Page History

...

• Never collect cash if at all possible.
• If participants have cash they should go purchase a money order (usually costs between $3-$5 at your local grocery store, convenience store or bank) for the exact amount needed and use that in place of cash.
• If cash must be collected from students (as sometimes is the special case of our remote summer programs that lack access to banks and stores) then the administrator will need to go buy a money order on behalf of the student(s) that could only give cash and it should be written to Reliant for that total amount of cash collected from all the individuals.  A note must be attached to that money order detailing the names and amounts for each participant.  Please mark the memo line as “cash payments received”.  These payments will be entered as a cash payment in each of the participants’ records.
• How do I fill out the money order?  If the participant has purchased it, it should be written to Reliant and signed by the participant.  If the LT finance administrator is buying a money order for multiple participant payments, it should be written out to Reliant and then the LT finance administrator should sign the money order and attach the detailed note of names and amounts. 
• All cash received must be submitted to the Reliant Gift Processing Department using the guidelines written above. Do not deposit it into your petty cash. 

Over payments/ Unpaid fees

Participants may choose to pay the pre-determined amount for the fee due date or they may pay more than is required for that due date. 

It is the responsibility of the summer program’s leadership (not Reliant) to work with the participants who can not pay their program fees on time.  The policies may state that there is a late fee for late fee payments.  That late fee is enforced at the discretion of the program director and finance administrator.  You will need to notify the Reliant special events coordinator if you want to add a late fee to a participant.  This Payment Appeal Form can be used to help with participants who are requesting an extension for when their program fees are due.  This is for the summer program collections administrator to use and keep and not to be sent back to Reliant.  It is the responsibility of the program’s leadership to work with the students who have not paid their program fees.  We suggest assigning a missionary member to the participant to help give guidance and accountability to students needing financial help. 

...

Sometimes participants do not know that they have overpaid.  (It is common for participants to pay $5 extra because of the $695 fee and not realize it).  

If the Reliant gift processing department receives a payment for an amount over what is owed this is the process they will follow...

• Notify the events coordinator of the over payment and the events coordinator will temporarily raise the participant fee so the payment can 
  be added to their name.  (To raise the fee, open up the individual event registrant and click on the arrows next to the fee you'd like to raise (usually the program fee)- always leave a comment to explain why).

• If the amount is over $25 it is policy that Reliant will automatically issue a refund to the participant. The events coordinator will contact the LT director to let them know of the refund, but will not need LT director approval per approved policy.

So for those overpayments under $25...

• Reliant will notify the participant and document that they have made an overpayment and give them 30 days to request a refund prior to Reliant applying this overpayment as just a larger payment towards the event. 

• If they give their permission to donate the overpaid fee to the event then we will keep the participants fee at the new raised fee permanently.  (assuming it is a small over payment of $20 or under).  If the over payment is a large sum we will need to move the over payment amount over as an anonymous donation to the event rather than an additional event fee for the individual. 
• If they would like their over payment refunded, the special events coordinator will contact the LT program director for approval for the refund.  If the over payment was made by check then the events coordinator will create a check request and the check will be mailed to the participant.  If the over payment was made by credit card the gift processing department will refund the credit card. Click here for more detailed instructions about refunds.
• Once the fee has been refunded the events coordinator will need to change the event registration fee back to the original fee so that the participant does not show an outstanding balance on their registration. 

One participant's over payments to the program will not be switched to another student’s underpaid registration. The only exceptions is if a church sends in payments to help the students in their church, payment amounts may be switched from an overpaid student to an underpaid one. The church needs to provide written confirmation that this is acceptable to them. 

As the program finance administrator, you may have participants who want to make over payments because they raised that money and since they signed the financial integrity form that said they can not keep money raised they may be wanting to donate that to the program.  Rather than the participant making an over payment read the donations/tithing info.

See also: Overpayments and Tithing for events

...

Donating towards payments for other participant program fees.

If a participant wants to contribute to another participant fees they will either need to…

• • •  write a check to the other student directly and that other student will need to write a new check from their own account to Reliant.  
    •  Or they can anonymously donate cash to the underpaid student who will then have to go get a money order with the cash or deposit it and write a check from their own account to Reliant. 
    •  Or they can anonymously get a money order written to Reliant on behalf of that student.

...

We cannot accept any form of payment from anyone other than from the participant with the outstanding fee or from their parent with the same name or from the participant’s church.

In the past, the summer program finance administrator in charge of collections has been allowed to write a check on behalf of students to Reliant to help make payments when others who gave to help their payments have wanted to remain anonymous. This is no longer allowed.  The summer program finance administrator could however, go get a money order and send that money order to Reliant on behalf of another student. If the summer program administrator has collected multiple donated payments for multiple participants they will need to send a list with the money order listing which participants the payments should go towards and how much.

Donating/Tithing towards your summer program.

If your summer program participants wish to donate or tithe to your specific summer program they should write a separate check or money order that is clearly labeled with the purpose of donation/tithe from that participant to avoid possibleconfusion as a summer program payment.  Also, any checks/money orders that are donations or tithes need to be listed on a separate ledger sheet than the one that includes summer program payments.  These donations to the summer program itself will be considered charitable tax-deductible gifts.

If you are the administrator for collections, and participants are writing checks made payable to you personally or handing you cash to donate towards the summer program, you will need to go get a money order for the total amount you have collected to be given to Reliant (you cannot write a personal check from yourself to Reliant for donation money that you have collected from summer program participants).  

Also, attach to the separate ledger sheet created for donations (separate from program fee payments), the list of summer participants that gave donations on this money order and how much each of them gave. Their donations to the summer program will be considered charitable tax-deductible gifts.