Managing Received and Issued Cheques in Nexto

Every office asks the same four questions about cheques: which one is due when, which one cleared, which one bounced, and how many leaves are left in our own cheque book. This episode shows you how the whole life of a cheque happens on one page in Nexto — and how changing a status writes the accounting document for you.

What you will learn

• The difference between a received cheque and an issued cheque
• How to register a cheque with its due date, number, serial, bank and account holder
• What the open list columns tell you, including days left until due
• How to mark a cheque collected, endorsed, bounced or returned
• How to define your own cheque book so leaf numbers come in by themselves
• How a cheque enquiry can save you from accepting a bad cheque

Step by step

Know the two kinds and the four endings

A received cheque is one you take from a customer. Whether their account settles immediately or waits in receivables until it clears depends on the cheque policy in your settings. An issued cheque is one you write yourself.

Every cheque has four possible endings: it stays in hand, it clears, it bounces, or it is endorsed — meaning you pass the same cheque on to somebody else.

Register a cheque

Press the register cheque button. The first choice is the type: received, meaning taken from a customer, or issued, meaning written by us.

Say Persepolis Exchange gave us a cheque against part of their balance — so, received. Enter the counterparty and the amount: forty two thousand Canadian dollars.

Set the due date

Then the due date — the single most important field on a cheque. Pick it from the calendar.

Fill in the cheque's identity

The fields underneath are the cheque's identity: the cheque number, the serial, the drawing bank and the account holder's name. Filling them takes five seconds, but in six months, when somebody asks about a cheque, this is what you will search by.

You can attach a photo of the cheque as well. Add a description and save.

Read the open list

The cheque lands in the open tab. Look at its columns: type, counterparty, bank, amount, due date, and how many days are left until it is due — which is exactly the number you need every morning.

Change the status

This is what you will use most. Press the action button on the row and the menu opens.

• At the top you say which account the money should land in, then collected.
• Below, if you want to pass the cheque to someone else, you name the receiving account and say endorsed.
• The last two options are bounced and returned.

Say the bank tells us the cheque has been paid. Choose the destination account and press collected — Nexto posts the accounting document at that very moment: the money lands in that account and the cheque leaves the open list. You do not write a single entry by hand.

The cheque is now sitting in the cleared tab with its accounting document number beside it. Click that number and you see the document itself and its entries — exactly what we covered in core concepts.

Define your cheque book

If you are going to write your own cheques, you define your book once: bank, account, first and last leaf number. After that Nexto suggests the leaves in order and you always know how many are left.

An issued cheque is recorded from the same form — only the type changes. Pick the book and the leaf number comes in by itself; you do not have to track numbers manually.

Tips

• Record the cheque the moment you take it or write it, with the right due date. The due date is what drives every reminder and every "days left" figure.
• The cheque number, serial, bank and holder name feel optional today and become essential in six months. Fill them in.
• Among the bank enquiry services covered in Nexto services there is also a cheque enquiry. When a cheque comes into your hands, check its status before accepting it — not taking a cheque that will bounce is always cheaper than chasing it afterwards.
• The in-app page help (the ? icon at the top of the page) has more detail.

FAQ

Does a received cheque settle the customer's account straight away?

That depends on the cheque policy in your settings. Either the customer's account settles immediately when you take the cheque, or the amount waits in receivables until the cheque actually clears.

Do I have to write the accounting entries when a cheque is collected?

No. When you choose the destination account and press collected, Nexto posts the accounting document at that moment. The money lands in that account, the cheque moves out of the open list, and the document number appears beside it in the cleared tab.

What does endorsed mean?

Endorsed means you passed the same cheque on to somebody else instead of banking it. In the status menu you name the receiving account and choose endorsed, and Nexto records it accordingly.

Why should I define a cheque book?

So you stop tracking leaf numbers by hand. You define the book once — bank, account, first and last leaf number — and afterwards Nexto suggests the leaves in order on every issued cheque and always shows you how many are left.