A cheque is a promise, not money
Customers in the UAE often pay with a cheque dated weeks or months ahead. Until the bank pays it, the customer still owes the invoice. So recording a cheque here posts nothing: the invoice stays owed, and the Receivables Aging Report still shows it. What the register adds is what a finance clerk otherwise keeps in a drawer and a spreadsheet — which cheques are in hand, which are due for deposit this week, which invoice each one is meant to pay, and what happened to the ones that bounced.
Clearing is the one moment the ledger moves, and it moves the ordinary way: one receipt (or, for a cheque you wrote, one payment), dated the day the bank cleared it.
The register
- Open Banking › Post-dated Cheques and choose Received (from customers) or Issued (to suppliers). Beside it is the total still in play — In hand and at the bank, or Out with suppliers. How it works explains the rule in two paragraphs.
- The cheques still in play are grouped by the date written on them: Due for deposit (the date has come; for cheques you wrote, Past their date), This week, 8–30 days, 31–60 days, 61–90 days and Over 90 days, each with a count and a total. Choose one to list its cheques. A deposited cheque is already at the bank, so it is under Deposited rather than in these groups.
- Filter by status — Live, In hand, Deposited, Cleared, Bounced or All for cheques received; Live, Cleared, Stopped, Cancelled or All for cheques issued — and search by the cheque's number, its register number, the drawer or the bank, or an amount.
- The register lists Due soonest first. Sort gives Latest cheque date first, Earliest cheque date first, the amount or the register number instead.
- Each cheque shows its Register no. (PDC-00001 onwards, from the Post-dated cheques series under Workspace › Document Templates › Document numbers), the Cheque no., Cheque date, Amount, Status and what it is Earmarked for. Export (CSV) downloads the register.
Record a cheque
- Press Record a cheque. Under Which cheque is it?, choose Received from a customer or Issued to a supplier.
- Choose the Customer (or Supplier), and enter the Cheque number as printed, the Amount and the Cheque date written on it. Received on is when the customer handed it over (for a cheque you wrote, Handed over on) — never a date still to come.
- For a cheque received, add the Drawer's bank and the Name on the cheque. For a cheque you wrote, choose the account it is Drawn on; a cheque number is used once per account.
- Under Earmark for invoices (or bills), say which of the customer's invoices it is meant to pay, and how much of each. An earmark cannot be more than the invoice still owes after other cheques already earmarked for it, and the earmarks cannot add up to more than the cheque.
- Add photographs of the Front and Back if you like — a photograph or a PDF, up to 10 MB — and Notes.
- Press Record cheque. A cheque received is In hand; a cheque you wrote is Issued.
An earmark says which invoice the cheque covers; it settles nothing. The same customer's cheque number recorded twice is questioned in case it was entered twice, and can be recorded anyway if it really is another cheque. Edit corrects a cheque still in hand or issued; once it is deposited, cleared or ended it is kept as it was.
Deposit, clear, bounce
| Step | What you do | What it posts |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit | Deposit cheques, tick the cheques in hand going to the bank, and Deposit them — or Deposit on one cheque. Choose the account they were Deposited into and the date Deposited on. A cheque dated after that is refused unless you tick Lodged early for collection. | Nothing. It is Deposited. |
| Clear | Mark as cleared: the date it was Cleared on — not before the date on the cheque, and not a date still to come — and the account it was Paid into (or Paid from). Applied to shows the invoices it will settle. Press Record the receipt (or Record the payment). A cheque can be cleared straight from in hand. | One receipt, dated that day, applied to the earmarked invoices still owed, earliest due first: debit the bank, credit Accounts Receivable. For a cheque you wrote, one payment: debit Accounts Payable, credit the bank. It is Cleared. |
| Bounce | Record a bounce: the date it was Returned on and The bank's reason, and press Record the return. | Nothing — nothing was ever paid, so every earmarked invoice is still owed. It is Bounced. |
- Clearing tells you if an earmarked invoice was voided or already paid, and applies nothing to it. Whatever of the cheque is left sits on the customer's account, applied to nothing yet. The receipt's reference is the cheque's number, and its method is your company's cheque payment method if it has one. Clearing a cleared cheque again returns the same receipt rather than making a second.
- The bank's reasons are Insufficient funds, Signature irregular or missing, Out of date (stale), Presented before its date, Account closed, Payment stopped by the drawer, Amount in words and figures differ, Alterations need the drawer's signature and Other (say what the bank said).
- If the bank charged you for it, enter the amount under Bank charge (optional) — Charged by the bank — and the Expense account it goes to. That is the one entry a bounce posts: debit the expense account, credit the bank account the cheque was deposited into, dated the day it came back.
- Attach The bank's return memo: it is the evidence a claim on a returned cheque rests on. Tick Put the customer on hold to mark the customer as on hold at the same time.
After a bounce, and other endings
| Press | When | It becomes |
|---|---|---|
| Record a replacement | The customer gives a new cheque for a bounced one. Enter the New cheque number, Cheque date, Amount and the rest, and Record the replacement. The new cheque takes over what the bounced one was earmarked for — listed under Carried over. | The old one Replaced; the new one In hand |
| Close without a replacement | A bounced cheque will not be replaced; the debt is pursued another way. | Closed |
| Return to customer | A cheque in hand is handed back unbanked — they paid another way, or asked for it back. | Returned to drawer |
| Cancel the cheque | Recorded by mistake, or written and never handed over. | Cancelled |
| Stop the cheque | You told the bank not to pay a cheque you wrote. | Stopped |
Each ending asks Why. None of them posts anything, and what the cheque was earmarked for stays owed until it is paid another way. The pictures of a cheque that bounced, was replaced, closed or cleared, and every return memo, are evidence and cannot be removed.
Where cheques show elsewhere
- The Receivables Aging Report and the Payables Aging Report have two columns after the total: PDC, the cheques still in play for that customer or supplier on the report's date, and Net of PDC, what no cheque covers yet. The total itself never has the cheques taken off it, so it still agrees with the balance sheet: a cheque is not money until the bank pays it.
- Procurement's credit check shows a customer's cheques in hand beside what they owe, never taken off it.
- An order in Procurement lists every cheque for it, with its status.
- On 5 March Al Noor Trading hands over cheque 000123 for AED 5,250, dated 5 April, for invoice INV-00041. Record it, earmarked 5,250 for INV-00041. It is In hand, under 31–60 days.
- INV-00041 still shows 5,250 owed on the Receivables Aging Report, with the cheque beside it.
- On 6 April, deposit it into the company's current account. It is Deposited; still nothing is posted.
- On 8 April the bank statement shows it paid. Clear it, dated 8 April.
Clearing posts one receipt dated 8 April: debit the bank 5,250; credit Accounts Receivable 5,250. INV-00041 is Paid, and the receipt is ready to match when the statement is reconciled.