Laser Checks

Make Your Own & Save $$ By Les Cseh

Originally appeared in The Flash, The Premier Journal of Laser Printing.
This article has also been reproduced at PrintUSA.

In these tough economic times we all need to cut costs and improve productivity. Firms of all types and sizes have found that they can save time and money by printing their own checks. In the last issue of The Flash Mark William's brought us up to the present with his article Check It Out about the history of checks. New products now allow an entire check to be printed at your business, including the logo, signatures, and the MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) encoding. Lets now look at how you can do it yourself, what you need and what you need to know before investing in these products.

MICR, pronounced either my-ker or micker, are the unusual characters at the bottom of checks. These characters encode the account number, bank transit and check numbers. When properly prepared, checks with MICR encoding can be processed automatically by the bank's equipment costing the bank very little per check. When a check cannot be processed automatically, it costs the bank $6.00 to process it manually.

Although not difficult to use, the technology is poorly understood. The result is considerable misinformation, and a growing problem for the banks. Therefore, it is important that anyone planning to use these products realize that there is some education required, there are regulations that need to be followed, and that there is a need for ongoing quality control.

Why bother printing your own MICR characters? The best starting point is to picture your current check productions process. If you or your staff are hand-writing checks, then you know how time-consuming and non-productive this task is.

Many firms use a computer to generate and track checks, printing them on a computer printer. Every time you have checks to print, there may be several steps involved: the current forms must be removed from the printer; check forms retrieved from storage; checks loaded into the printer; alignment tested and adjusted as required; checks printed; checks removed from the printer and stored; normal forms loaded; checks burst/separated;checks signed.

Now picture that you have several accounts to manage. Depending on the type of business (e.g. payroll service, property management), some companies have 30, 50, and even 100 accounts. Imagine the office space tied up just storing check forms!

The more accounts and/or the higher your check volume, the worse it gets. In addition, you have to keep track of how many checks you have in stock, as the lead time for check forms can be weeks (bad news if you've run out early!). Add to this the fact that check forms have been historically very expensive, a trend which is changing.

A laser printer check printing system can overcome most, if not all of these problems. To start with, check forms designed for laser printers tend to be much less expensive than those for impact printers (dot matrix and daisywheel). A single check form can be used for all accounts by delegating the printing of company information (logo, name,. Address), bank information (name, address, routing) and MICR encoding to the laser printer.

These systems offer additional benefits as well. One popular feature allows the laser printer to sign checks for you. If this concept makes you nervous, bear in mind that the software will allow you to specify that the automatic signature(s) should only appear for checks less that some amount determined by you. There is also the option of the security cartridge mentioned below.

Another accounting advantage is that the laser printer can MICR encode the check number produced by your accounting software so that the check numbers will appear on your bank statement, simplifying bank reconciliation. Also, you don't have to throw our expensive unused checks whenever you change banks or bank accounts, or move. No more four to six week lead times for your checks to be printed.

MICR capable laser printing systems have the following in common:

Vendor selection for your check printing systems is critical. The components must be carefully matched, and the company behind the products must understand the technology, the issues and the standards. Has the vendor invested in a MICR analysis system? Do they offer all of the required pieces, and if not, how can they assure that their piece will work properly with the others, now and in the future? Your vendor should have worked with the financial institutions in the development and testing of their products.

Laser printers have proved their suitability to the task of check writing. Many organizations have freed up considerable time and money that used to be wasted in the production of checks. With time, technology keeps improving and giving us more time.

When originally published, Les Cseh was Managing Director for CHEQsys, a firm specializing in complete check-writing and check-printing solutions. CHEQsys has since been purchased by dataCHECK who can be reached by (904) 273-9350 or (416) 475-4121. Les Cseh can now be reached by Email or telephone at (416) 622-0982. Sensible Solutions has great prices and fast turnaround on Business Checks/Cheques, and high quality MICR Toner. Want more visitors to your web site? Visit www.sensible-solutions.com and let us know if you are interested in exchanging links. Date published: Wednesday, January 17, 1996 4:18:56 Return to Article Index
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