QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual

Producing Checks

When you use Check as the payment method, your bank account register shows check transactions, but you still have to generate checks to send to your vendors. For companies that produce lots of checks, printing checks in QuickBooks can prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. For a sole proprietorship that generates a few checks each month, writing checks by hand is easy enough. QuickBooks accepts either approach with equal aplomb.

Writing Checks by Hand

Writing checks by hand doesn't require any work in QuickBooks. But you still have to keep your company file in synch with your paper checks. Whether you're writing checks for bills you've paid in QuickBooks or scratching out a spur-of-the-moment check to the fortuneteller for the corporate horoscope, you want to make sure that the check numbers match between your bank account register and your paper checks.

If check transactions already exist in QuickBooks, synchronizing check numbers is as simple as writing the paper checks in the same order as you entered them in QuickBooks. Open the checking account register window and use the check transactions to guide your check writing, as illustrated in Figure 10-13. To open the checking account register, first press Ctrl+A to open the Chart of Accounts window. Then right-click the checking account and choose Use Register.

Figure 10-13. In a register window, the code CHK in the Type cell ...