How to Void a Check Printed in a Previous Year
Do you need to void a check printed in a previous year? Using Quickbooks, you can perform this task without it affecting your financial statements.
Before you begin, you should create a backup of your Quickbooks company file. It’s always a good idea to create a backup whenever making changes to your checks such as this. If something goes wrong, you can restore the backup and start over. Hopefully, you won’t need the backup copy, but just having it gives peace of mind knowing that your sensitive data is safe in the event of an unforeseen problem.
To void a check printed in a previous year, log into your Quickbooks account to access and print the check. Next, go ahead and void it by following the steps outlined on Intuit’s help website here.
Next, you’ll need to recreate the check — only this time as a journal entry. This step is important because without a journal entry, there’s no record of the check; thus, it will affect your books. Open the check in the bank account register and press Ctrl+Y to open the Transaction Journal report. From here, click the File menu and choose “Print Report” to print the report. Next, click the File menu again and choose “Save as PDF.” This will save the report as a PDF file, which you can access later. Choose the Company menu and select “Make General Journal Entries.” In this newly created window, enter the date of the check in the respective date field.
From the “Account” drop-down menu, select the account from which the original check was debited. Enter an amount for the check in the “Debit” field, as well as a name for the check in the “Name” field. Next, enter the amount of the check in the “Credit” column. When you are finished, click “Save and New” to record the entry and exit the window.
Last but not least, go back and create a second journal entry, only this time reversing the values. When you are finished, go back and reconcile your account to ensure everything adds up. If your books are still off, you can always restore a backup copy of your company file, assuming you created one earlier. However, these steps should allow you to void a check from a previous date without it affecting your books.
Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!