How often do you hear your clients say, “I don’t write checks anymore”? It is true, in this day and age, that debit cards, smartphone payment apps and online banking have replaced the old paper checkbook for a lot of consumers.
That’s fine if you’re at a coffee shop, but many small businesses still prefer to issue paper checks to pay bills, cover expenses and make product and service purchases. QuickBooks provides the tools that help you create, print and track paper checks.
But you don’t always just head to the Write Checks window every time something needs to be paid. There are numerous times when you would record a payment in a different area of the program. For example, if you’ve already created a bill in Enter Bills, you would go to the Pay Bills screen to dispatch a check.
Figure 1: Once you’ve recorded a bill in Enter Bills, you need to visit the Pay Bills screen to dispatch a check. This figure shows the bottom of that screen.
QBDT_Pay_bills
Other examples of when a 'write check' type (regular) check are not appropriate include:
- Issuing paychecks (select the Pay Employees icon),
- Submitting payroll taxes and liabilities (Pay Liabilities icon), and
- Paying sales taxes (Manage sales tax icon).
But there are many instances where the 'write check' feature is perfect for the task at hand.
Write Checks
Simple Steps
Let’s say you asked an employee to go to an office supply store to pick up some copy paper because you ran short before your normal shipment came in. If you knew the exact amount it would cost, you could write a check directly to the shop. But, in this example, the employee agrees to pay for it and be reimbursed.
Select the Write Checks icon on the home page. If the BANK ACCOUNT that’s showing isn’t the correct one, select the arrow to the right of that field and select the appropriate one. Unless you’ve written a check to that employee before, they won’t be in the Vendor list that opens when you select the arrow to the right of PAY TO THE ORDER OF. Enter their name in that field.
The Name Not Found window opens. If this were a new vendor that you will be working with again, you would select Set Up and follow the instructions in the step-by-step wizard that opened. Since this isn’t the case, select Quick Add. In the window that opens, select the button next to Vendor.
Figure 2: If you don’t want to create an entire record for the payee, you can just select Quick Add.
Write_check_fig_02
Note: If you’re using payroll, you already have an employee record for that individual, which would have filled in automatically when you started typing the name. Since this is a Non-Payroll Transaction, it won’t get mixed up with his payroll records if you assign the correct account.
QuickBooks will then return you to the check-writing screen, where you can verify the check number and date, and enter the amount. Fill in the MEMO field so you’ll remember the reason for the payment.
Figure 3: Use the Expenses tab to reflect the accounts for routine expenditures. Use the Items tab if you are purchasing inventory or paying job-related costs.
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a tabbed register. The Expenses tab should be highlighted, and the amount of your check entered. Select the down arrow in the field under ACCOUNT to open the list and select Office Supplies. The AMOUNT should fill in automatically.
- Customer:Job field - used when tracking costs to a customer.
- Billable field - used when tracked costs are billable to the customer:job.
- Class field - used if your company tracks costs and expenses to different locations, departments or cost-centers.
When you’re finished, save the transaction. Since you want to pay the employee right away, select the Print Checks icon and select the field in front of the correct check to select it, then select OK.
Figure 4: To print the check, be sure to check the Print Later box in the toolbar at the top of the screen.
Write_check_fig_04
QuickBooks makes the process of writing checks easy. However, a lot can go wrong if you, for example:
- Issue a check from the wrong screen,
- Classify a check incorrectly,
- Write a check out of the wrong bank account, or
- Skip a step.
Fortunately QuickBooks also makes the process of correct these errors simple. Search the Insightful Accountant archives, or keep watching for more QuickBooks Basics to assist you in resolving problems.
About the Author:
Beverly Lang founded of Diversified Business Solutions (DBS) of Owens Cross Roads Alabama in 2008.
A former corporate controller, Beverly Lang offers more than 20 years of experience assisting business owners, managers and bookkeepers with their accounting and bookkeeping, as well as teaching bookkeeping, accounting and QuickBooks classes, webinars and seminars throughout the southeastern region of the United States.
Diversified Business Solutions is a recognized Intuit Premier Resellers authorized to sell and implement Intuit products at the lowest possible price.