Cheque payments: the fields, and when the money counts as collected

A cheque is not cash yet — it is a promise with a date. The system therefore treats it differently from cash and transfers, and picks the debit account according to its status.

The fields

Choose a payment method of type cheque on a receipt, on the payments tab or at POS, and four fields appear — image 1:

• Cheque number — enter it exactly as printed; it is what you search by.
• Cheque date — the date written on the cheque.
• Due date — when it can be banked. It cannot be earlier than the cheque date.
• Cheque bank — the bank it is drawn on.
• Cheque status — pending or cleared.

The status changes the journal entry

• Pending — the amount is posted to the cheques under collection account. The customer's receivable drops, but the cash has not reached your bank, which is the honest picture.
• Cleared — the amount is posted straight to the deposit account you chose, because the money really is in the bank.

That is why the system requires a deposit account when you mark a cheque as cleared, and refuses to save without one.

Notes

• Record the cheque as pending on the day you receive it, then edit the receipt to cleared on the day it actually lands. That keeps the bank balance matching the statement.
• Do not mark it cleared on day one; your bank balance will read higher than reality for the whole collection period.
• The cheque's due date is not the receipt date: the first is when it can be banked, the second is when you took it.
• A cheque-type payment method is defined once under Accounting → Payment Methods.
• Cheques are accepted at POS too, with the same fields.
• Put the cheque number in the reference as well if you want it visible in the receipts list without opening each one.