Set up office payment cheques

Create office cheques for disbursements that are paid out from the office account and passed on to clients through their invoices.

If you've connected your Xero or MYOB account to Smokeball, you can even sync these office disbursements over, reducing the need to enter disbursement information twice.

Activate office payment cheque printing

1. Select the Settings icon in the Smokeball Web App, then select Firm Settings.
   
2. Select Accounts from the left menu, then select the Trust & Office Payment Cheque tab.
3. Tick Activate Office Payment Cheque Printing, then select Save.
   

Create an office payment cheque

1. Create a new disbursement or edit an existing disbursement.
2. Choose whether the office payment is a disbursement or an anticipated disbursement.
3. Select Payable to Supplier if it's a disbursement or Supplier Paid if it's an anticipated disbursement.
4. Enter the Supplier name, reference and payment due date.
5. Under the Payment Method dropdown menu, select Cheque.
   
6. Choose the contact to Pay to, then select the Printing Method and enter the cheque reference number.
   • Print Now: the cheque and reference are automatically generated once you save the disbursement. The cheque will also show up on the screen as a PDF, allowing you to save and print it.
   • Print Later: the cheque is sent to the print queue to be printed later. Once printed out, the reference is automatically generated.
   • Print Manually: enter your own reference on the cheque manually.
7. Select Save once done.

View the list of cheques

If you indicated Print Later, you can find the cheque in the Office Payments section:

1. Select Accounts on the left menu.
2. Select Office Payments under Cheques on the left menu.

Print cheques (if you selected Print Later)

1. Select Print Cheques on the top bar to view all cheques ready for printing.
   
2. Tick the cheques you wish to print, then select Process. The cheque PDFs and reference numbers will be generated.

Reverse a cheque

1. On the Office Payments screen, select the cheque you wish to reverse.
2. Select Reverse at the bottom of the Cheque Details window.
   

Send office payment cheques to Xero

Once an office payment cheque is printed, Xero will automatically create a journal entry. To enable this feature, connect Smokeball to Xero, then select the appropriate disbursement account from the Office Payments dropdown menu.

Note: If you record Hard Costs and Soft Costs different accounts in Xero, you can specify those accounts in the corresponding Hard Costs and Soft Costs drop-down menus here.

Send office payment cheques to MYOB

Once an office payment cheque is printed, MYOB will automatically create a journal entry. To enable this feature, connect Smokeball to MYOB, then select the appropriate Liability account from the Client Cost Liability Account dropdown menu.

Note: If you record Hard Costs and Soft Costs different accounts in MYOB, you can specify those accounts in the corresponding Hard Costs and Soft Costs drop-down menus here.