A cheque, a bill of exchange and a promissory note are paper that moves money without cash. In Algeria, businesses pay each other mostly with this paper. The post-dated cheque is common. Its writer hands it over today, but writes a later date on it. The payee waits for that date before taking it to the bank. So it works as informal credit.
Beelocity follows each piece of paper from the day that you record it. It follows paper that you received from a client, and paper that you issued to a supplier. The road ends when the bank pays the paper, when it comes back unpaid, or when you sign it over, stop it or cancel it.
The Cashier records paper, puts received paper on a deposit slip and hands the slip to the bank. Only the Treasurer and the owner of your organization can clear paper, mark it unpaid and credit a slip.
Received versus issued
- Received paper comes from a client. It is not money until the bank pays it. You record it, and you put it on a deposit slip for your bank. Then the bank pays it, and it is Cleared. Or the bank returns it, and it is Bounced.
- Issued paper is paper that you wrote to a supplier. It binds your business until your bank pays it. The money leaves your account only when your bank takes it.
Paper moves money only if a receipt or a payment created it. When that paper clears, Beelocity puts its receipt or payment into the cash ledger. Paper that you record by hand has no receipt or payment behind it, so no step on it moves any money.
Opening Cheques & Bills of Exchange
Open Treasury → Cheques in the sidebar. The page opens on its Cheques & Bills of Exchange tab. Each row shows:
- Instrument number: the number printed on the paper. Click it to open the paper.
- Type: Cheque, Bill of exchange or Promissory note.
- Direction: Received, for paper from a client, or Issued, for paper to a supplier.
- Partner: the client who wrote the paper, or the supplier that you are paying.
- Amount: the face value, such as 601,842.50 DA.
- Issue date and Maturity: the day the paper was written, and the day it is payable.
- Account: your bank or CCP account that the paper is paid into or drawn on, in the paper’s currency. CCP is an account at Algérie Poste.
- Status: where the paper stands.
Press the filter button beside the search box to narrow the list. You can filter on Direction, Type, Status, Partner, Account, Deposit slip and Active. You can also set a range of Issue date, Maturity or Amount. For example, Direction Received with Status Received shows the paper that still waits to go to the bank. The page’s address keeps your choices, so you can bookmark that view (Working with lists).
Recording an instrument
Beelocity can add paper to this page by itself. When the Treasurer or the owner of your organization confirms a receipt or a payment, Beelocity adds its paper here. It does so only if the payment method has Instrument tracking (Payment methods).
You can also record paper by hand. Press New, and fill in these fields:
- Instrument number: the number printed on the paper. You cannot change it after you save.
- Type and Direction: you cannot change them after you save, because they decide the paper’s steps.
- Partner: the client who wrote the paper, or the supplier that you wrote it to.
- Counterparty bank: the other party’s bank, such as
BNA — Hydra branch. The form asks for it only on paper that you received. Paper that you issue is drawn on your own account, and it does not name the payee’s bank. - Amount and Currency: the face value. If you leave the currency empty, Beelocity uses your organization’s currency.
- Issue date and Maturity: the cash forecast expects the money on the maturity. On a cheque that is payable at once, the two dates are the same. On a post-dated cheque, the maturity is later.
- Treasury account: your bank or CCP account for this paper. Paper that you received can have none until you put it on a deposit slip. A cash account holds no paper, so the form does not offer one.
Press Save. You can edit the paper only while it is Received or Issued. In those two statuses you can also delete it, if you recorded it by hand. You cannot delete paper that a receipt or a payment created, or paper at a later status.
Paper that you record by hand moves no money. No receipt or payment stands behind it. So when it clears, when a slip credits it, or when somebody marks it unpaid, the cash ledger does not change. No invoice changes either. If you want the money to follow the paper, do not record the paper by hand. Record the receipt or the payment with a payment method that has Instrument tracking (Receipts and payments). Beelocity then creates the paper when the Treasurer or the owner of your organization confirms the receipt or the payment. If you already recorded the paper by hand, and it is still Received or Issued, delete it before you record the receipt or the payment.
The received-instrument lifecycle
Open a piece of paper that you received, and press its status pill. The list of moves opens. It lists each status that the paper can move to from where it stands. Received paper and issued paper follow different roads. So Beelocity never offers a stop payment on received paper, or a deposit slip on issued paper.
The list leaves out the moves that you may not take. For example, the Cashier does not see Cleared there.
From received paper:
- Remitted for collection or Remitted for discount: put the paper on a deposit slip. Pick a Draft slip in the paper’s currency, and press Remit. The slip’s type decides which of the two statuses the paper takes. A discounting slip takes no cheque. No money moves, and the bank has the paper only after you hand the slip in.
- Cleared: the bank has paid. Type the bank’s Value date, or leave it empty, and press Clear. If you leave it empty, Beelocity uses the maturity, or today if the maturity has not come yet. If a receipt created the paper, Beelocity puts the receipt into the cash ledger on the value date.
- A value date that you type cannot be after today or before the paper’s issue date. If the paper is on a deposit slip, the date cannot come before the slip’s Deposit date either.
- You cannot clear paper while its slip is still a Draft, because the bank does not have it yet. Hand the slip in first.
- Bounced: the paper came back unpaid. Type a Reason, and press Mark unpaid. The reason shows under the paper’s status. You can also type the Value date on which the bank returned the paper. If you leave it empty, it is today.
- The value date cannot be after today or before the paper’s issue date. If the paper is on a deposit slip, the date cannot come before the slip’s Deposit date. If the paper had cleared, the date cannot come before the day the bank credited it.
- If a receipt created the paper, Beelocity takes back any money that the receipt had put into the cash ledger, on the value date. The invoices that the receipt paid are owed again.
- Beelocity does not record the bank’s fee for the returned paper. The Treasurer or the owner records it from its line on the bank statement, with Write the missing entry.
- Paper that has cleared can still be marked unpaid, if the bank takes back its payment. You cannot mark paper unpaid while its slip is still a Draft.
- Endorsed: you sign the paper over to another partner, a client or a supplier. Pick the partner in Endorsed to, and press Endorse. Any received paper can be endorsed while it is Received. The paper leaves your hands without going through your bank.
- No money reaches the cash ledger. If a receipt created the paper, the invoices that the receipt paid stay paid.
- Beelocity marks no supplier bill as paid, even when you endorse the paper to pay a supplier.
Only the Treasurer and the owner of your organization can press Cleared or Bounced. The Cashier can take the other moves.
The issued-instrument lifecycle
On issued paper, the same list offers these moves:
- Presented: the payee has given the paper to your bank. Press Mark presented. The cash ledger does not change yet.
- Cleared: your bank has taken the money. Only the Treasurer and the owner of your organization can clear paper. If a payment created the paper, Beelocity puts the payment into the cash ledger on the value date. The value date works as it does for received paper. A date that you type cannot be after today or before the issue date.
- Stopped: you filed a stop payment with your bank, after a loss, a theft or a dispute. Type a Reason, which shows under the status, and press Stop payment. You can stop paper that is Issued or Presented.
- Cancelled: you void paper before anybody presents it, such as a spoiled cheque. Press Cancel the instrument. You can cancel only paper that is Issued, and you cannot undo it.
If a payment created the paper, a stop or a cancel also cancels that payment. The bills that it paid are owed again. The cash ledger does not change, because the payment had not reached it.
Deposit Slips — lodging received instruments with the bank
A deposit slip lists the received paper that you hand to your bank together. The paper on a slip can be cheques, bills of exchange and promissory notes. Open Treasury → Cheques, and then its Deposit Slips tab.
A slip has one of two types:
- Collection: the bank collects each piece of paper at its maturity, and it pays you then.
- Discounting: the bank pays early for bills of exchange and promissory notes, less its interest and charges. A cheque is payable on sight, so it goes on a collection slip.
When you credit a discounting slip, the receipt of each paid piece reaches the cash ledger at its full face value. Beelocity does not record the bank’s interest or charges. They reach the cash ledger only from the bank statement. If a discounted piece comes back unpaid after the credit, the Treasurer or the owner marks it unpaid like any other paper. Beelocity then takes its money back out of the cash ledger, and the invoices that it paid are owed again.
The list of slips has a filter button too. You can filter on Type, Status, Deposit account and Active. You can also set a range of Date or Total amount (Working with lists).
Assembling and crediting a deposit slip
- Press New. Keep the Deposit slip number that Beelocity suggests, or type your own.
- Choose Collection or Discounting in Type. You cannot change the type after you save.
- Pick the Deposit account, which is a bank or CCP account. Its currency becomes the slip’s currency.
- The Deposit date opens on today. Set it to the day that you take the slip to the bank. Then press Save. The slip starts as a Draft.
- Open the slip’s Instruments tab, and press Attach a cheque. Pick a piece of paper, and press Attach.
- The button attaches bills of exchange and promissory notes too. The list shows only Received paper in the slip’s currency. A discounting slip lists no cheques.
- The paper moves to Remitted for collection or Remitted for discount. No money moves, and the bank does not have the paper yet.
- Attach each piece that you are depositing. The Total amount adds them up.
- While paper is on the slip, you cannot change the slip’s deposit account. Detach the paper first.
- If you attached the wrong piece, press the three dots at the end of its row, and choose Detach. The paper goes back to Received, and the total goes down. You can detach paper only while the slip is a Draft.
- Hand the slip to the bank. On the slip’s status line, Draft · Submitted · Credited, press Submitted.
- Type the bank’s reference if the bank gave you one, and press Hand in. No money moves.
- The slip needs at least one piece of paper. Its Deposit date cannot be after today, or before the issue date of any paper on it. If Beelocity refuses the date, edit the slip’s Deposit date, and hand the slip in again.
- After you hand the slip in, you cannot attach or detach paper. You cannot change the slip’s date, account or number either.
- Wait until the bank says what it paid. Then the Treasurer or the owner of your organization presses Credited on the same line.
- The dialog lists each piece of paper that still waits for the bank. Each piece starts on Paid. Mark each piece that the bank returned as Returned unpaid.
- Type the Value date on which the bank credited the slip, or leave it empty for today. It cannot be after today, or before the slip’s Deposit date.
- Then press Credit the slip.
Paid clears the piece of paper. If a receipt created it, Beelocity puts the receipt into the cash ledger, in the slip’s account, on the value date. Returned unpaid puts nothing into the cash ledger, because nothing had reached it. The piece becomes Bounced, and the invoices that its receipt paid are owed again. For paper recorded by hand, neither answer moves any money.
The dialog asks for the value date only while at least one piece is Paid. If every piece came back, the bank credited nothing, so there is no day to give.
The slip ends Credited if no piece on it came back. It ends Partially rejected if any piece came back, and also if every piece did. Nobody picks that status. Beelocity also moves a credited slip there when somebody marks one of its pieces unpaid later.
After you hand a slip in, a piece on it can also be cleared or marked unpaid from its own page. The credit then skips that piece. Leave at least one piece for the credit. If you settle every piece on its own page, the credit has nothing left to record, and the slip stays Submitted for good.
You can delete a slip only while it is a Draft. Its paper then goes back to Received. After you hand a slip in, it stays on the record.
What changes automatically
Beelocity moves the balances for you, but only for paper that a receipt or a payment created. Each step does this to the money:
- When received paper clears, or a slip credits it as Paid, Beelocity puts its receipt into the cash ledger. Your account’s balance goes up.
- When issued paper clears, Beelocity puts its payment into the cash ledger. Your balance goes down.
- When somebody marks received paper unpaid, Beelocity takes back any money that its receipt had put into the cash ledger. The invoices that the receipt paid are owed again.
- When you stop or cancel issued paper, Beelocity cancels its payment. The bills that the payment paid are owed again.
Each of these movements is a row in the cash ledger, the one record behind every balance. The cash forecast counts the paper that has not cleared yet, on its maturity. It counts received paper that is Received or remitted as money in. It counts issued paper that is Issued or Presented as money out.