Old unpresented cheques issued as refunds

[Oke123]

Hi
I am relatively new to book-keeping and so my question may seem rather obvious, and I apologise for that.
My Sage is version 21.3.6.108

We have issued several cheques over the last few years which the recipients have not presented. Therefore these come up as unreconciled transactions on each bank reconciliation as they don't appear on the bank statements received from our bank. I would love to know the best way to remove them.

They date from Jan'13 onwards. Most are refunds due to cancelled accounts, or cancelled services. Sometimes, it is for such a small amount (typically £5) and I suspect the customers have either ceased trading and therefore can't present the cheque made out to their business (and who we are now unable to contact), or the amount is so small that they forget or simply can't be bothered! The cheques were issued to refund a credit note, and account closed down.

Please can you advise how to get them removed from the bank? Thank you.

[brucedenney]

You need to contact the beneficiaries and see what the problem is, ideally it should have been done a long time ago.

Depending on the outcomes of those conversations there are various paths you may need to follow.

If you write of these amounts and they are valid then you are personally responsible for the criminal offence of theft. With that in mind you should, for your own protection document your attempts to contact the beneficiaries and settle the debts.

If the beneficiary has lost the cheque, then you need to send a replacement cheque.

If the beneficiary has ceased trading, or you are unable to trace, then you need to clearly document your attempts to contact them (to cover yourself should they resurface in the future) you can at that point write off the amount.

How you do this depends on if the cheque was a bank payment, a customer refund or a supplier payment.