For an NSF cheque received from a customer, here’s a slick way to handle it.
Let’s assume that you already received a payment and deposited it into the bank in QuickBooks, to match what you did in real life. Then the bank took the amount of the cheque (and perhaps a service charge) out the bank to reflect the fact that it was NSF. Here’s what to do from that point forward:
Click on Cheque as if you’re writing a cheque to the customer (or job of a customer) which bounced the cheque on you. For the cheque number, put NSF and then the cheque number that was bounced. (e.g. If they bounced cheque #123, call it NSF123). Put the amount that came out of the bank as the amount of the cheque. If the bank charged you a service charge and you are going to charge the customer for that amount, make the amount of the cheque include the bounced amount and service charge. Put the date that it bounced as the date of the cheque (e.g. Oct. 26).
Specify what happened on the memo line of the cheque. Then for the account, put it to “Accounts Receivable”. (If QuickBooks prompts you for a name in the “split” line, re-enter the name of the Customer or Job that bounced the cheque in the Customer:Job field.) That takes the money out of the bank on the date that it bounced, and puts the money that bounced back into Accounts Receivable. Then you can “receive payment” again on the second cheque that the customer gives you..