Banking: Change the Automatic Cheque Numbering

[JPH]

Remove the automatic cheque numbers for every transaction in spend money and payroll.  Most clients use internet banking & EFT these days, so cheques shouldn't be the default option.  If you write a cheque you should manually enter the cheque number in MYOB.

[Steven_M]

Hi @Jayne_Jones

At this stage we don't have  a direct time frame on when this idea will be marked for development and updated to the program. However we certainly can see the benefit of it for clients.

[Graham4184]

I have been using MYOB for over 12 years from the very early versions. Cheques are dead. We need EFT as a recurring transcaction description in Spend Money. Please guys we have been looking at this forever. 21st Century stuff.

[David_Cree]

Hello @JPH

I understand your feelings re the field "Cheque Number" but feel that MYOB should simply change Cheque # to read "Reference No."

 Many MYOB users make life hard for themselves, by changing the Cheque #  field to EFT etc. This means that you have to change the entry in perhaps 99% of transactions that you do.

I always get my clients to ignore the fact that the field name says 'Cheque No" and instead consider that it is a transaction reference number, and just let the number increment as it wants to.

When there is an actual physical cheque to be entered then instead of the auto number manually enter CH12345 with 12345 as the actual cheque #. The prefix CH will stop the system from incrementing. In this way you only need to make a change for perhaps 1% of your transactions.

If you do want to have a note that it was EFT or BPay then add this to the memo line instead, but actually I would not worry.

The other great benefit in doing this is that each transaction has a different and unique reference #. Would you want all your invoices to not have a distinctive invoice # and for them all to have "INV" ?

I find it very frustrating when reviewing a client file and trying to find a single transaction when they all have a reference EFT (or BS - bank statement or PAY - payroll payments, or V - Visa or BP - Bpay) when there are a number with the same amount or memo etc. It makes it difficult to find the right transaction to review or edit without having to open them all. This is the real time looser! I usually manually change the first transaction to something like 10001, away from the current cheque series and let the system go from there. Try it - it will save you a lot of time & effort. Perhaps in a future release MYOB will change the designation of this field from'Cheque No' to something like 'Payment Ref' so that users do not feel the need to always change it, after all I agree that cheques are a dying means of paying others, and the banks are discouraging it. I hope that this helps.

Cheers

David  

[Gab-G1]

Good idea to remove the automatic cheque number. COmpletely agree that 99.5% of the time, things are paid via EFT.

[julescat]

Yes, I agree totally.  Most of my clients have no idea that the Cheque no. when using spend money is suppose to be for a cheque number only.  They end up with an Auto number that doesnt mean anything in the system and looks terrible in reports.  I always have to explain to enter EFT, TFR, DD, BPAY etc and finally if they do use a cheque then use the cheque number.  With cheques not being used much at all these days, its not used that often.

Can MYOB please have a drop down menu here with options like EFT, TFR, DD, BPAY and Cheque No.  So its not so confusing for the average user who's never used MYOB before.  This is also relevant for Payroll, when entering pays.  The Auto function just generates random numbers, much better to have a drop down menu here too, or just Wages P/E and the date.

Please MYOB this is such a small change but would make a big impact!!

[David_Cree]

 Hello @julescat

I am sorry but I have a different view on this to you, and I have previously posted the following on the subject -

I understand your feelings re the field "Cheque Number" but feel that MYOB should simply change Cheque # to read "Reference No."

 Many MYOB users make life hard for themselves, by changing the Cheque #  field to EFT etc. This means that you have to change the entry in perhaps 99% of transactions that you do.

I always get my clients to ignore the fact that the field name says 'Cheque No" and instead consider that it is a transaction reference number, and just let the number increment as it wants to.

When there is an actual physical cheque to be entered then instead of the auto number manually enter CH12345 with 12345 as the actual cheque #. The prefix CH will stop the system from incrementing. In this way you only need to make a change for perhaps 1% of your transactions.

If you do want to have a note that it was EFT or BPay then add this to the memo line instead, but actually I would not worry.

The other great benefit in doing this is that each transaction has a different and unique reference #. Would you want all your invoices to not have a distinctive invoice # and for them all to have "INV" ?

I find it very frustrating when reviewing a client file and trying to find a single transaction when they all have a reference EFT (or BS - bank statement or PAY - payroll payments, or V - Visa or BP - Bpay) when there are a number with the same amount or memo etc. It makes it difficult to find the right transaction to review or edit without having to open them all. This is the real time looser! I usually manually change the first transaction to something like 10001, away from the current cheque series and let the system go from there. Try it - it will save you a lot of time & effort. Perhaps in a future release MYOB will change the designation of this field from'Cheque No' to something like 'Payment Ref' so that users do not feel the need to always change it, after all I agree that cheques are a dying means of paying others, and the banks are discouraging it. I hope that this helps.

Cheers

David  

[CBS48]

Change the Automatic Chq Numbering in the set up preferences, I only do a small payroll and I prefer to use the normal recoding not the electronic and have to open every window and manually change it

[Monkeygirl65]

I was just googling to see how to do this, yes it would save a lot of time!

[NigelWhatling]

This suggestion was made in 2012 and it is still "under consideration"? Really? Does anyone actually use cheques anymore?!

[Scottvdv]

Has anything happened with this in the past 5 years.

We dont use cheques at all, and every time i pay bills through the to do list, I have to go back in and change the Cheque Number to Online or Internet or similar.