VOID Check from 2009 Transaction

[RLM]

How do I VOID a check that was written 08/08/2009? That accounting month obviously is closed and I was hoping that the vendor would cash the check in 2010. I contacted them and they said that the check was LOST and not to re-issue it. Now I need to reconcile by general checking account and am not sure how to remedy this? There 'pages & pages' of posts regarding outstanding checks, but I cannot seem to find one to fit my situation. Can someone point me in the right direction?

[JohnDMeyers]

FYI, what we usually do is check our outstanding checks every six months and contact the people who haven't cashed them. We re-issue outstanding checks if we hear back from them and they lost their check. After nine months, we purge them.

An uncashed check from 08/08/2009 was "rolled into" your unrestricted net assets at the end of 2009.

Therefore, your net assets were shown lower (than reality) because the check was printed but not cashed.

In order to correct your unrestricted net assets (and get rid of the outstanding check in your reconciliation window):
DB Checking $amount-of-check
CR Unrestricted Net Assets $amount-of-check

You can reconcile the outstanding check and this entry and not affect your balance.

Another issue is that your expense account showed money coming out that really did not. This may have affected your budget for 2010 if you based it on the amount in the expense account. You may need to correct your budget accordingly.

[RLM]

Thank you once again John -I will follow your advice. I was holding out 'thinking' that this vendor, who I know personally in this little town of 1,000 residents, would happen up the check and cash it. A lesson learned...

[tborgal]

What we have done is to print "invalid after 180 days" on our checks. This way we know that the check can not be cashed after being outstanding for 6 months. We can then void the check and notify the vendor and reissue a new one.