Print Cheques is where the cheques you saved with Print Later wait to be printed. You choose the bank account, type the number of the first cheque loaded in the printer, tick the cheques to print, and SeroBooks numbers them in date order and produces the pages to print on your pre-printed cheque stock.
Cheques get onto this list when you tick Print Later on Write Cheques, or To be printed when you pay a sales tax return with Pay Sales Tax (see Pay sales tax). Each one is saved without a number (it shows To Print) until it is printed here.
Opening Print Cheques
- File ▸ Print Cheques…
- The Print Cheques icon in the Banking panel of the Home Page.
- When cheques are waiting, Cheques to Print in the To Do List and Reminders opens this page too.
Print your cheques, step by step
- Choose the Bank Account. The list shows the cheques waiting to print from that account, and every one is ticked.
- Check the First Cheque Number. SeroBooks fills in the next number after the highest cheque already numbered on this account. Make sure it matches the number printed on the first blank cheque in your printer, and change it if it does not.
- Untick any cheque you do not want to print now. Use Select All or Select None to change them all at once. The line at the bottom shows how many are selected and their total.
- Load the cheque stock and choose Print.
- In the Print cheques window, choose the layout of your stock:
- Cheque on top (business standard)
- Cheque in the middle
- Cheque at the bottom (personal style)
- Choose Print. SeroBooks numbers the ticked cheques from the first number, in date order, and opens a PDF with one page per cheque. Print it from the PDF viewer.
The layout you choose is remembered on this computer, so the next time it is already selected.
The page
| Field or column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Bank Account | The account whose waiting cheques are listed. Opens on the bank account you last paid from. |
| First Cheque Number | The number given to the first cheque printed. Digits only. The rest follow in order. |
| Select All / Select None | Tick or untick every cheque in the list. |
| Tick box | Whether this cheque is printed now. |
| Date | The cheque's date. Cheques are numbered in date order. |
| Payee | Who the cheque is to. |
| Memo | The cheque's memo. |
| Amount | The cheque's amount. |
What is printed
Each page carries the date, the payee, the amount in figures and in words, and a remittance advice on both stubs listing what the cheque pays for. Nothing else is printed on the cheque itself: your bank's own MICR line (the account and transit numbers at the bottom) is already on the stock.
Once printed, the cheques have their numbers and leave this list. In the bank register and on the cheque they now show the number they were printed with.
Messages you may see
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| No cheques are waiting to print on this account. Tick Print Later on Write Cheques to add one. | Nothing is waiting for this bank account. Check you chose the right account. |
| There is no bank account in the books. | Create a bank account first. |
| Tick the cheques to print. | Nothing is ticked. |
| Enter the number of the first cheque in the printer. | The First Cheque Number is empty or not a number. |
| Cheque number … is already used on this account. Start from another number. | One of the numbers the cheques would take is already on another cheque from this bank account. Check the number on the first blank cheque and start from there. |
| Numbered, but the PDF viewer did not open. | The cheques were numbered, but the PDF could not be shown. Open the cheque from the Cheque Register and use Print Cheque to print it again. |
Permissions
Printing numbers the cheques, so the role needs Write Check.
Tips
- Do a test print on plain paper first and hold it up against a sheet of cheque stock to check the layout.
- If a cheque jams or prints badly, open it in the Cheque Register (Reports ▸ Banking ▸ Cheque Register) and use Print Cheque to print it again on a fresh cheque, and change its No. to the number of that fresh cheque first if it differs.
- Cheques written by a Payment Run are printed from the Payment Runs screen, not from here.