SECTION OVERVIEW AND POLICIES

The purpose of this section is to provide guidance to agencies for when vendor, employee expense, or SSP checks (all commonly referred to as “A” checks) are returned and/or need to be reissued. These checks can be easily identified by the letter that appears on the face of the check. Vendor and employee expense checks have an “A” on the face, while SSP checks have an “A” with a smaller “SSP” in front of it.

Occasionally, the Post Office may return an “A” check because of an incorrect address. Other times, a payee may request that a check be reissued because a check was mutilated, lost, stolen, or never received. Depending on the reason the check is returned, various actions may be necessary by the payee, agency, DTF Treasury, and OSC. These actions will result in reissuing the check, with appropriate changes if necessary, or cancelling the voucher and restoring the appropriation.

Information on how to reissue or cancel other types of checks can be found as follows:

Process and Document Preparation:

To review the process and documents associated with reissuing or cancelling an “A” check, please see Reissuing or Cancelling a Vendor, Employee Expense, or SSP Check Flowchart.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Agencies can determine if a single check has been cashed, stopped, staled or escheated by completing the following steps:
  • SFS Navigation: Accounts Payable > Review Accounts Payable Info > Payments > Payment.
  • Enter the check number in the From Ref ID field and click Search.
  • The Payment Date is the date the check was issued out of SFS.
  • The Reconcile Date is the date the check was cashed or stopped at the bank.
  • The Payment Status and the Reconciliation Status will tell you if the check has been cashed, stopped, staled or escheated as follows:

• Agencies should monitor the NYTR1652 (Stale Payments) query to ensure that all returned checks are replaced, reissued, or cancelled timely. DTF Treasury is not responsible for notifying the agencies when a payment has been returned by the Post Office and marked stale in SFS. Agencies should utilize the NYTR1652 query in SFS to routinely identify returned checks and agencies should contact the affected payees as soon as possible.
  • Run the NY_NYTR1652_AGY_QRY query by navigating to either:
    • Banking > Reports > Stale Payments, or
    • Reporting Tools > Query > Query Viewer and searching for NY_NYTR1652_AGY_QRY
  • Enter the ‘From Date’ and ‘End Date’
  • Bank SetID: SHARE
  • SFS Bank Code: 10001
  • SFS Bank Account:
    • 1002 for Vendor or Employee Expense checks
    • 1102 for SSP checks
• For a single payment check being reissued to the same address, or any regular voucher check being reissued, agencies can use SFS to determine if a check has been reissued by completing the following steps:
  • Navigate to Accounts Payable> Vouchers > Add/Update > Regular Entry
  • Click the Find an Existing Value tab
  • Enter the Business Unit and Voucher ID for the voucher you are searching for into the respective fields and click Search
  • Navigate to the Payments tab
  • On the dark blue Payment Information line, click the‘View All’ blue hyperlink
    • Scheduled Payment 1 contains the payment information for the cancelled check
    • Scheduled Payment 2 contains the payment information for the reissued check

For more information, please see Chapter VII, Section 3 – Refund of Appropriation / AP Adjustment Vouchers.

• In the event the Post Office returns an undelivered check to the agency, the check must be forwarded to:

  Remittance Control Unit
  Department of Taxation and Finance
  Division of the Treasury
  PO Box 22119
  Albany, NY 12225

• Pursuant to §102 of State Finance Law, the amounts of all uncashed checks and prepaid cards issued by or on behalf of the State for more than one year from the date of issuance shall be paid into the Abandoned Property Fund.

Forgery Claims

If a vendor declares a check to be fraudulently cashed the agency must request a forgery affidavit from NYS Treasury by submitting a TD-346 to [email protected]. The agency must provide the affidavit to the vendor, who must return the completed form to the agency with a notarized signature. The agency must return the completed affidavit to the same email address, [email protected].

NYS Treasury will forward the affidavit to the paying bank, who will collaborate with the cashing bank to render a decision on the claim. If the banks determine the claim is a valid forgery, a check will be mailed to NYS Treasury.

NYS Treasury will notify the agency when the check has been received so the agency can submit a refund of appropriation. Agencies MUST submit the refunds of appropriation immediately upon notification, by referencing the payee’s Vendor ID and the original voucher (referred to as the Related Voucher). For more information, please see Chapter VII, Section 3 – Refund of Appropriation / AP Adjustment Vouchers. Once the agency sees the refund of appropriation has been approved, the agency can then pay the vendor with a new voucher through SFS. Agencies should submit the refund of appropriation and, upon approval, repay the vendor as soon as possible to ensure the vendor receives its money timely.

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 01/14/2025