How to Fill in a Checkbook Transaction Register and Balance Your Checkbook

Would you rather eat gravel than try to balance your checkbook?

Three months after my husband died, I mentioned to my best friend that I was always worried that I would bounce a check because I never knew how much money was in my checking account.

She said, "Don't you balance your checkbook every month?" I had no idea what she was talking about. My husband had always handled our money, so I considered myself lucky to know how to write a check. I had no idea there was more to it than that. During our years of marriage, if I needed to write a check, I would take the checkbook out of the drawer, write a check and then leave the checkbook and a note of how much I had spent for my husband. Since the register was not in the checkbook, I didn't even know it existed.

As my friend explained about the register and how to balance a checkbook, I feared that I would not be able to do it. But I found out that it is really quite simple.

Filling in your checkbook transaction register

The check register should always be with your checkbook so that you can add entries to it as they happen.

Refer to photo #1

You will notice that in your register, only every other line (space) is white. Write the check number, date, who the check is to, and the amount in the white line Then put any additional information in the darker line under it. Additional information would be, for example, what the check was for.

The most important thing is to remember to write every check, ATM transaction, debit transaction, automatic withdrawal, electronic check and deposit in your check register. If you forget to write any of those things in, you will be wondering why your checkbook doesn't balance at the end of the month. Anytime any amount of money is added or withdrawn from your checking account, it should be recorded in the transaction register.

Remember, also, to immediately write in the date, check number and exact amount. Do not think you will remember to write them in later because, chances are, you will forget. Then you will be wondering how much a check was for or who you wrote it out to when you go to write in another one and the numbers are out of sequence.