Cheque Clearance

When to use it

Every day in the cash office: to see what has to be banked today, to record a cheque the bank has returned, and to chase one that has been sitting too long.

Before you start

• Cheques arrive here by themselves. A cheque appears when a Receipt Voucher or a Payment Voucher is posted with a cheque payment method. You do not add cheques on this screen.
• Nobody can use the screen until it is granted. Seeing the lists and acting on a cheque are two separate rights, so if you run the cash office, ask an administrator for both.

Where to find it

Entry > Cheque > Cheque Clearance.

The fields on this screen

How it works

The screen is a set of worklists, and every cheque sits in exactly one of them.

• Deposit due: due to be banked or presented today or earlier.
• Held / partial-settled: on hold, or being settled in parts.
• Bounced: returned by the bank and waiting for a decision.
• Cleared: confirmed by the bank. They are listed so that a clearance made in error can be undone.
• Stale risk: old enough to be worth chasing before they go stale.
• Manual-clear exceptions: declared cleared by a person, with no bank statement behind them.
• Voided / written off: cheques that were cancelled for good. They are listed so that one voided by mistake can be restored.

Open a cheque to see everything that has happened to it, and act from the list:

1. Deposit / Present. For a cheque you received, you have to name the bank it was banked into. Until you do, the money sits on a holding account rather than a real bank account, because the person who wrote the receipt could not know which bank it would go to. Naming the bank puts it where it belongs.
2. Depositing is not clearing. It only says the cheque is with the bank. A cheque clears when the bank says so: import the statement, match it on the Reconciliation screen and confirm the match. That marks the cheque cleared and takes the clearing date from the statement line. Manual clear is for when no statement will ever arrive. Such a cheque stays on the exceptions list until one does.
3. Bounce asks two things the return memo cannot answer for you. First, say why it came back. Choosing the customer's cheque failed means that if the cheque is presented again and clears, any late-payment charge runs from the day it actually cleared. Choosing returned for other reasons keeps the day the customer handed it over, so nobody is punished for their bank's mistake. That answer sticks, and a clean second attempt does not erase it. Second, you can record a charge to recover on the same dialog. If you leave it blank, nothing is charged.
4. Re-present puts a bounced cheque back into clearing. Hold, Mark PDC and Follow-up move the date the cheque is expected and set a reminder, without touching the accounts. A cheque marked post-dated stays off the deposit list until it matures.
5. Void is the one action that reaches back into your books and changes the entries the cheque was posted with. The person who posted the cheque may not void it; an administrator can.
6. Change Bank (correct a wrong deposit) moves a cheque in clearing to the right bank, with a note saying why, as long as no bank statement has confirmed it yet.

Who sees which buttons

The actions on each cheque follow your role. Someone who may only look at cheques sees the lists and the history, with no buttons. Depositing, clearing and bouncing usually belong to the cash office. Voiding, writing off and recovering a bounce charge belong to the Owner / Admin and to Directors. If an action is refused, the message says why.

Photos, held cheques and reminders

• A cheque captured by a collector carries its scan or photos. Open the cheque and click the scan. It opens in the viewer panel, where you can page through, zoom and print.
• The Held list shows cheques held for later or as security, with what has been collected and the balance left. They are settled from PDC Cheque Received (Memo).
• Reminders for due cheques arrive 7 days before, 3 days before and on the due date, in the app and as a phone notification.

Three dates that are not the same thing

• The tender date is the day the customer handed the cheque over. Late-payment charges and early settlement discounts are measured from it.
• The deposit date is the day you banked it.
• The clearing date is the day the bank confirmed it, and it comes off the bank statement. Any charge or discount is dated on the clearing date, so nothing lands in a period you have closed.

Tips and common mistakes

• A post-dated cheque stays parked whichever bank you name, because there is nothing to bank until it matures. Name the bank at deposit, when it means something.
• Reversing the receipt is the gentler fix, and it releases the cheque with it. Void is for when the receipt stands and only the cheque is dead: stopped, returned or gone stale.
• A cheque matched to the wrong statement line can be put right from the Cleared list.
• The worklists cover cheques only. Cash and instant transfers do not appear.

Related guides

• Cheque Issuance (recording the number on a cheque you issue), Receipt Voucher, Payment Voucher, Reconciliation and Bank Statement Import.
• PDC Cheque Received (Memo), Cheque Register, Cheque Due Calendar, PDC Ageing, Bounced & Re-presented Cheques.