How to record, present again or stop a cheque

What is it for?

The cheque register follows each cheque from the moment it reaches the company until it goes through the bank: In wallet, At the bank, Cleared or Returned. For a cheque received, each trip to the bank creates the corresponding journal entry and, if the bank returns it, the customer's invoice becomes open again. It is also used to stop a cheque the company issued.

When to use it?

• When a customer pays with a cheque that has not yet gone to the bank.
• When the bank returns a cheque (for example, for insufficient funds) and you want to present it again.
• When a cheque issued by the company was lost or stolen and payment must be stopped.
• Do not use it for payments by bank transfer or Multibanco: those do not need a cheque.

Where to find it?

Accounting › Reconcile › Banks and cash › What is there to do with the banks?, in the Supporting lists group, Cheques link.

Before you start

• Your profile is Accountant (the Treasury profiles also have access). The Billing profile has no access: it does not see the dashboard and, if it opens a link to the list, it gets “You do not have access to “Cheque”.”.
• The Administrator has set the cheque accounts and journal in Settings, Billing tab, Cheques group, Cheque accounting section: Cheques in wallet account, Cheques at the bank account and Cheques journal. Without this, Deposit refuses (see “Common problems”).
• The Administrator has filled in the outstanding receipts account of the bank where you deposit: Accounting › Configure › General › Journals, Bank journal, Incoming Payments tab, Outstanding Receipts accounts column, Manual Payment line. Without it, Cleared refuses (see “Common problems”).
• For the cheque to reduce the customer's debt, you must first issue the receipt for the invoice and link it to the cheque (step 2). Pending validation by a certified accountant: which accounts to use for the wallet and for the bank. The demo used 120002 Recebimentos Pendentes for the wallet, the same account the receipt debits, and 120001 Conta Transitória for the bank.

How to use it

The example is a cheque for €147.60 from Clínica Dentária Sorriso, SA, paying invoice FT D26/33. Receipt RG D26/16 has already been issued for that invoice, which is paid.

1. Open Cheques. In a company with no cheques, the list says “Register your first cheque. Cheques received and issued with their state: in wallet, at the bank, cleared or returned.” Click New.
2. In Type, leave Received. Type the Cheque number (0001234) and the Bank (Banco Exemplo). Choose the customer in Drawer / payee, the receipt in Payment (RG D26/16) and the Bank journal (Bank), and type the Amount (147,60). The Date of issue comes with today's date. Post-dated to is only filled in for a cheque with a future date (see “Important notes”).
3. Click Save. The cheque gets the reference CHQ/… (here CHQ/00001), is In wallet and the Timeline records “Cycle 1: registered in the wallet”. There is no journal entry: the cheque is still in the company.
4. When the cheque goes to the bank, click Deposit. The cheque becomes At the bank and the record shows the Deposit entry.
5. When the bank pays it, click Cleared. The cheque becomes Cleared, with Cleared on and the Clearing entry.

Journal entries of each step

Entries generated in the demo, checked line by line (the cheque entries are in the Miscellaneous Operations journal).

Step	Debit	Credit
Receipt (RG D26/16)	120002 Recebimentos Pendentes, €147.60	2111 Clientes gerais, €147.60
Deposit (OD/2026/00104)	120001 Conta Transitória, €147.60	120002 Recebimentos Pendentes, €147.60
Cleared (OD/2026/00105)	120002 Recebimentos Pendentes, €147.60	120001 Conta Transitória, €147.60

At the end, the customer's debt is paid, 120001 is at zero and 120002 has €147.60 on the debit side, waiting for the statement line: that balance clears in the bank reconciliation. Pending validation by a certified accountant: accounting treatment of the cheque in wallet.

A cheque without a linked receipt does not affect the customer's debt: the deposit and the clearing cancel each other out and, if it is returned, there is no reversal of the receipt. Use it this way only to keep track of the cheque.

Return and present again

The example is a cheque for €143.10 from Padaria Aurora, Lda, linked to receipt RG D26/17 for invoice FT D26/28.

1. With the cheque At the bank, click Returned. In the Return cheque window, choose the Reason (Insufficient funds, Payment stopped by the drawer, Signature irregular or missing, Cheque out of date, Account closed or Other reason) and type the Note, which Other reason requires.

2. If the bank charged fees to pass on to the customer, tick Issue a debit note for the return expenses (it comes unticked) and type the amount in Return expenses, excluding VAT. Click Return cheque.

3. The cheque is Returned, with the Return reason and the entries below. Invoice FT D26/28 is unpaid again, with €143.10 open.

   Entry	Debit	Credit
   Deposit (OD/2026/00106)	120001 Conta Transitória, €143.10	120002 Recebimentos Pendentes, €143.10
   Return (OD/2026/00107)	120002 Recebimentos Pendentes, €143.10	120001 Conta Transitória, €143.10
   Reversal of the receipt (OD/2026/00108)	2111 Clientes gerais, €143.10	120002 Recebimentos Pendentes, €143.10

4. With fees, the record shows the Return expenses debit note. It stays in draft, with no number and no effect on the accounting, until you open and issue it. In the example, fees of €15.00 gave a total of €18.45: 2111 Clientes gerais debit €18.45, 721 credit €15.00 and 2433 credit €3.45 of VAT. Pending validation by a certified accountant: whether the bank fees charged to the customer carry VAT and whether they should go to account 721.

5. If the reason is Insufficient funds or Other reason, Present again appears; for the other reasons, the cheque stays only as history. Click it: a new cheque opens, In wallet (here CHQ/00003, with the same data and Cycle 2), and the returned one stays as history.

6. The new cheque reduces the debt again: OD/2026/00109 debits 120002 Recebimentos Pendentes and credits 2111 Clientes gerais, €143.10, and invoice FT D26/28 is paid again. Continue from step 4 of “How to use it”: Deposit and Cleared (OD/2026/00110 and OD/2026/00111).

Stop payment of an issued cheque

The example is a cheque for €600.00 to Rui Matos, linked to payment PBNK1/2026/00040 of supplier invoice FTF/2026/00044.

1. Record the cheque with Type Issued (number, bank, Drawer / payee the supplier, Payment, amount) and save.
2. With the cheque In wallet or At the bank, click Stop payment. The window says: “The payment of the cheque is reversed and the supplier invoice is open again. A cheque already cleared cannot be stopped.”
3. Choose the Reason (Lost, Stolen, Dispute with the payee or Other reason; it is mandatory) and click Stop payment.
4. The cheque becomes Payment stopped, with the reason and the date. The reversal BNK1/2026/00073 debits 120003 Pagamentos Pendentes and credits 2211, €600.00, and invoice FTF/2026/00044 is unpaid again, with €600.00 open.

Without a linked payment, stopping creates no reversal. An issued cheque that followed the normal path uses Presented at the bank and Cleared. These two buttons create no journal entry, because the accounting movement is the payment's.

Expected result

• The cheque shows the right state (In wallet, At the bank, Cleared, Returned, Payment stopped or Cancelled) and, in Journal entries, the link to each entry created.
• With a linked receipt, the customer's invoice follows the cheque: paid while it is in progress, unpaid if it is returned.
• Nothing is communicated to the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) or to the bank: the record is internal.

Important notes

Cleared and Returned cannot be corrected on the record

After Cleared or Returned there is no button to undo, and a cheque that has left the wallet can no longer be changed. Check the state against the bank statement before you click Cleared.

• Undo deposit, on a cheque At the bank, takes it back to In wallet and creates the reversal of the deposit (in the test, OD/2026/00113: 120002 debit and 120001 credit).
• Cancel, on a cheque In wallet, sets it to Cancelled, with no journal entry. A cheque is never deleted.
• Post-dated: with Post-dated to filled in, the record warns, for example, “Post-dated cheque: it can be deposited from 13/11/2026 (in 10 days).” and Deposit refuses until that date.
• Alert: in Settings, Returned cheques section, Post-dated alert (days) says how many days in advance fiscaldoo warns you of the date (in the demo, 3). A daily job leaves a note with the number and the date on the cheque's record, only once per cheque, and creates an activity for the users with the Treasury: Manager profile. If nobody has that profile, as in the demo, only the note on the record remains.

Common problems

“Set the cheque accounts and journal of the company”

• Symptom: when you click Deposit: “Set the cheque accounts and journal of the company Empresa Demonstração, Lda (ask the administrator to do it in Settings › Invoicing › Cheques) before moving a received cheque.”
• What to do: ask the Administrator to fill in the Cheque accounting section. On screen, it is in the Billing tab of the Settings (see “Before you start”).

“The journal Bank has no pending-receipts account”

• Symptom: when you click Cleared: “The journal Bank has no pending-receipts account to receive the cleared cheque. Set it on the payment method line of the tab "Incoming Payments" of the journal (Accounting › Configure › General › Journals) and try again.” The cheque stays At the bank.
• What to do: ask the Administrator to fill it in, in the Incoming Payments tab (see “Before you start”). Then click Cleared again.

“Set the return expenses product”

• Symptom: when you return a cheque with fees: “Set the return expenses product of the company Empresa Demonstração, Lda (ask the administrator to do it in Settings › Invoicing › Cheques).” The cheque stays At the bank.
• What to do: ask the Administrator to choose the Return expenses product in Settings, Returned cheques section. Or return it without fees.

“is post-dated”

• Symptom: when you click Deposit: “The cheque 0002003 is post-dated to 13/11/2026: it cannot be deposited before.”
• What to do: wait for the date. If the date is wrong, correct Post-dated to while the cheque is In wallet.

“The post-dated date cannot be before the issue date”

• What to do: type a date in Post-dated to that is the same as or after the Date of issue, or leave it empty.

“is already registered”

• Symptom: when you save: “The cheque 0002001 of Banco Exemplo is already registered (CHQ/00004).”
• What to do: open the cheque shown. If it was returned, use Present again instead of registering it again.

The “Reason” field is empty

• Symptom: when you click Return cheque or Stop payment without a reason: “Some required fields are empty. Fill in the fields marked in red to be able to save.”
• What to do: choose the Reason.