How To Setup Check And Gcheck

Collect! allows you to print checks for your clients at month end or at any other time. You can access this form by pulling down the Print menu found at the top of the main Collect! dialog. Choose the Monthly Reports/Checks option. Or choose Month End in the Main Menu and pick the Print Checks option.

Requirements

DC Printing Only

This report was printed and tested on HP Laser printers - Models LaserJet 4L and LaserJet 2100, and a Citizen GSX 140, which is a dot matrix printer. You will need to contact your bank with a sample check to see that your printer meets their optical readers criteria.

Your company banking information must be input into the report body of the Check and the GCheck reports in the appropriately marked areas.

Printer with Magnetic Ink Cartridge (recommended, but not necessary if the bank uses an optical reader).

Form #1000 form (can be purchased at most office supply stores), or online at a number of different retailers.

Try http://www.g7ps.com and look for check paper. You can also find these forms at your local office supply store.

Data will need to be entered as described below.

• The Company Details form must be properly filled out.
• Client form must be properly filled out.
• The invoice/statement you want to print must have already been generated.
• You must be printing via Device Context.

You must First Generate Statements before printing checks. When you print your checks, the date range you print will be the statement date of the last statements you generated.

Checks will be printed only for those invoices/statements having a positive value owing, i.e. only where you owe the client money at the end of month.

This report does not print to screen. If you attempt to print to screen for testing purposes, you may get error messages. You will still be able to check your information, though.

If your checks are not centered appropriately, you will need to refer to the setup details below to give the bank the ability to read the MICR numbers appropriately. It is very important that these numbers are positioned correctly. Please refer to the sections at the end of this document that deal with adjusting these numbers.

Field Descriptions

Clients

Select a range of Clients to print checks for.

Clients with Billing Period: Select the billing period for which you wish to print checks.

Date Range

Pick a range to cover in your check printing. Click the small calendar icon to display the calendar.

When you print invoices/statements, please note that if you choose to calculate invoices over the period June 1 to June 30, the invoices/statements will be dated July 1st. Therefore, when you print the invoices/statements, be sure to choose the 1st of the next month as the desired print range.

This feature is currently setup for U.S. checks. If you want to Print Canadian checks, please phone Comtech Systems for information, as Canadian financial institutions have different requirements.

From

Choose the beginning of a date range to include in this report.

To

Choose the end of a date range to include in this report.

Help

Press this button for Help on the Print Checks dialog and Links to related topics.

Cancel

Selecting this will ignore any changes you may have made and returns you to the previous Screen.

OK

Selecting this will begin the printing process using the settings you have chosen.

Setup Steps For Check And Gcheck

First, enter your company details in the report as described below.

1. Pull down the Print Menu and choose Customize Printing, Edit Report Templates.

2. Scroll through the Report Definitions to find Check or GCheck.
Remember, you must enter your company info into BOTH reports. Click on the Check or GCheck reports to view their definitions.

3. Click anywhere within the Report Body section when the
Report Definition is displayed.

4. The Report Body will be displayed.

5. Enter your bank's name and address into the variables varbank, varBnkAdd and varBnkAdd2.

6. Enter your bank's Transit (Routing) Number - into the variable
varRoute at the top of the report body, it must be 9 numbers including dash or hyphen. No other alpha characters.

This number should be EXACTLY 9 characters -- including dash or hyphen and it MUST be entered.

7. Enter your company's Account Number - into the variable varAccnt.
The formatting is Numbers only and a (Dash or Hyphen) -- no other alpha characters to a MAXIMUM of 12 -- including any dashes or hyphens.

8. Locate the default line as follows:

@CHECK(23,10.5,759,306.2)

These are the dimensions of the check to be printed. If you find that you need to adjust the placement of the transit number identifier, this is where an adjustment is made as follows.

Using the Form #1000 form, there is a small calibration box at the bottom of the check on the form. The transit number identifier must line up within this box. This may need to be adjusted. If so, you need only change the top line as described below.

MICR Font Adjustment

Collect! can print two different MICR fonts. If you find that the default font is not correct for your needs, you will need to add ,1 to the @CHECK parameters to use the other available font.

For Example:

Default is: @CHECK(23,10.5,759,306.2) For instance.

Adjust this to: @CHECK(23,10.5,759,306.2,1) Notice the addition of the 1 parameter.

Transit Number Identifier Adjustment

1. To move the transit number identifier up or down, change the second value (in bold font below. It will not be bold in the report writer).

For example, to move it down just a bit, you may modify the second value as follows.

@CHECK(23,15.5,759,306.2)


After you change it, test print and see how far it moved.

This value can be incremented by thousands of an inch. You will have to change and test until it lines up properly.

2. To move the transit number identifier left or right, you can change the third value in parenthesis.

For example, to move it right just a bit, you may modify the third value as follows.

@CHECK(23,10.5,769,306.2)


When you change the positioning, you would again test print and see how far the MICR number has moved. This value can be incremented to the thousands of an inch. You will have to change and test until it lines up properly.

Test print on a blank piece of paper and hold it over the Form #1000 form to see where the transit number identifier lines up. This will save the cost of printing on the check forms directly for testing purposes.

Summary

Now that the Check and GCheck are set up and ready to go, when you generate your monthly statements, you may print out your checks for your client from within Collect! on the professional looking Form #1000 checks. The Check and GCheck are the quick, easy and professional way to print your checks.

See Also

- Report Topics Index for many topics related to reports and printing
- How To Take Checks Over The Phone
- Report Sample to view all the sample reports and letters