Make check payments

You can issue electronic and manual checks in Business Central. Both methods use the payment journal to issue checks to vendors. You can also void checks and view check ledger entries.

The following procedure shows how to pay a vendor with a computer checks by:

  • Applying the payment to the relevant vendor invoice.
  • Printing the check.
  • Posting the payment as paid.

These steps result in positive vendor ledger entries that are applied to negative bank ledger entries, and physical checks for processing in the bank.

You can pay with two types of checks. For both types, the Bal. Account Type or the Account Type field must contain Bank Account.

  • Computer Check: Select this option if you want to print a check for the amount on the payment journal line. You must print the checks before you can post the journal lines.
  • Manual Check: Select this option if you have created a check manually and want to create a corresponding check ledger entry for this amount. By using this option, you can't print the check.

Note

To make sure that your bank only clears validated checks and amounts, you can send them a file that contains vendor, check, and payment information. To learn more, go to Export a Positive Pay file.

Important

Your printer must be correctly set up with the check forms, and you must define which check layout to use. To learn more, go to Select a Check Layout. Alternatively, you can send the check as a PDF file, for example.

You can print up to 10 invoices on a page for a check stub. If a check applies to more than 10 invoices, when you print the stub we void the check on the first page and print the word VOID on the check. We then print the remainder of the invoices and the total check amount on the second page.

To pay a vendor invoice with a check

The following describes how to pay a vendor by check. The steps are similar to refund a customer by check.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Payment Journals, and then choose the related link.

  2. Fill in the payment journal lines. To learn more, go to Record Payments and Refunds.

  3. In the Payment Method Code field, select Check.

  4. Choose the Print Check action.

  5. On the Check page, fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.

  6. If your printer is set up to print checks, choose the Print button. Otherwise, choose the Send to button, select the PDF Document option, choose the OK button, and then print the PDF document.

    You can now send the physical checks to the vendors.

  7. Choose the Post action.

    The payment is applied to the vendor and paid. Fully applied vendor ledger entries and bank ledger entries are created.

Note

If you want to print and pay checks in more than one currency from different bank accounts, you must run the Print Check batch job separately for each currency and specify the appropriate bank account.

To cancel printed checks that aren't posted

You can cancel non-posted checks after they have been printed by using the Void Check action on the Payment Journal page.

  1. On the Payment Journal page, choose the Void Check, and then choose which checks to cancel.

To void checks

After you post a check payment, you can only cancel (void) a check from the resulting bank ledger entries.

Important

If the check is applied to an invoice, unapply the payment first so that the invoice can be repaid. To learn more, go to To unapply an application of vendor entries. The steps are the same for customers. After you unapply the payment, void the check. If the check was printed but didn't pay an invoice, then choose Void Check Only as described in this section.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Bank Accounts, and then choose the related link.
  2. Select the relevant bank account, and then choose the Check Ledger Entries action.
  3. On the Check Ledger Entries page, choose the Void Check action.
  4. Select the Void Check Only checkbox.
  5. Choose the OK button.

To view a summary of posted checks

If you want to review posted checks, for example to verify multiple checks paid to one vendor, you can use the Bank Account - Check Details report.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Bank Account - Check Details, and then choose the related link.
  2. Set filters as relevant, and then choose the Preview button.

See also

Making Payments
Managing Payables
Setting Up Banking
Export a Positive Pay file
Work with Business Central

Find free e-learning modules for Business Central here