How to mark a cheque as cleared in Inkwelly
This guide is for the fee clerk or school accountant who reconciles cheques against the bank passbook every few days. By the end you will have moved a deposited cheque to Cleared in Inkwelly so the money counts as collected and the dashboard Cheque Pipeline shows the increment.
To mark a cheque as cleared in Inkwelly: open Student Fee then Cheques, pick the row in Deposited status, open the kebab menu on the right and click Mark Cleared. Set the clearing date to the day the bank credited the school account, paste the bank clearing reference number, add a short remark, and click Mark as Cleared. The status pill flips to Cleared, the payment is treated as real money, and the Cheque Pipeline tile on the dashboard increments.
Cheque clearing is the moment when collected money turns into real money in the school account. Until clearing, every cheque payment in Inkwelly is provisional. The parent has handed over the instrument, the receipt has been issued, but the bank has not yet credited the funds. Local CTS-cleared cheques typically credit in one to two working days, outstation cheques in five to seven working days (Reserve Bank of India, Cheque Truncation System guidelines). A 1,200-student school that collects 15 percent of fees by cheque processes about 720 cheques a year. Closing each one in Inkwelly the day the bank credits it keeps reconciliation honest and the Aging Cliff dashboard accurate.
1. Open the Cheques page
Open Inkwelly and click Student Fee in the left sidebar. Pick Cheques under the COLLECTION section. The page lands with four KPI tiles across the top: Total Cheques, Pending Deposit, Cleared and Bounced. Three status tabs sit below them: All Cheques, Pending and Post-Dated. The All Cheques tab is selected by default and shows every cheque in the session with its current status pill on the right.
2. Locate the deposited cheque
Find the cheque you want to clear. The status pill on the right tells you everything. Only cheques in Deposited or Under Clearing status can be cleared. Use the search bar at the top to look up the cheque number, the student name or the bank name. Sort by Cheque Date or by status, or filter by a date range to narrow down a batch deposit. Inkwelly shows cheque number, student name and class, bank, branch, amount, payment number and a status pill in a single row.
3. Open the kebab menu and click Mark Cleared
Click the three-dot kebab button on the right end of the deposited cheque row. The dropdown shows two actions for a Deposited cheque: Mark Cleared and Mark Bounced. Click Mark Cleared. Inkwelly opens the Mark Cheque as Cleared dialog with a green check icon in the header and a four-field summary card showing the cheque number, amount, deposited date and bank. Quickly verify these match the bank credit entry before continuing.
4. Set the clearing date
The Clearing Date field is pre-filled with today's date. Change it to the exact date the bank credit landed in the school account. Use the passbook entry or the net-banking transaction date, not the day you happened to check the account. For CTS-cleared local cheques the clearing date is usually the day after deposit; for outstation cheques it can be a week. This date drives the Cleared column in the dashboard Today Pulse and the daily collection summary report.
5. Add the bank clearing reference
Paste the clearing reference number from the bank into the Clearing Reference field, for example CLR-2025-00123456 or the passbook narration like CTS123456789. Inkwelly does not require this field, but every reconciliation auditor will ask for it later, and adding it now means a clean trail from the bank credit to the Inkwelly payment. The field accepts up to 100 characters. Use the Remarks area below for context the bank reference alone does not carry, like which cheque deposit slip this came from.
6. Confirm by clicking Mark as Cleared
Click the Mark as Cleared button at the bottom right of the dialog. Inkwelly updates the cheque status to Cleared, flips the underlying payment from pending to completed, and refreshes the page. The cheque row now shows a green Cleared pill, the kebab menu collapses to No actions available, and the four KPI tiles at the top reflect one more in Cleared and one less in the deposited pool.
7. Check the dashboard Cheque Pipeline
Open the Student Fee dashboard from the sidebar. Scroll to the Cheque Pipeline funnel tile. The funnel widens at Cleared by one, and the matching amount moves from Deposited into Cleared. The Today Pulse tile shows the cleared amount in the day's collection if you cleared the cheque today. The student Fee Profile under Overview now treats this payment as collected, not provisional, and the invoice the cheque was paid against shows zero outstanding.
Once a cheque is cleared, most schools send the parent a confirmation message, covered in the sibling LEARN on sending a fee receipt over WhatsApp, SMS or email. If a cheque returns unpaid from the bank instead of clearing, follow the LEARN on handling a bounced cheque and redepositing it. For schools that want every cheque captured properly from the moment it lands at the counter, the workflow starts with recording a cheque payment and continues through marking the cheque as deposited. Reconciling against the school bank passbook two or three times a week keeps the Cheque Pipeline tile current and avoids end-of-month surprises.
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Frequently asked
6 questionsWhen should I mark a cheque as cleared in Inkwelly?
Mark a cheque as cleared in Inkwelly the same day the bank credits the school account, using the date from the passbook or net-banking transaction. Doing it the day of clearing keeps the Cheque Pipeline funnel current and the dashboard Aging Cliff accurate. Avoid clearing speculatively. Until the bank credit actually lands, the cheque must remain in Deposited status.
How long does a cheque take to clear in India for a school fee payment?
CTS-cleared local cheques drawn on a bank in the same clearing zone typically credit the school account in one to two working days. Outstation cheques on banks in other zones can take five to seven working days. Reserve Bank of India guidelines mandate same-day clearing for local cheques under the Cheque Truncation System, so anything beyond two working days is worth a call to the school branch manager.
Cheque cleared kaise mark kare Inkwelly me?
Inkwelly me Student Fee, Cheques kholiye. Jis cheque ko clear karna hai uska status Deposited hona chahiye. Row ke right side ke kebab (teen dot) par click kijiye, Mark Cleared chuniye. Dialog me Clearing Date set kijiye jo bank ne credit kiya, Clearing Reference paste kijiye, aur Mark as Cleared dabaiye. Cheque ka status pill green Cleared ho jayega.
Cheque clear hone mein kitne din lagte hain bank me?
Local cheque CTS clearing me typically ek se do working day lagte hain. Outstation cheque me paanch se saat working day lag sakte hain. Jab tak bank ke account me actual credit nahi aata, cheque ko Inkwelly me Cleared mark mat kijiye. Passbook ya net-banking statement check karke confirm karne ke baad hi clear kijiye.
What if a cheque does not clear and gets returned by the bank?
If the cheque bounces, do not mark it Cleared. Instead use the Mark Bounced action from the same kebab menu on the Cheques page, which reverses the payment, opens the invoice balance again and lets the school issue a bounce-fee invoice. The detailed flow is covered in the sibling LEARN on handling bounced cheques and redepositing them, including the option to redeposit the original cheque a second time before declaring it bounced.
Can I undo a cheque clearance if I marked the wrong one in Inkwelly?
There is no one-click undo for a cleared cheque in Inkwelly. The cleared status flips the underlying payment to completed, which is a financial state that needs an audit trail to reverse. If the wrong cheque was cleared, use Reverse Payment on the payment record under Payments. Inkwelly restores the invoice balance and voids the receipt with a permanent audit entry. Only do this after confirming with the school accountant, never silently.
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3 readsSources & references
- Reserve Bank of India: Cheque Truncation System FAQs · accessed 19 May 2026
RBI guidelines establish CTS-2010 as the all-India cheque-clearing standard; local cheques credit the beneficiary account within one to two working days, outstation cheques within five to seven.
- Reserve Bank of India: Cheque Collection Policy framework · accessed 19 May 2026
Indian banks publish a Cheque Collection Policy with clearing timelines, the source of truth schools rely on for the Inkwelly clearing date.
- Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881: Sections 6, 31 and 138 · accessed 19 May 2026
The NI Act defines a cheque as a bill of exchange payable on demand and treats clearing as the legal moment of payment, which is why Inkwelly keeps Deposited and Cleared as distinct states.
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