Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.

In double entry book-keeping, how should I record writing of a check?
I'm no accounting expert, but I've never heard of anyone using a separate account to track outstanding checks.  Instead, the software I use (GnuCash) uses a "reconciled" flag on each transaction.  This has 3 states:  n: new transaction (the bank doesn't know about it yet), c: cleared transaction (the bank deducted the money), and y: reconciled transaction (the transaction has appeared on a bank statement). The account status line includes a Cleared balance (which should be how much is in your bank account right now), a Reconciled balance (which is how much your last bank statement said you had), and a Present balance (which is how much you'll have after your outstanding checks clear). I believe most accounting packages have a similar feature.