Two features do most of the work when someone asks "did we pay that, and when?" — the search box and the reports.

Search: one box, everything

The search box at the top of the window matches across the whole database at once. Type a single term and it returns anything that matches:

  • A cheque number — the fastest route to printing or checking a specific cheque.
  • A payee name — every cheque issued to them.
  • An amount — useful when you know the figure but not the payee.
  • A cheque book or layout name.

Results can be narrowed by cheque status and by date range, which is how you answer questions like "what is still uncleared from last quarter".

Because search hits cheque numbers, it doubles as the quickest way to print: type the number on the leaf in your hand and print straight from the results. See printing a cheque.

Cheque statuses

Every cheque carries a status, and the dashboard colour-codes them:

  • Issued — printed and handed over, not yet cleared.
  • Cleared — the bank has paid it.
  • Cancelled — voided before payment.
  • Returned — presented and bounced.
  • Missed — past its expected date without clearing.
  • Stopped Payment — you instructed the bank not to pay.

Keeping these current is what makes the reports worth anything. A cheque left marked Issued for six months tells you nothing.

Reports

Reports cover cheques, payees, accounts, cheque books, deposits and withdrawals, and each can be filtered by date and status. All of them export to Excel, which is where they earn their keep — reconciliation against a bank statement is a spreadsheet job, not a screen-reading job.

Practical uses

  • Month-end reconciliation — export issued and cleared cheques for the period and match against the statement.
  • Chasing uncleared cheques — filter by Issued with an older date range to find cheques nobody has banked.
  • Payee history — everything paid to one supplier over a year, for a query or an audit.
  • Post-dated cheque planning — filter forward-dated cheques to see what is due to hit the account. See post-dated cheques.

Reports need a licence

Reports and vouchers are licensed features and are not available in the free edition. The free tier covers unlimited cheque printing with two payees and two cheque books; reporting is part of the paid licence. See pricing.