I am new to this Treasurer position and how PTO Manager works. If a check was entered in the system that it was distributed and no one has ever cashed the check yet. How do I reconcile it?

Thank you.

I am new to this Treasurer position and how PTO Manager works. If a check was entered in the system that it was distributed and no one has ever cashed the check yet. How do I reconcile it?

Thank you.

You should first contact the person/company the check was made out to and ask if they are still holding the check. If they do not have it, call the bank and put a stop payment on it and reverse it out of your general ledger. If it is then ever presented, the bank will not honor it. If they still have it, show it as an outstanding check on your bank reconciliation until they cash it.

I also suggest that all expenditures be approved by your President and all checks have two Officer signatures. This way, two people are aware of all disbursements. This holds people accountable and, hopefully, eliminates any fraud.

You should first contact the person/company the check was made out to and ask if they are still holding the check. If they do not have it, call the bank and put a stop payment on it and reverse it out of your general ledger.

Obviously, you should consider whether the check is big enough to warrant paying the stop-payment fee. We have a handful of old (2003-04) checks that were never cashed, but they're $50 each, so it's hardly worth stopping payment. (I asked the bank, and they said the check processing company would, in fact, still pay out on these old checks, even though the bank doesn't accept such stale checks from me to deposit ...)

Also, I wouldn't reverse it out of your ledger -- I did that, and it completely messed up my calculations for tax filing, because I showed an expense for an activity that then "vanished." My monthly and year-end statements were confused. I think it's better to leave the check on the date it was written, then enter a new item to credit the account for the amount of the check, less the stop-payment fee.