An outstanding check is one that a company issues and records in its books but that the bank has not yet cleared or processed. In other words, the money has already been taken out of the company's cash book but it is still shown in the bank statement balance. Usually, outstanding checks are the result of deposit or processing delays. When doing bank reconciliation, these checks are deducted from the bank balance to reconcile with the company's ledger, which is an important step for accurate financial reporting and finding mistakes or differences.