How to record prior system outstanding checks

For new/first time ParishSOFT Accounting clients, you may have prior month/year uncleared checks on your bank statement that you need to account for when processing your first bank reconciliation.

In your old software, use the last bank reconciliation report that has a list of transactions that had not cleared the bank from a prior month/year.

You can create a “pseudo check” in ParishSOFT Accounting that will be available to clear on your bank reconciliation but won’t affect your bank account balance. Note: a pseudo check must never be voided!

How to create a Pseudo Check

1. Go to Bills.
2. Create a bill for the vendor, using the first day of the current fiscal year. Enter the SAME shortcut number as your bank account for the distribution.  Enter the amount of the check and a description. We recommend putting the expense account(s) from the original bill/check entry in the description. Accrual users need to make sure the bill date and the check date are the same.
3. Click on the Assign Check Number link to manually assign a check number to this bill. Enter the check number then click Submit to save the bill and apply the assigned check number. The prior month/year uncleared check should show up on your bank reconciliation.

   If you use an accrual system, accounts payable will be credited and the bank account will be debited when you create the bill. Then when you assign the check the bank account will be credited and accounts payable will be debited. This has zero effect on the account balances but, allows you to reconcile your bank account. *This is why you must use the same date for the bill and the check when on an accrual system of accounting.

   Accrual	Debit	Credit
   Bill	Bank Account	Accounts Payable
   Check Assigned	Accounts Payable	Bank Account

    If you are on a cash system, the bill does not actually affect the general ledger but only creates a placeholder for the accounts used. Only when the check is created will the general ledger be updated.

   Cash	Debit	Credit
   Bill	Placeholder	Placeholder
   Check Assigned	Bank Account	Bank Account

What if you made a mistake?

• You should never void a pseudo Check.
• However, if you need to void it because the actual check from which you created this Pseudo entry was lost, instead of voiding it, you would simply create a journal entry which reverses the original check from your old system (Debit's the Bank and Credit's the Expense).
• If you want to remove it because it was entered in error (entered twice, for example) the best course of action to remove a Pseudo check from your Ledger is to delete it.  If you do not have permissions to do so (the delete button is not there), you must contact your System Administrator to take care of this issue.