Resolve a held check
Why a check is quarantined out of ordinary coding, what evidence releases it, and what only a person can decide.
Why Checks Are Held
A paper check arrives from the bank as an amount and a check number — no payee. LedgerHQ holds it out of ordinary coding until real evidence says who it was written to.
A bank feed row for a check has nothing to research. Coding it from the amount alone would mean guessing the vendor, and a guessed vendor becomes a bank rule that repeats the guess.
Missing, unreadable, ambiguous, or conflicting evidence never releases the hold automatically. This is the one place LedgerHQ deliberately waits for a person rather than proposing an answer.
Find The Held Checks
Open the company and select Bank Feeds > Checks. Fast Coding has a matching Checks view.
Each check shows its number, bank account, date, and evidence status:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Awaiting statement | The statement covering this check has not arrived |
| Awaiting check image | No image is attached yet |
| Image needs review | An image exists but could not be read reliably |
| Ready to resolve | Evidence is sufficient — a person can release it |
Supply The Evidence
Open a held check and attach the check image from the statement or the bank's site.
Once the evidence is usable, the check can be released, coded, and posted like any other row. See Code one bank transaction.
Aged Checks
A check that has waited too long is flagged for review. Tally reports these but does not resolve them — the four things it names are exactly the four a person can do: review the statement, attach an image, correct the check number, or release a verified misclassification.
That last one matters: not every row that looks like a check is one. An ACH payment that happens to carry a check-like reference is a misclassification you can release.
What Not To Do
Do not code a held check to a plausible vendor to clear the queue, and do not exclude it — the money left the account and belongs in the books.
If the check image cannot be obtained at all, ask the company owner through a request rather than guessing. If the check is large, old, or you suspect it was not authorized, create a support ticket with the company, account, check number, date, and amount.