Post-Dated Cheques and Cash Flow in Jordan: A 13-Week Plan for 2027

Much of Jordanian trade still gives credit through a bundle of post-dated cheques: the customer takes the goods today and hands over cheques dated 30, 60 or 90 days ahead. The sale is in the books, but the bank balance has not moved. A drawer full of cheques is a receivable with dates on it, not cash.

The Trade Law has always seen it that way. Under Articles 245 and 246 of Trade Law No. 12 of 1966, a cheque is payable on sight, a cheque presented before the date written on it as its issue date is payable on the day it is presented, and a cheque drawn and payable in Jordan must be presented within 30 days of that date. The date is a promise between you and your customer, not a hold the bank enforces.

What changed in June 2025 is the pressure behind that promise:

• Penal Code: Law No. 10 of 2022, published in the Official Gazette on 25 May 2022 and in force from 24 June 2022, added a paragraph to Article 421, the offence of issuing a cheque without sufficient funds. The article does not apply to cheques issued three years after the amendment took effect, so cheques issued after 24 June 2025 carry no criminal liability under it.
• Execution Law: Law No. 9 of 2022 bars imprisoning a debtor for failing to meet a contractual obligation, except property rental and employment contracts, from three years after it took effect, the same June 2025 date. The debt itself is still owed and collectable through the courts.

When the Lower House passed the cheque amendment, the stated aim, as the Jordan News Agency (Petra) reported, was to end reliance on post-dated cheques and make the cheque a means of payment, not of credit. For cheques issued before the cut-off, take legal advice.

So treat cheques as credit: forecast them weekly, cap them per customer and push for faster ways to pay.

A 13-week forecast shows the next quarter week by week, which is where post-dated cheques bite. Use Sunday-to-Thursday weeks, update it every Sunday and add a week at the end each time.

Copy this layout into a spreadsheet: one row per line below, 13 columns for the weeks, all amounts in JOD.

• A. Opening cash: last week's closing bank balance
• B. Customer cheques due this week, by the date written on each cheque
• C. Allowance for returns: B × your own return rate over the last 12 months
• D. Cash, card, CliQ and eFAWATEERcom receipts
• E. Other cash in: loans, partner funding, asset sales
• F. Cheques you issued that fall due this week, by the date written on each
• G. Supplier transfers and import payments
• H. Net salaries, in the week you pay them
• I. Social security, sales tax and income tax, each in the week it is due
• J. Rent, utilities, loan repayments and other fixed costs
• K. Closing cash = A + B − C + D + E − F − G − H − I − J
• L. Minimum cash buffer, at a level you set
• M. Headroom = K − L

Five rules keep the cheque rows honest:

• Put each customer cheque in the week of its date, plus the days your bank takes to credit it; ask your bank for its deposit cut-off.
• Don't deposit early because cash is tight. The law allows it, but it breaks the deal, and the customer's account may not be funded yet.
• Deposit on the due date, and always within the 30-day presentment period in Article 246 of the Trade Law.
• Put your own cheques in the week of the date you wrote on them, not the week the bill fell due. Once signed, the money must be there that day.
• Keep replacement and re-deposited cheques on their own lines, so one promise is never counted twice.

Our 2027 budget template gives the monthly view of the year; this sheet zooms in on the next 13 weeks.

A foodstuff wholesaler in Zarqa starts on Sunday 15 November 2026, so week 13 ends on Thursday 11 February 2027. It has JOD 21,000 in the bank and a JOD 15,000 minimum buffer. Coming in: JOD 144,000 of customer cheques, less a 3% returns allowance from its own records, plus JOD 46,500 of cash and CliQ receipts. Going out: JOD 107,000 of its own supplier cheques, JOD 38,000 of them for Ramadan stock in weeks 11 to 13, net salaries of JOD 12,000 at each month end, monthly social security and loan payments, one sales tax payment and JOD 2,000 of fixed costs a week.

Cash in, cash out and closing balance by week, in JOD:

• Week 1: in 14,170 | out 11,900 | closing 23,270
• Week 2: in 11,730 | out 12,500 | closing 22,500
• Week 3: in 16,610 | out 19,000 | closing 20,110
• Week 4: in 19,990 | out 11,000 | closing 29,100
• Week 5: in 10,760 | out 12,900 | closing 26,960
• Week 6: in 13,200 | out 11,000 | closing 29,160
• Week 7: in 13,715 | out 19,000 | closing 23,875
• Week 8: in 9,790 | out 11,500 | closing 22,165
• Week 9: in 15,140 | out 12,900 | closing 24,405
• Week 10: in 13,670 | out 10,500 | closing 27,575
• Week 11: in 12,230 | out 18,500 | closing 21,305
• Week 12: in 16,125 | out 27,000 | closing 10,430
• Week 13: in 19,050 | out 20,900 | closing 8,580

Three lessons:

• The squeeze is in weeks 12 and 13, when salaries and the Ramadan cheques land together. A forecast built in mid-November shows it 11 weeks ahead, time enough to act.
• Stress-test your largest customer. If its JOD 8,000 cheque due in week 4 comes back and is not recovered, cash drops below the buffer in week 8 and to JOD 580 in week 13.
• Act on the cheques you have not signed yet: ask suppliers to take part of the Ramadan payment in weeks 14 and 15, move two or three week-12 invoices to CliQ, and agree any bank facility by week 10.

Re-run it every Sunday with last week's actual deposits and returns.

When a cheque comes back unpaid, the Central Bank of Jordan's rules set the timetable on the drawer's side. Under its Returned Cheques Unit Instructions No. 55 of 2011, as published on the Central Bank's website (checked November 2026; confirm the current version with your bank):

• The drawer's bank notifies its customer within 3 working days of the return and invites them to settle within 15 working days.
• If they don't, the bank reports them to the Central Bank's returned-cheques unit, and banks must not issue them a cheque book while they stay on the list.
• After settlement, the name comes off after 1 month for one returned cheque, 3 months for two and 12 months for three or more.
• Cheques marked with the words insurance or guarantee fall outside these instructions.

Your side, within 48 hours:

• Call the customer as soon as the return reaches you, and agree a date to pay by CliQ or bank transfer, not with a new cheque.
• Keep the original cheque. Under the instructions, a drawer who hands the original to their bank is treated as having settled it, so release it only once the money is in your account.
• Stop new credit sales to that customer, and record the return at once so their statement shows the debt.
• If it stays unpaid, ask your lawyer about the civil route.

Then manage the drawer as a portfolio with limits:

• Age the cheques in hand every week by due date: up to 30 days, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90.
• Count undeposited cheques against each customer's credit limit, not just open invoices. A customer buying JOD 6,000 a month on 60-day cheques needs a JOD 12,000 limit; an order above it waits for payment.
• Cap any one customer's share of the portfolio, and set a maximum tenor, such as 90 days.
• Before raising a limit, check the customer's payment history and ask about the solvency inquiry for cheque issuers that the Cabinet approved in June 2025, offered through the Sanad app and run by CRIF Jordan.

Every customer you move from post-dated cheques to an electronic method takes uncertainty out of rows B and C:

• CliQ puts the money in your account instantly through your alias, and a request to pay lets the customer approve the exact invoice amount. Our CliQ guide covers fees, limits and matching.
• eFAWATEERcom presents your bill, with the amount due, in the customer's banking app, which suits recurring billing; see our eFAWATEERcom guide.
• Where a customer insists on cheques, ask for shorter dates and weekly amounts instead of one large cheque.

In Odoo's Accounting app, according to Odoo 20's payments documentation:

• Add a cheque payment method to the bank journal: a Manual method named Check on the Incoming Payments tab.
• Register each cheque when you receive it, with the cheque number in the Memo. The invoice shows In payment and only becomes Paid once the payment is reconciled with the bank transaction, because registering a cheque does not move any money.
• Decide with your accountant whether the journal uses outstanding accounts. That decides whether the Amount Due drops when you register a cheque, and so what statements and reminders show.
• On deposit day, group the cheques in an Inbound batch payment and print its list for the bank. When the lump sum reaches the statement, Odoo uses the batch reference to match every cheque in one step; remove a returned cheque's line before you validate.
• Set follow-up levels that remind customers by email, WhatsApp or SMS (WhatsApp and SMS need IAP credits); a negative number of days sends the reminder before the due date.
• For cheques you issue, the Checks payment method records the cheque number when you print the cheque from Odoo, and Reject sets the payment to Rejected so the bill is no longer marked Paid.

METCH, an official Odoo partner serving Jordan, can set up these journals, payment methods and follow-up levels, and train your team to keep the cheque portfolio current.