How to clear outstanding checks in QuickBooks Online

Find your outstanding checks

Your last reconciliation report lists them. Open Reconcile (under Accounting in the current layout, reached through All apps if it is not pinned; under Transactions or the Settings gear in older layouts), select History by account, choose the bank account and open the most recent report. The uncleared checks and payments section shows every check that was outstanding as of that statement date.

You can also open the bank account register from Chart of accounts and filter for checks with a blank reconcile status. Sort by date so the oldest ones are at the top.

Copy the list into a spreadsheet with the check number, date, payee and amount, and add a column for what you found out about each one. It keeps the follow-up organized and gives your accountant a clear record if any checks are later voided or reported as unclaimed property.

Before you remove an old check from the books

• Confirm it has not cleared. Search online banking by check number and amount. A check that cleared at a slightly different amount, or was added from the bank feed as a separate transaction, can look outstanding when it is not.
• Contact the payee. Ask whether they received and deposited it. Many old checks were simply lost in the mail or in a drawer.
• Check what the payment was for. If it paid a vendor bill, the vendor may still show the amount as owed. If it was a payroll check, the wages are still owed to the employee.
• Decide on a stop payment. If you are going to reissue, place a stop payment on the original first, so both cannot be cashed.
• Write down what you did and when. Notes on each contact attempt matter if the amount later has to be reported as unclaimed property.

Clear checks that have now hit the bank

If a check cleared at a different amount from the one you recorded, do not tick it until you have corrected the entry. Ticking it as is leaves a difference you will chase later.

1. Open Reconcile, choose the bank account and enter the statement ending date and ending balance from your new statement.
2. Select Start reconciling. Outstanding checks from earlier months appear in the list along with this month's activity.
3. Tick every check that appears on the new statement. If a check came through the bank feed and you matched it, it is already ticked.
4. When the difference is 0.00, select Finish now. The ticked checks change from blank or C to R.

Old outstanding checks: keep, void or reverse

Banks are generally not required to honor checks more than six months old, but they can, so an old check is not automatically dead. Before you remove one from the books, contact the payee. They may have lost it, in which case you stop payment and reissue.

How to void an outstanding check

Because an outstanding check was never reconciled, voiding it does not break a past reconciliation. It does change the bank balance and expenses for the period it was dated in.

1. Find the check in the bank register, or in the expense transactions list under Expenses (or Expenses and Bills).
2. Open it, select More at the bottom of the form, then Void, and confirm.
3. If you set a closing date, QuickBooks warns that you are changing a closed period. Stop and use a journal entry instead if that period has been reported.
4. If the check paid a bill, voiding it reopens that bill. Decide whether the bill should stay open or be handled separately.

How to reverse a stale check with a journal entry

1. Create a journal entry dated in the current period.
2. Debit the bank account for the amount of the check.
3. Credit the account your accountant chooses: often the original expense account, or a liability account for unclaimed property if you will have to report and remit the money.
4. In the memo, note the original check number, payee and date.
5. In your next reconciliation, tick both the old check and the journal entry. They cancel each other out, so your difference is unaffected and both drop off the outstanding list.

Unclaimed property rules for uncashed checks

In the US, uncashed vendor and payroll checks are usually unclaimed property. Most states require businesses to try to reach the payee and then report and remit the money to the state after a dormancy period that varies by state and by type of payment. Writing an old check off to income may not satisfy those rules.

This guide is not legal advice. Ask your accountant which state rules apply to you before you void or reverse checks that were never cashed, and keep a record of your attempts to contact the payee.

Clearing hundreds of checks at once

When a statement has hundreds of checks, ticking each one is the slow part. Kyriq reads the bank statement PDF you upload, extracts the checks, including handwritten ones, with a confidence score, and compares them with your QuickBooks Online register. Exact matches are grouped for bulk approval, and anything that does not line up goes to Needs Attention.

An authorized user approves the matches, and only then does Kyriq clear them in the QuickBooks Online reconciliation, with an audit trail of who approved what. Kyriq does not void or write off checks; the outstanding checks that remain are yours to decide on with your accountant. The trial covers 14 days or 250 checks, no card needed.