Do you still maintain a checkbook register?

[braumeister]

I haven't recorded anything in a paper checkbook register in well over 20 years, but every check we write (probably about 50 a year) gets entered in Moneydance (the equivalent of Quicken etc.) within minutes or hours of being written.

Every month I reconcile the bank statement (downloaded as a pdf) with my Moneydance file.

 

[Lsbcal]

Thanks for all the intelligent comments so far.

I guess this will give me enough confidence to dump the old register system. And no, we do not have rotary phones. Having carbons in the checkbook is a good idea.

We have two main checking accounts. The Chase one gets a lot of E-bill paying activity and also SS checks. So I'm thinking that account will not be used for check writing anymore. This will remove the issue of a stale balance due to check cashing lag.

The other bank (a Federal Credit Union that actually pays some interest) will then be used for the occasional checks like to the IRS and larger payments not supported by the Chase account balance. Eventually we will get to the state where cash will again pay some decent interest rates. So I'm trying to make my system work for when that day comes.

I'm also going to experiment with banking apps on my new Nexus 6P phone having recently dumped the old flip Tracphone -- another relic.

 

[Corporateburnout]

That's interesting.

I use Quicken to reconcile all account statements, whether bank, or credit card, or investment account.

Occasionally I find a discrepancy. It's rare, but happens.

Bill paying is tracked in two places. Quicken has all the scheduled transactions, then when downloaded from the bank, the transactions usually match. So I know

I manually enter the very few handwritten checks into Quicken, and when the check clears, it's downloaded from the bank and matches what was already entered. Quicken reconciles matching transactions upon download, so it's quite visible.

So I know in advance what my balance will be, and downloading stuff from any account is simply a confirmation, as is reconciling each account each month.

I use the same process in Quicken except that I manually enter all transactions and manually reconcile the monthly bank statements including credit cards.

I could download the CC and bank statements but I actually enjoy the manual process.

I rely on the cash flow report as well as other available reports in Quicken for spending analysis.

 

[Danmar]

I keep "check registers" in Excel. All items posted daily. Keep track of about 6 accounts this way including transfers between them. Both CDN and US dollars. Hardly any checks but lots of other stuff. Having all the data in one spreadsheet helps keep track of all our expenses. Would be lost without it.

 

[scrabbler1]

Put me in the Luddite category. I maintain a paper checkbook register (which today serves more as a backup) and a more expanded one in a spreadsheet since 1995 (when I bought my first PC). Even though I write far fewer checks today than I did in the 1990s, I still have about the same number of entries because all that happened was those checks got replaced by ACH bill payments and other, similar non-check payments. I still balance my monthly account statement to the paper register like I always have.


My spreadsheet register, however, contains far more data beyond the simple debits and credits to my checking account. It is linked to a homemade income tax spreadsheet which updates my projected income taxes owed and any estimated income tax payments I may have to make. My most recent addition to that spreadsheet was to include the ACA premium subsidy which is based on MAGI and my HI premiums, two items already available elsewhere in the spreadsheet so it wasn't difficult to tie them together in a skeleton Form 8962.

 

[ls99]

Yep, pen and ink paper check register. Write and mail checks for payment. The postage cost is trivial. Rarely do I allow electronic transfer out of my accounts. Do allow electronic input of $. I look at electronic checking output as vaporware. It could easily vaporize my funds.

 

[MBAustin]

We have the carbon copy checks and I haven't used a register or balanced the checkbook in the formal sense for at least 15 years, although I used to be a fanatic of doing it every month as my dad did. I've kept all of the carbon copies in a drawer for 15 years also - probably time to get rid of most of them also. Although most bills are either paid through online banking or credit card, we still write 3-4 checks a month - one for my yoga class always, and we also pay most service people who come to the house with checks rather than credit cards.

 

[jollystomper]

Almost all of our bills are paid via our bank so we are writing much fewer checks. DW keeps the checkbook for any checks she writes for food shopping, etc. - not much, maybe 4-5 checks a week on average. She is not good in math or remembering what she spent, so it is good fer here to have something to record expenditures. I just enter what she has spent on a weekly basis into Quicken, and let her know the balance show she has an idea of the spending limit for the week. This process works fine for us.

 

[martyb]

Not in several years

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[youbet]

It's too easy to maintain a balance in the register to not do it. Very close to zero time. You have the check book and pen in your hands anyway. After writing the check, you just add the check number and the amount to the register. 5 secs? 10 secs? Max.

When I grab the checkbook while dashing out of the house, not having used it in weeks and knowing DW has likely written some checks, I don't ever want to have to stop and go to the office, boot the computer and open a spreadsheet to know how much is in the account. Or go to the bank web site. The number should be right there in the register, especially since it's near zero time and effort to have it there.

 

[Meadbh]

It's too easy to maintain a balance in the register to not do it. Very close to zero time. You have the check book and pen in your hands anyway. After writing the check, you just add the check number and the amount to the register. 5 secs? 10 secs? Max.

When I grab the checkbook while dashing out of the house, not having used it in weeks and knowing DW has likely written some checks, I don't ever want to have to stop and go to the office, boot the computer and open a spreadsheet to know how much is in the account. Or go to the bank web site. The number should be right there in the register, especially since it's near zero time and effort to have it there.

For your system to work, both you and DW must be consistent and accurate in your recordings. If it works for you, fine. But it wouldn't work for everyone.

 

[Major Tom]

I don't write paper checks any more (with the very, very occasional exception) but I still keep a checkbook register, with details of all deposits and withdrawals from my checking account. It's easy. I like pen and paper and for me, it's easier than it would be to do the same thing in Quicken, Excel, or something else on the computer.

 

[Meadbh]

I don't write paper checks any more (with the very, very occasional exception) but I still keep a checkbook register, with details of all deposits and withdrawals from my checking account. It's easy. I like pen and paper and for me, it's easier than it would be to do the same thing in Quicken, Excel, or something else on the computer.

Do you have any standing orders? Automatic debits? If you do, presumably you need to look them up online in order to enter them accurately in your cheque book register.

 

[youbet]

For your system to work, both you and DW must be consistent and accurate in your recordings. If it works for you, fine. But it wouldn't work for everyone.

It's been working like a charm for decades. We don't write many checks anymore, but when either of us does we quickly record it in the register as a courtesy to the other.

 

[Major Tom]

Do you have any standing orders? Automatic debits? If you do, presumably you need to look them up online in order to enter them accurately in your cheque book register.

I avoid automatic debits as much as possible, as I prefer to retain control over paying my bills (it's just a "thing" I have). However, my internet service provider requires automatic payment, so I have them signed up via a credit card, which they deduct the bill from every month. I don't have any automatic debits/standing orders linked to my checking account though.

 

[kcowan]

We have a master spreadsheet for all transactions but we also have a check register for the rare physical check. The bank will present an image of the check upon online request. It also prints an image on our ATM deposit receipt.

 

[big-papa]

I haven't updated a checkbook register in over a decade. First, most of our recurring bills are automatically paid. Secondly, just about everything else is put on the credit card and payed off monthly. Those two items mean that there are only a few line items withdrawn from the checking account monthly (plus a couple of ATM transactions). Before that, I hadn't seen an error on the bank's side in well over a decade before that.


It means mainly concentrating on the credit card statement instead of the checking account statement.


Everything is entered into a spreadsheet monthly to check against budget, however.

 

[audreyh1]

It's too easy to maintain a balance in the register to not do it. Very close to zero time. You have the check book and pen in your hands anyway. After writing the check, you just add the check number and the amount to the register. 5 secs? 10 secs? Max.

When I grab the checkbook while dashing out of the house, not having used it in weeks and knowing DW has likely written some checks, I don't ever want to have to stop and go to the office, boot the computer and open a spreadsheet to know how much is in the account. Or go to the bank web site. The number should be right there in the register, especially since it's near zero time and effort to have it there.

When 90+% of your banking is electronic, and you handwrite maybe one check every two months, the checkbook register is useless. I'd have to enter every electronic transaction by hand in the checkbook register to track the balance that way - duplicating what is already in Quicken and can be viewed online from my bank.

Most of our banking transactions are recurring monthly bills which Quicken anticipates for me by automatically scheduling the transactions. At most I have to modify the monthly amount for some bills.

 

[Greg V]

We use Quicken to record, track and reconcile Checking, Credit Card, Savings and Investment Accounts.

 

[kaudrey]

I don't; and I don't download things into a spreadsheet or Quicken either. I just look online every few days.

 

[kitesurfer2]

I do, just from habit. It's the same every month, 3 direct deposits, one auto pay to credit card.

 

[2017ish]

... And no, we do not have rotary phones. ...

We actually have kept one as a backup if electric lines are down! (Highly unlikely that it would work when neither electric nor cell phones won't, but better safe than sorry for DW when on call.)

On the check register, I don't remember when we kept keeping a running balance in it--10 years? Or 20? Like several others, we use Quicken, with daily transaction downloads and cloud backup.

On the occasional check that DW writes, she will record it in the register and put the register by my keyboard for entry. To keep things easy, I also write down the few checks that I write, just so we are consistent.

 

[Cobra9777]

It's too easy to maintain a balance in the register to not do it. Very close to zero time. You have the check book and pen in your hands anyway. After writing the check, you just add the check number and the amount to the register. 5 secs? 10 secs? Max.

When I grab the checkbook while dashing out of the house, not having used it in weeks and knowing DW has likely written some checks, I don't ever want to have to stop and go to the office, boot the computer and open a spreadsheet to know how much is in the account. Or go to the bank web site. The number should be right there in the register, especially since it's near zero time and effort to have it there.

We jot down check information in the register, but only to record it later in Fidelity Full-View. There's no attempt to maintain a current balance in the checkbook. Haven't done that in over 20 years. We only write about 10 checks per year. So IMO it would be a waste of time to manually transcribe the other 95% of our checking transactions into the register.

Our "transaction register" (if you want to call it that) is Fidelity Full-View. I look at it almost every day to monitor and validate transactions and balances for all our accounts... credit cards, savings, checking, and investment accounts. On the rare occasion that we write a check, I manually record it in Full-View and when it clears, the two entries are automatically merged.

The vast majority of our transactions are on cash-back credit cards. By contrast, the checking account has very few transactions, and 95% of those are automatic deposits, EFTs, a few bill-pays, and the occasional ATM withdrawal. Checks are really a non-issue. So our record-keeping process is no longer centered around the checkbook. Your method made sense 20+ years ago when: (a) most of our transactions were conducted through the checkbook, and (b) more efficient software and online tools were not yet available.

 

[RetireAge50]

Our bank maintains the register for us and we can review it anytime via a computer in our pocket.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I don't; and I don't download things into a spreadsheet or Quicken either. I just look online every few days.

This is probably what we would do if someone pried our paper checkbook from our cold dead hands.