Now you can print cheques from within Xero

IMPORTANT: This post is specific to Canada. If you are not a Canada business/taxpayer then it is probably not applicable to you.

Xero just released a Canada-only update today!! They have enabled the cheque-writing tool (previously only in the US edition) for Canadian users. This is a great addition for us Canadians, given our banking systems complete lack direct payment functionality (we are so behind the times!). BTW, I think that this is the only time Xero have release a change for one country only within the Global edition – it bodes well for us, and I hope that it will lead to a Canadian edition this year. Anyway – to read more about the Cheque Register and Cheque Printing functions within Xero, please visit the Cheque Payments screen in the help system. Here are some basic pointers:

• Cheques can only be written from accounts in your base currency (CAD$) – not from a USD account in your multi-currency ledger
• You should setup your Cheque Styles from the Settings, Cheque Styles menu
• To be able to print cheques for Bills you need to flag the items using the “Make Payment” or “Pay by Cheque” options.

Let me know your feedback on this addition. It’s just for us Canadian users – so enjoy it! Some background here – there is an add-on product that made cheque-writing available in Canada a couple of years ago, and it was free for most users. But aparantly the add-on owners changed the pricing policy such that everyone had to pay for it. Xero heard your complaints! They actually asked me a couple of months ago whether they should make it available in the Global edition and I said that Canada was too American not to (in this regard)!!