Cheque Management Software: Track Incoming and Outgoing Cheques

In many Saudi companies, the cheque cycle is still run from a paper book or an Excel file completely separate from the accounting system: an incoming cheque from a customer is written in a book, and an outgoing cheque to a supplier is tracked in the accountant’s memory or a phone reminder. The result repeats in almost every company: a cheque falls due and nobody notices, a cheque is deposited by mistake before its due date and bounces, and a gap between the real bank balance and the books that the accountant only finds at the monthly bank reconciliation. Cheque management software built into an ERP system solves this by running the whole cheque cycle electronically: from the moment it is received or issued, through due date alerts, to collection or payment and the automatic journal entry. This article explains how Saudi companies manage incoming and outgoing cheques safely and with full visibility through the cloud-based Riv-ERP system.

Key Points

• A central register of all incoming and outgoing cheques with their live status.
• Automatic alerts several days before the due date.
• Each cheque linked directly to its invoice, supplier or customer.
• Automatic journal entries on receipt, collection and bounce.
• Faster bank reconciliation and figures that match the bank statement.

Why Does Traditional Cheque Tracking Fail?

A manual book or a separate Excel sheet for tracking cheques seems enough in small companies, but it becomes a real weak point as transaction volume grows. The main problems accounting teams in Saudi companies face:

• Forgotten due dates: an incoming cheque not deposited on time means late collection of cash the company is actually owed.
• Outgoing cheques cashed early by mistake: without a central alert, a supplier may deposit a cheque before the accountant confirms the balance is available, so the cheque bounces and hurts the company’s credit reputation.
• Hard to know the position right now: a simple question like “how many cheques are due next week” means paging through a whole book or Excel file instead of getting an instant answer.
• Cheques separated from accounting: the cheque is recorded in one place and the journal entry is keyed in by hand somewhere else, which opens the door to errors and mismatches.
• Complicated bank reconciliation: at the end of every month the accountant has to match each cheque by hand against the bank statement – a slow, tiring process without a central system.

These problems get worse in sectors such as contracting and wholesale, where the monthly volume of cheques in circulation is large and any slip in follow-up shows up directly in liquidity and in the relationship with suppliers and customers.

How the Cheque Cycle Works in Riv-ERP

Riv-ERP treats every cheque as a complete record with a clear life cycle, from receipt or issue to final collection or payment.

Recording incoming and outgoing cheques

When a cheque is received from a customer or issued to a supplier, it is recorded in the system with its full details: cheque number, drawee bank, amount, due date and the related party (customer or supplier), and linked automatically to its invoice or voucher. This creates one central cheque register instead of data scattered over several files.

Due date alerts

Several days before any cheque falls due (the number is configurable), the system sends an alert to the finance officer. This prevents forgetting to deposit an incoming cheque on time, and gives a chance to confirm there is enough balance before an outgoing cheque is presented, keeping the chance of a bounce as low as possible.

Collection, payment and bounced cheques

When an incoming cheque is collected or an outgoing cheque is paid, its status is updated in the system at once and the matching journal entry is created automatically. If a cheque bounces, the system records the new status with the required reversing entry, so the books stay in line with reality moment by moment without manual work.

Bank reconciliation

With every cheque recorded with its live status in one place, matching the monthly bank statement becomes much faster: the accountant compares the cheques actually collected and paid on the bank statement with the system register instead of searching by hand in a separate book.

Accounting Integration and E-Invoicing

Every movement on a cheque, from recording to collection or bounce, is automatically translated into a journal entry in the general ledger, so actual liquidity matches the financial statements at any moment. This direct link between cheque management and accounting is in line with the direction of the new Commercial Transactions Law towards keeping accounting records electronically instead of paper books. You can read the details of this law in our article on the new Commercial Transactions Law and keeping accounting records electronically. And because cheque management is part of the wider accounting system, it integrates directly with the fixed assets module and the purchasing and sales cycle, as we explained in the article Fixed asset management and automated depreciation.

Who Benefits? Real Saudi Sectors

• Contracting: payments to subcontractors and building material suppliers are often made with post-dated cheques, and tracking them by hand across dozens of suppliers is a real risk to liquidity.
• Wholesale and retail: incoming cheques from instalment customers need close follow-up of deposit dates to avoid late collection.
• Manufacturing: payments to raw material suppliers are often scheduled with cheques over several months, and any slip in follow-up affects the production lines.
• Services and consulting offices: they need a clear, instant picture of expected liquidity from cheques falling due soon in order to plan expenses.

Reports Your Finance Team Needs

• Cheques due soon report: shows all cheques (incoming and outgoing) due within a set period, for accurate liquidity planning.
• Cheque status report: shows each cheque with its current status – under collection, collected, bounced or cancelled.
• Bounced cheques report: spots repeated patterns with particular customers or suppliers, helping management make a considered credit decision.
• Timeline for each cheque: documents every change in the cheque’s status, who recorded it and when, which makes the work of internal and external audit teams easier.

Frequently Asked Questions about Cheque Management

Can a cheque be linked directly to an invoice or customer?

Yes. When a cheque is recorded in Riv-ERP it can be linked directly to its invoice or voucher and to the related customer or supplier, so the cheque appears in that party’s account statement automatically.

What happens in the books when a cheque bounces?

The system records the bounce and creates the required reversing entry automatically, updating the balance of the related customer or supplier, with no need for a manual correction in the ledger.

How do alerts help reduce bounced cheques?

The system sends an alert several days before the due date of any outgoing cheque, giving the treasury team enough time to confirm the required balance is available before the cheque is actually presented.

Does the system support cheques in different currencies?

Cheques can be recorded in the currency they were written in and linked to the exchange rate approved at the time of recording, so the journal entries stay accurate even in multi-currency dealings.

Does migrating from the manual system take a long time?

Moving the current cheque register into the system usually takes a few days, as the local technical support team uploads the data and checks its accuracy before alerts and automatic entries are switched on. If your company still tracks incoming and outgoing cheques in a manual book or an Excel sheet separate from the accounts, the Riv-ERP system , cloud-based and built on solid Oracle architecture, gives you a central cheque register, automatic due date alerts and instant journal entries with no repeated manual work.

How Do You Start Managing Cheques in Your Company?

Moving from a manual book to an integrated cheque management system does not require stopping operations. It starts with uploading the currently open cheques (due but not yet collected or paid) to the system in one batch, then setting the right number of alert days before each due date according to company policy, and finally switching on the automatic accounting link with the chart of accounts and the approved banks. The local technical support team works alongside your finance team during this stage so that no cheque is lost during migration. Request a free quote today, tell us the monthly volume of cheques your company handles, and our team will contact you to show how Riv-ERP fits your needs – riv-erp.com.

Manual vs. Automated Cheque Tracking

To show the practical effect of a cheque management system, the two situations can be compared directly:

• Live visibility: with manual tracking, knowing the total of cheques due next week means going through the whole book. In Riv-ERP, the figure is ready instantly on the dashboard.
• Alert before it is too late: the manual way depends on the accountant’s memory or a personal calendar, while the system sends an automatic alert several days before the due date for every cheque without exception.
• Journal entry: by hand, the entry is keyed in separately and may lag behind the actual movement date. Automated, the entry is created the moment the cheque status changes.
• Effect of bounced cheques: without early alerts, the finance team finds out about the bounce after it happens. With advance alerts, fewer cheques are presented without enough balance.
• Monthly bank reconciliation time: manual matching between the book and the bank statement can take hours, while central up-to-date data cuts it to minutes.

The difference is not only in time saved, but in reducing real financial risk: one bounced cheque can cost the company bank fees and damage its relationship with the supplier or customer, and several similar cases can affect the company’s credit record with banks.

Cheque Management Within Wider Financial Planning

Data on cheques falling due, incoming or outgoing, feeds straight into the financial dashboards the finance manager relies on to follow expected cash flow over the coming days and weeks, not just the current bank balance. This allows more accurate decisions about the timing of large expenses or negotiating a payment schedule with a supplier. For more on these dashboards and the indicators every finance manager should follow daily, see the article The CFO dashboard: the indicators you should see every day. The difference between simple accounting software and an integrated ERP system also shows clearly at exactly this point: accounting software may record the cheque as an entry, but it rarely ties it to a full life cycle covering alerts, bank reconciliation and integration with sales and purchasing at the same time. You can read a detailed comparison of the two options in the article Accounting software vs. ERP system: when do you need each one.