Registers and cheque numbers
Set up the bank accounts you pay out of, keep each chequebook's numbering straight, and close an account without losing its history.
A register is one of your chequebooks: "Operating — Chase ···4471" rather than an account code. Set one up for every bank account you write cheques from, and Meridian keeps that book's cheque numbering for you when you pay a vendor bill.
You'll do this once when you start, and again whenever you open or close a bank account. Your shop already has one register — it was created from whatever account you were already paying bills out of — so this is usually about adding the second.
Set up a register
Open Settings → Payments, and click Manage registers beside Pay bills from. The Registers screen lists every open account with its Kind, the account it posts to, and the Next cheque number waiting in its book.
Click New register. Give it a Name you'd actually say out loud — "Operating", "Payroll" — and pick the Kind: Checking, Savings, Credit card, or Other.
Choose the account it posts to. GL account lists the asset accounts in your chart of accounts. Two registers can post to the same account and still be different chequebooks.
Set the Next cheque number (Checking only). This is the number Meridian will suggest on the next cheque you write from this book — set it to the next blank in the drawer. It's editable any time.
Add the bank details if you want them. Open Bank details (optional) and fill in Bank name and Last 4. They're what make the account recognisable in the pay window; nothing is sent to the bank.
Tick Use this register by default if this is the account most bills come out of, then click Save. The default is what the pay window starts on when a vendor has no account of their own.
Day to day
- Change one — the … menu on a row has Edit, and Make default when it isn't already.
- Close one — Close on the same menu. A closed register is no longer offered when you pay a bill, but it keeps its cheque history; registers are never deleted. Click Show closed at the bottom of the list to see them, and Reopen to bring one back.
- Point a vendor at a register — on the vendor's record, click Edit, then set Normally paid from. Only worth doing for a vendor that's always paid from one specific account; leave everyone else on Shop default.
What happens behind the scenes
- A register doesn't hold money. It's the name and the chequebook sitting on top of an account in your books — payments post to the account behind it.
- Cheque numbers are kept per register, so two books can both be at 1043 without colliding. Meridian suggests the next number; a number you type yourself is honoured, and the counter moves past it.
- A number already used in that book is flagged, not blocked. Meridian names the payment it went to and lets you record what you actually wrote — it's your chequebook.
- Closing a register changes nothing that already posted. Every payment remembers the account it went out of at the time, so changing a register today can't rewrite yesterday.
Troubleshooting
Not to a number behind a cheque already written from that book — it would collide with a real payment. Set it to the next unused number instead.
It's been closed. The pay window says so and falls back to your shop default. Reopen it from Show closed, or give the vendor a different Normally paid from.
The screen is limited to accounts with accounting access. Ask your owner or manager to check your role under Settings → Users & Access.