's unlikely that the length of time the missionary departs early or late will be an exact number of months.

[russellhltn]

I'm not sure the families specify their missionary 'name' on the donation slip.

And they didn't do it when I was a ward clerk either. It comes from knowing the ward. The family should be putting it in the "Ward Mission" box. You just know that when the Jones are doing the donation, that it's to support Elder Jones. So you put in in the Elder Jones subcategory instead of the top-level.

Since this is just Ward-level accounting, I think you can go back and change it with no hassles. Just as long as it was put somewhere in Ward Missionary.

[lajackson]

If a missionary comes back a month early or extends, there would be one less (or one more) payment to make?

As Alan said, theoretically. Mission transfers now take place every six weeks. One transfer either side of the normal end-of-mission date usually will not affect the payments. More than that will.

The Missionary Department will know for sure.

[pbhanney]

OK, so I am new at this and have been reading this post and have gotten a pretty good idea about this. We are having our first missionary in several years go out next month. I have created a sub-category for her under our Ward Missionary budget. I will inform the Bishop to have the family start paying by the end of this month so that we don't have any problems there.

Now, here's my question: We have funds under our Ward Missionary that have already been donated these past couple of months; the sub-category will also start to get populated with donations from the family. I have noticed in past years when we had missionaries that the funds for the missionary was taken out of the "Missionary" fund (not "Ward Missionary" or even the "General Missionary" funds, just "Missionary"); am I supposed to transfer $400 to the "Missionary" fund from the "Ward Missionary" fund so that this is what is automatically taken out at the beginning of the month? I know that the church doesn't automatically take the funds from the "Ward Missionary" fund because we have money there and it stays until the Stake asks us to send them a check with our excess funds. I know that the church automatically takes the "General Missionary" funds, but from what I can research in our previous encounters with past missionaries is that it is taken from the "Missionary" fund. So, before we start this new adventure, how exactly do I get it from the "Ward Missionary" sub-category to the "Missionary" fund (write a check, do a transfer, etc.)?

[aebrown]

Now, here's my question: We have funds under our Ward Missionary that have already been donated these past couple of months; the sub-category will also start to get populated with donations from the family. I have noticed in past years when we had missionaries that the funds for the missionary was taken out of the "Missionary" fund (not "Ward Missionary" or even the "General Missionary" funds, just "Missionary"); am I supposed to transfer $400 to the "Missionary" fund from the "Ward Missionary" fund so that this is what is automatically taken out at the beginning of the month?

The "Missionary" fund should not be used. Create the subcategory under Ward Missionary; make all donations to that subcategory, and all payments from that subcategory. Each month you will have to manually enter the expenses for the missionary. They will show up on your Church Unit Financial Statement, but nothing automatic happens in MLS. Just use the Enter Expenses screen, and check the "Not a check" checkbox so that you can enter the reference number from your financial statement.

The "Missionary" category is an odd category that really should be cleared out by transferring to the "Ward Missionary" category, if you can figure out how to do it. All unspecified ward missionary funds should be in the "Ward Missionary" category, and all designated funds should be in a particular subcategory of "Ward Missionary."

It's a bit tricky to clear out the "Missionary" category, but you can see how to do it in this post.

[jbh001]

In case it wasn't clear,

On the Church Unit Financial Statement (CUFS), the Missionary category corresponds to the Ward Missionary category in MLS. And as Alan stated, nothing happens automatically here, you will have to manually enter transactions in the CUFS Missionary column into MLS.

Origianally, MLS just had a Missionary category. This was later changed to General Missionary and Ward Missionary to distinguish between what funds got left in the ward and what funds got swept. As Alan stated, if you are still using the MLS Missionary Category, you should probably attempt to discuntinue using it and transfer the funds to the Ward Missionary category to avoid future confusion on the matter.

[BrainClay]

... Payments need to be made quite a bit earlier than people might suppose. Even if the missionary enters the MTC on June 30, 2009, the first payment will be deducted at the beginning of June. For a 24-month mission, that means the 24th payment will be deducted at the beginning of May, 2011.

I'm pretty sure that you actually end up making 25 payments. If you read the packet that comes with the call, it says something like you have to pay for the first month they are in the MTC, even if it's the 30th, then continue paying including the last month of their mission. That would be 25 months. (for example June 2009 through and including June 2011.)

Also, it's important to note that missions are not 2-years long, due to the 6 week transfers. They are actually a little longer than two years, and this often causes problems for missionaries going to other countries (especially to the US from Canada), as they apply for a 24 month visa, then have to go home a couple weeks before the official end of their mission. (Before the rest of their group). They could have just as easily applied for a 30 month visa!

[aebrown]

I'm pretty sure that you actually end up making 25 payments. If you read the packet that comes with the call, it says something like you have to pay for the first month they are in the MTC, even if it's the 30th, then continue paying including the last month of their mission. That would be 25 months. (for example June 2009 through and including June 2011.)

It's unfortunate that the packet would provide misleading information on this topic, but the fact is that (barring unusual circumstances), an elder's ward will be charged for exactly 24 payments. Our stake averages about 50 elders serving at any given moment, so I've seen a lot of missionary payments, and except for those who extend or come home early, it's always 24 payments.

In our stake, wards communicate the payment schedule clearly to the missionaries, which should help resolve any ambiguity in the general instructions.

Also, it's important to note that missions are not 2-years long, due to the 6 week transfers. They are actually a little longer than two years, and this often causes problems for missionaries going to other countries (especially to the US from Canada), as they apply for a 24 month visa, then have to go home a couple weeks before the official end of their mission. (Before the rest of their group). They could have just as easily applied for a 30 month visa!

Missions are a bit shorter than 24 months at least as often as they are longer than 24 months, in my experience. After all, most missionaries are in the MTC for 3 or 9 weeks (sometimes 8, sometimes 12), and 3 weeks plus 8 full transfers (8x6=48 weeks) makes 51 weeks, which is just under 2 years.

But if the mission length varies from 2 years by only a week or so, the cost will still just be 24 payments.

As for the visa issues, the polices on visas and residency permits vary widely from country to country, so the chance that those permits would have the same length as an actual mission is slim indeed. But in the particular case you mentioned, it does seem like it would be prudent to get a 30-month visa.

[pburt2006]

I have been trying to figure out how to see the balances for the ward missionary subcategories, but have not found any way to do so. I see "Income and Expense report" referenced by Alan. Is that the only way to see the individual missionary balances? Where is that report seen?