Check Payments

A check payment is any disbursement of money from a bank account for which a physical check is written. They are similar to deposits in that one side of the transaction will always include the bank account from which the check is written, but a check will cause the bank account to decrease, meaning a credit is applied to the Ledger for this bank account.

In turn, the offset accounts you use will all be debits. Typically, the accounts that are used on the debit side of a check are expense, dedicated and sometimes liability. A debit will increase, decrease and decrease these accounts respectively. 

Checks will have one of the following statuses

» Paid — The check has been written, but has not yet been cleared through the bank account reconciliation utility. Paid checks may be edited within the fiscal year they were written in, unless the check was printed out of Shepherd's Staff. Any paid check may be voided, unless it is from a prior year, in which case, it must be reversed (see Stopped, below).

» Cleared — The check has been cleared through the bank account reconciliation utility. A check in this status cannot be edited, voided or stopped.

» Void — The check has been voided, and all of its line items have been reversed, setting the check to $0.00. Checks from a prior fiscal year cannot be voided; they must be stopped.

» Pending — The check has not been posted yet, meaning it has not yet gone against the balances of the accounts it has been written for. A check must be in pending status before it can be printed from Shepherd's Staff, otherwise it will not appear for you to print.

» Hold — This check is in a pending status, but it will not appear in your check printing window.

» Stopped — Stopping a check saves the details of the check, and creates a reversing journal entry to provide an audit trail. The reversing journal entry that is created is dated with the current date. 

• Check payments can be added, edited, copied and voided within the Payments window. You can filter to see just your check payments by going to the "Filter" box and selecting "By check"
• This grid will show your Checks, with their Document (Check) number, date, amount, description, status, vendor, which bank account it was paid from, if there is a note on the check, and its internal transaction ID.
• You can select which book's checks you're viewing in the "Book" drop list, and you can select which bank account's checks you're viewing in the "Account" drop list.
• By default, this view will show the last 24 months of check payments. If you wish to see beyond that, uncheck the "Last 24 months" checkbox.
• Click the "Add" button to add a new payment. Choose the "Check" option, to create a new check payment.

1. At the next window that appears, select which bank account you want to write the check from.  If it auto-selects the last account used and you wish to change that, click the pencil icon next to the blue Account name and number to change the selection. Accounts will be sorted by account number, but if you wish to sort by name, check the "Sort by name" checkbox. Click select once you've clicked on the bank account you wish to use.
2. In the window that appears, you'll see the bank account you selected in the top left corner, with the current balance, pending/held balance, and total available balance along the top of the window. In the top right corner, you'll see the total for this payment.
3. The "Pay by" drop list will let you switch between payment types. 
4. In the "Payee" field, you'll select which payee this check payment is for. If you need to add a new Payee, click the green plus button to be taken to the payee window to add a new payee.
5. After selecting the payee, if you want to repeat the last payment you created for them, click the "Get last payment" button. Note, that if the last payment to this vendor was coming from a different bank account or charge account, you will receive a warning, in case this check is supposed to go against that bank or charge account instead.
6. Next, set the check's status. If this is a check you intend to print, leave the status on Pending. If you're recording a handwritten check in Shepherd's Staff, set the status to paid and set the Document (Check) number and date. You cannot set a Document number or date on a pending check, this is set at the time of printing.
7. Enter any description you want to appear in the memo field of the check in the "Description" field.
8. In the dark gray area of the window, you can enter the line items for your check. In the account drop box, you can select which account you'd like to use as an offset account. By default, only liability, expense and dedicated accounts can be selected, but if you click the filter button to the left of this drop list, you can choose additional account types to use. The accounts will be sorted in name order if the "Enter by name" box is checked.
9. Enter any description you want for the line item in the "Description" field, then fill in the amount for this line item in the amount field. If there is an invoice number you want to use for this line item, fill it in on the "Invoice" field. If this invoice number should be used for multiple lines, click the padlock icon, and this will repeat on the next line item as well. If this invoice number was used on another payment, you will receive a warning if the payment is for the same vendor to help you avoid paying the same payment twice.
10. Click the add button to add this line item to the check payment. Repeat steps 8-10 until you have added each line item you need to the check payment.
11. If you need to change a line item you've added, click on it, and click the "Edit" button at the bottom of the window. If you need to delete a line item, click on the line item and click the "Delete" button at the bottom of the window.
12. If you have any attachments, such as an image of an invoice for this check, you can click the Paperclip icon on the right side of the window to bring up the attachments window. There are three slots to enter attachments, click the green plus sign next to one of the slots to search your computer for a file to attach to the check payment. To remove an attachment, click the paperclip with the red x to remove the attachment from that slot. Click OK when finished.
13. Click the thumbtack icon to add a note to this check.
14. If you need to add multiple check payments at once, make sure the "Add multiple?" box is checked.
15. Click Save to save your check payment.
16. If you wish to print the check, click the Actions drop-down in the right-side customization bar and select "Print checks" (you can then use the star icon just beside the drop-down to save this under "My actions" for future ease of use), or go to My Reports and select the Print checks report.

If you need to make changes to a check after it's been written, you can edit your check, as long as it is not cleared, voided or from a prior Fiscal Year.

1. On the Payments window, search for the check that you want to edit.
2. Once you have found the check, click on it to select it, and then click the "Edit" button at the bottom of the window.
3. The check window will appear. To edit any line item, click on the line item in question and click "Edit" at the bottom of the window.
4. To delete a line item, click on that line item and click "Delete"
5. You can also add new line items through the dark gray area of the window.
6. Click "Save" when finished.

If you need to void or stop a check use the following procedure:

1. On the Payments window, search for the check you want to void or stop.
2. Once you have found the check, click on it to select it, and then click the "Edit" button at the bottom of the window.
3. At the bottom left-hand corner of the check window, if this check has not been cleared and it is from your current fiscal year or later, you will see the void option. Click this option to void the check. A window will appear to confirm you want to void the check. Click "Yes" to mark the check as "Void"
4. If this check is not cleared, you will also see the "Stop" option. Click this option to stop the check. A window will appear to confirm you want to stop the check, and create the corresponding reversing journal entry. Click "Yes" to stop the check and create the corresponding reversing journal entry.