Outstanding check definition including break down of areas in the definition. Analyzing the definition of key term often provides more insight about concepts. Outstanding check can be defined as: Checks written and recorded by the depositor but not yet paid by the bank at the bank statement date. Outstanding checks are checks written and recorded by the company but check that have not yet cleared the bank. When we consider our bank statement balance recorded by our books and our bank statement balance recorded by the bank, these outstanding check will generally be a difference we need to account for, outstanding checks being a timing difference. We report this difference periodically when we generate bank reconciliations, reconciling the bank balance to our book balance, outstanding checks being a big part of this reconciling difference.
