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What Is The Difference Between Payment Date and Check Date during Print AP Check?

Q - When setting up a check run there are 2 date fields: 
1. Payment Date and 
2. Check Date. 
Can these be different dates, and if so, which date posts to the General Ledger?



A - Normally, Payment Date and Check Date are the same.  But you can make them different.

Payment Date is the date that is distributed to the General Ledger. It is considered as the transaction actual date for accounting purposes. The Check Date is what gets printed on the check. You can make these two dates different for various situations:

(1) You are late with payment
Make the Check Date earlier than the Payment Date.  If your customer complains, blame it on the Post Office.

(2) Make the payment show up in last month's financial statement
In this case, you can back date the payment date to last month so the cash will be decreased from last month's financial statement.  In the above example, let's say that today is 10/03/14, but you'd like the payment to show on your General Ledger for September instead, so you back date your payment date to 09/30/14.

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