A customer leaves a cheque with you. The question looks simple: did it settle their debt?
The answer depends on why you took it. There are two different situations, and mixing them makes your customer balances lie.
A payment cheque is given to settle an invoice. The debt drops the moment you take it, even before the cheque clears. The risk is yours: if it bounces you have to reopen the debt.
A collateral cheque is given as security — "let me take the goods, I will pay on the due date". It is not a payment. The customer's debt stays exactly as it was. The cheque sits in your drawer, and the balance does not move.
The most common mistake is recording collateral as if it were payment. The result: the customer looks settled on screen, so you keep shipping goods. In reality the goods left and the money never arrived.
In Kumpara the distinction is made at entry. When you record a cheque you choose its purpose: payment or collateral. Choose collateral and the balance does not change; the cheque only appears in your portfolio. When the customer really pays, or you send the cheque for collection, you convert that same cheque into a payment in one step — and the debt closes then.
The portfolio also shows where the cheque physically is: with you, at the bank for collection, or held as collateral. Endorsements are recorded and can be reversed.
If a cheque bounces, both sides are corrected at once: the customer's debt reopens, and if you had endorsed it, that relationship is corrected too. Nothing is deleted — what happened stays visible.
In short: is the cheque in your hand a promise or a payment? Your system should know the difference too.