Write Cheques records money that leaves a bank account by cheque when there is no bill to pay first: the rent, the insurance premium, a repair paid on the spot, the accountant's fee, a bank charge. You choose the bank account, who the cheque is to, and what it paid for, and SeroBooks takes the money out of the bank account and puts it against the expense accounts or items you name.
If a vendor has already sent you a bill that you entered with Enter Bills, do not write a cheque for it here. Pay the bill with Pay Bills instead, so the bill is marked paid and Accounts Payable goes down. A cheque written here never touches Accounts Payable.
Opening Write Cheques
- Banking ▸ Write Cheques opens a blank cheque straight away.
- On the Home Page, the Write Cheques icon in the Banking panel does the same.
- Ctrl+W does the same, from anywhere, as in QuickBooks.
- Reports ▸ Banking ▸ Cheque Register lists the cheques written, where Write Cheque starts a new one and any row opens that cheque. See Cheque, Deposit and Credit Card registers.
A cheque opened from the Banking menu, the Home Page or Ctrl+W opens over the Home Page, in place of any other form or report that was open there, so Esc takes you back to Home. If you have typed anything, SeroBooks first asks You have changed the transaction. — choose Keep editing to stay or Discard changes to leave without saving.
Write a cheque, step by step
- Check the Bank Account at the top. It opens on the account set in Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Checking ("Open the Write Cheques form with"), or otherwise on the bank account you used last. Change it if the cheque is drawn on another account.
- Check the No. SeroBooks fills in the next cheque number for that bank account (one more than the highest number already used on it). Type over it if the cheque in your hand has a different number. If you are going to print the cheque later, tick Print Later instead; the number is left blank and shows To Print.
- Set the Date the cheque was written.
- In Pay to the Order of, start typing the vendor's name and pick them from the list that drops down under the box. The payee is optional: a bank charge or a cheque to cash can be saved with no payee.
- On the Expenses tab, enter one line for each account the money is for: pick the Account, type the Amount, and check the Tax. See The Expenses tab below.
- If the cheque paid for stock or other items, switch to the Items tab and add them there. See The Items tab.
- Type a Memo if you want one. It prints on the cheque and appears in the registers and reports.
- Attach the receipt or the invoice you paid, if you have it, in the Receipt or invoice paid strip.
- Check the Amount at the top and the Tax figure at the bottom, then choose Save & Close, or Save & New to save and start another cheque straight away.
The Amount box cannot be typed into: it is always the total of both tabs, including tax.
The fields at the top
| Field | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| Bank Account | The bank account the cheque is drawn on. Only accounts that SeroBooks treats as bank accounts are listed. |
| No. | The cheque number. Filled with the next number for the chosen bank account; changing the bank account fills in that account's next number unless you have typed your own. Greyed out while Print Later is ticked. |
| Print Later | Tick it to leave the cheque unnumbered so you can print it later from File ▸ Print Cheques. Untick it and type the number of a cheque you wrote by hand. |
| Date | The date on the cheque. This is the date the money leaves the bank account in the books. |
| Pay to the Order of | The vendor, customer or other name the cheque is written to. Search in the box; a balance is shown beside names that have one. Optional. |
| Amount | Worked out for you: the Expenses tab plus the Items tab, tax included. |
| Memo | A note for the cheque. |
The Expenses tab
Use this tab for anything that is not an item on your Item List: rent, utilities, repairs, fees, bank charges. The tab's title shows its running total.
| Column | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| ACCOUNT | The account the money is for. Type part of the account's name or number and pick from the list under the box. The bank account the cheque is drawn on is not offered. |
| AMOUNT | The amount for this line. See EXCL. TAX for whether it includes tax. |
| TAX | The sales tax code for the line. When you pick an account that has a usual tax set on it (in the account's own settings), that tax fills in automatically if the line has none yet. Click the code to choose another, or No tax. |
| EXCL. TAX | Unticked (the normal case on a cheque): the amount you type includes the tax. When you leave the amount box, SeroBooks turns it into the amount before tax and shows the tax beside it, so the two add up to exactly what you typed. Ticked: the amount you type is before tax and the tax is added on top. The box cannot be ticked until the line has a tax code. |
| MEMO | A note for this line. |
| CUSTOMER:JOB | The customer or job the cost was spent on, if any. |
| BILLABLE | Tick to recharge this cost to the customer or job on a later invoice. Only available once a customer or job is chosen. |
| CLASS | The line's class. Shown only when your company uses classes. |
A new blank line appears whenever you use the last one. To add a line in the middle, put the cursor in a row and press Ctrl+Ins; to remove a row press Ctrl+Del, or click the × at the end of it. Right-clicking a row offers Insert Line and Delete Line too.
The Items tab
Use this tab when the cheque paid for items on your Item List, such as stock bought for cash from a supplier.
- In the box Add an item — name, SKU or barcode…, type part of the item's name, SKU or barcode and pick it from the list.
- The COST fills in with the price you last paid for the item (or its default purchase price). Change it if this purchase cost something else.
- Enter the QTY and check the TAX.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| ITEM | The item bought. |
| QTY | How many. Every item line needs a quantity greater than zero. |
| U/M | The item's unit of measure. |
| COST | The cost of one unit, before tax. |
| TAX | The tax code for the line. |
| AMOUNT | Quantity times cost. |
The buttons at the bottom
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Delete | Removes the cheque from the books and the bank register. Asks first. If the cheque had been cleared in a bank reconciliation, that reconciliation will no longer balance. Only on a saved cheque. |
| Void | Keeps the cheque in the bank register with its number, at zero, marked VOID. Asks first. Use this for a cheque that was spoiled or cancelled so the number is still accounted for. Only on a saved cheque. |
| Print Cheque | Prints this one cheque. SeroBooks asks which layout of cheque stock is in the printer (see Print Cheques). Only on a saved cheque. |
| Duplicate | Opens a new cheque that starts as a copy of this one: the same payee, bank account, lines and memo, dated today, with the next cheque number. The original is not changed. |
| Memorize | Keeps this cheque as a memorized transaction so you can enter it again. See Memorized Transactions. |
| Tax | Shows the total tax on the cheque, for checking against the vendor's receipt. |
| Save & New | Saves and opens a blank cheque. |
| Save & Close | Saves and closes the cheque. |
What happens in the books
When you save a cheque:
- The bank account is credited with the cheque's total.
- Each Expenses line debits its account with the amount before tax.
- In a Canadian company, the GST/HST on the cheque is debited to your GST/HST input tax credits account, so it is claimed on your next GST/HST return. QST goes to the QST input tax refund account if you have one set up. Provincial sales tax (PST in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) cannot be recovered, so it is added to the cost on the line instead. See How sales tax works.
- In a US company, sales tax paid is always part of the cost of what was bought.
- Item lines add the items to stock at the cost you entered.
The cheque appears in the bank account's register and in the reconcile window as a cheque or payment waiting to clear.
Permissions
The role needs Write Check to create a cheque, Edit Check to change one, and Delete Check to void or delete one. See Roles and permissions explained.
Messages you may see
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| There is no bank account in the books to write a cheque on. | Create a bank account first, in Banking ▸ Bank Feeds ▸ New account or in the Chart of Accounts. |
| Choose the bank account. | Pick the bank account at the top. |
| Every Expenses line needs an account. | A line has an amount but no account. Pick one or delete the line. |
| "Item name" needs a quantity. | Enter a quantity greater than zero on that item line. |
| Add a line on the Expenses or Items tab. | The cheque has nothing on it yet. |
| The amount has to be more than zero. | The lines add up to zero or less. |
| Duplicate check number | Another cheque from the same bank account already has this number; the message says when and for how much. Choose Keep this number to save anyway, or Cancel and change the number. |
| Save the cheque first. | You pressed Print Cheque on a cheque that has not been saved. |
If the date falls on or before your closing date, SeroBooks refuses to save and says so. See Set Closing Date and Year-End.
Tips
- Set the usual tax on accounts you use often (Telephone, Office Supplies, Bank Charges) in the account's settings, so cheque lines fill in the right tax code on their own.
- To pay sales tax, do not write the cheque here: use Pay Sales Tax on the filed return in Vendors ▸ Sales Tax ▸ Manage Sales Tax, which writes the cheque for you and clears the return. That cheque then appears in this list like any other. See Pay sales tax.
- Use Void rather than Delete for a cheque that was actually written. Your bank and your accountant will expect every number in the sequence to be accounted for; the Missing Cheques report shows the gaps.
- For a cheque you pay every month, Memorize it once and enter it from the Memorized Transaction List after that.
Common problems
The cheque number is blank. Either Print Later is ticked, or no cheque has been numbered on this bank account yet. Untick Print Later and type the number.
The tax is wrong by a few cents. Check EXCL. TAX on the line. With it unticked the figure you typed is treated as including tax.
I wrote a cheque for a bill I had already entered. The bill still shows as unpaid and the expense is counted twice. Delete (or void) the cheque, then pay the bill with Pay Bills.