Trouble entering checks

"Not cleared or downloaded." wouldn't pertain to whether a xctn has been sent to the bank.

It's a flag to confirm whether your FI has processed the xctn. They still have to process manual checks. I would expect it to go away after you've downloaded it FROM the bank (i.e. they post it to your account).

R U going on-line or just entering checks into the register itself? U can enter into checking account register and the check is not sent to FI by that action.

I go online every day and do a 1-step update. I'm fairly sure that the problem is caused when a scheduled transaction is entered into the check register -- the action field remains blank but it should have "send" entered instead. That would make it work, but I'm not sure that is THE problem.

Your OP mentioned the pencil icon. Your reply also mentioned scheduled transactions that should become online payment instructions to your FI.

I'm using Q 2011. In Q2011, the pencil icon is captured in the "Status" column. That column is different from the Check # column.

First, let's talk about the Check # column. If you've got a xctn that you want the bank to send, initially, the Check # column will say "Send". After you One-Step-Update with the bank, it will be updated to the bank-assigned check # & you'll see a little lightning bolt beside the check #. That's your indicator/confirmation that the bank has received the instructions. At that point, I wouldn't expect to see further automated changes in the Check # column.

If you want the bank to send a payment from a Bill Reminder, you probably need to change the Payment Method setting within the Bill Reminder to "Online Bill Pay".

Now for the Status column (which can also hold a little calendar icon).

When the pencil icon is present, if I position my mouse cursor directly on top of the icon, I get a pop up that states "Not cleared or downloaded." That merely means that the bank hasn't yet processed that xctn. More specifically, I haven't "Accepted" the transaction after it shows up in the Downloaded Transactions section, following a One-Step-Update (or Web Connect).

If the Calendar icon is present, the pop up states "Reminder transaction.", which indicates that the transaction came from a Scheduled Transaction (Bill Reminder).

For me, once the xctn or check is processed by the bank, a One-Step- Update, followed by "Accepting" the xctn causes my Status column icons to vanish (both pencils & calendar icons).

So, for any transaction that I enter manually, I would expect the Status column to show a pencil until I've Accepted the xctn from the Downloaded Transactions section at the bottom of the register, after a O-S-U. For any transaction that came from a Bill Reminder, I would expect to see a calendar icon until I've Accepted the downloaded xctn.

As a final note, if you're not getting much value from the Status column & it's causing you confusion, you can tell Q you don't want to see it just focus on the Check # & "Cleared" columns. To do that, within that account register, go to Account Actions>>Register Column... & uncheck Status.