AP Cheques

Menu File | AP | Cheques

The AP Cheques screen displays cheques (checks) in a list showing summary info including cheque date, vendor, cheque no., and amount.

Cheques can be entered manually or created automatically using the “Single Cheque” and “AutoCreate Batch” options. AutoCreate Batch automatically creates cheques based on selected currency, vendor, due date, cheque date, and period. These can later be modified or deleted prior to printing and posting. With “Single Cheque” you select the vendor and then select which invoice(s) to pay.

Cheques are entered for invoices that have been previously entered to the system. If there was no invoice, you should create a dummy invoice using the cheque no.

To add a new cheque or AutoCreate cheques: click the New button. Or menu Records | New.
To edit a cheque: double-click the cheque. Or select the cheque and press Enter or click the Edit button. Or menu Records | Edit.
To delete a cheque: select the cheque and click the Delete button. Or menu Records | Delete.

You can select a cheque with the mouse or by the keyboard via the Page Up/Down and arrow keys. Or click the Find button, then enter the vendor no. or select the vendor name from the drop down list, and/or enter the cheque no. Selecting the vendor only will find the 1st cheque for that vendor. Selecting the cheque only will find the 1st cheque with that cheque number. Selecting vendor and cheque no. will search on both.

The menu has options to

- display outstanding (not reconciled) cheques only
- filter the list by specifying selection criteria such as vendor, currency, and whether printed
- sort the list by cheque date (descending) or cheque no.
- display the vendor for a selected cheque
- refresh the data displayed to show changes entered by other users, etc.
- print the list
- print cheques
- reconcile or un-reconcile the selected cheque (see notes following)
- post printed cheques (see notes following)

Tip: To phone the vendor, or send e-mail (via your e-mail program), or display the vendor, or reconcile the cheque: select the cheque, then right-click to display a pop-up menu.

AP cheques are entered, printed, then posted. Prior to posting, they may be edited or deleted. Posted cheques cannot be edited or deleted, so to cancel a cheque after it has been posted (which would be a very unlikely requirement), you would need to re-enter the invoice(s), and adjust the bank and expense accounts by GL Journal Voucher. Posting updates vendor balances, invoice balances, and creates general ledger journal vouchers to update the GL account totals and GL history. To post cheques use menu Records | Post or choose the Post option when closing the cheques screen. Posting the JVs is a separate job because in a multi-user environment it is possible for this to conflict with other GL jobs such as printing financial statements. This minimizes the chance of the AP posting job being unavailable. JVs created by the AP system cannot be modified or deleted even prior to posting in the GL.

Note: Cheques must be printed prior to posting. Hand-written cheques should have the cheque number entered. Presence of a cheque number indicates that the cheque has already been printed or hand-written.

To print cheques use menu File | Print Cheques. Then select the bank and the program will display how many cheques will be printed (cheque number blank, not yet printed). Choose OK or Cancel. If you choose OK, the program will ask for the cheque number of the 1st cheque. Enter this and press OK. The program will then print the cheques with the appropriate cheque number on each cheque.

BS1 uses the same cheque forms as Simply Accounting, which are widely available, for example from Nebs. www.nebs.com (search for Simply Accounting).

Tip: To print a cash requirement report prior to printing cheques (a list of cheques that will be printed with the total amount of money required) you can use the filter button, then menu File | Print.

To reconcile cheques (i.e. denote that they have appeared on a bank statement) use the Records menu or the pop-up menu available via the right mouse button. When doing this you should first sort the list by cheque no. via menu View. Also you may find it more convenient to view only “outstanding” (not reconciled) cheques by toggling the option on menu View or using the shortcut Ctrl+O.

Vendor
A pop-up screen displays if you type into the vendor number, click, or by the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Enter. On the Vendor pop-up screen: you can select the vendor by typing the vendor number in the 1st entry box or by typing the name in the 2nd box, or by selecting the vendor with the mouse or up/down arrow keys. Click on the selected vendor or press Enter when the selected vendor is highlighted. Or Esc to leave a previously entered vendor unchanged.

Typing the vendor number in the 1st entry box sorts the list by number and selects the first vendor number matching the characters entered. Typing the vendor name in the 2nd entry box sorts the list by name and selects the first vendor name matching the characters entered.

On the Vendor pop-up screen you can select Vendor Type via the combobox at the right, so that only vendors of the selected type show. To deselect a vendor type and show all types, press Delete.

Cheque no.
If the cheque was hand-written (or typed), then enter the cheque number. Otherwise for computer printed cheques, leave the cheque number blank and the program will enter it when the cheques are printed. Presence of a cheque number indicates that the cheque has already been printed or hand-written.

Bank
The bank (account) defaults to the 1st bank whose currency matches the vendor. This applies to auto-created cheques and manually entered cheques. Select the bank from the list if it should be changed. If you need to add a new bank to the drop down list, click the “3 dots” button.
Tip: You can enter a few characters of the bank name, then use the down or up arrow keys if required.

Cheque Amount
The cheque amount is calculated by the program (rather than keyed), based on the invoice payment amounts.

Cheque Date
The cheque date defaults to today’s date.
Tip: You can use the + or - keys to increase or decrease the date, or click the 3-dots button to select the date from a calendar.

Period
This is the fiscal period and year of the cheque (not the period to which the expense should be applied, which is based on the invoice). This defaults to the current calendar month, or the default period on Your Company if specified there. If your fiscal year doesn’t end in December or your fiscal periods are not calendar months, you should set the default period regularly to help prevent data entry errors. Note: The year is entered as 2 digits and displayed as 4.
Example: 11 2001 entered as 11 01

Void
Check the void checkbox if recording a void cheque, such as when a cheque form is messed up by the printer and you want to record in the system that the form with this cheque number was used legitimately. Then if you find you have any missing cheque numbers, this may indicate that cheque forms have been stolen.

If there are so many invoices for a cheque that multiple stubs are required, then the program will print ***VOID*** on the unused cheque forms. If you are recording these void cheques, you enter them as new cheques, and enter the cheque number, bank, and check the Void checkbox.

If recording a void cheque that was messed up by the printer, the cheque record will already exist, so you edit it. Note: You must do this before posting, since posted cheques cannot be edited. Remove the vendor and invoices (Ctrl+Del or display pop-up menu by right-clicking on the grid), and check the Void checkbox.

Voiding a cheque is not the same thing as cancelling a posted cheque (see above for how to do this).

Invoices to be paid
Select each invoice to be paid and the payment amount for each invoice. This defaults to the amount owing minus any discount if eligible. If this is the amount you want to pay, use the down arrow or PageDown to move to the next line, otherwise press Enter on the invoice no. field to move directly to the payment amount, where you can enter the partial payment amount.

The cheque amount will be updated when you move to the next line, or the OK button, etc.

Tip: You can display a pop-up menu by right-clicking on the grid.