RE: Cheque printing direct from the iSeries.

Hey Eduard,

You might consider investing in a Laser MICR Check solution, which will
eliminate preprinted checks all together.(Not to mention eliminate
having to print a check more than once because of errors, etc.) 

Essentially, using the software's GUI a user is empowered with the
ability to easily design checks, map data from their ERP (simply by
clicking and dragging), and then print them onto blank safety stock
using a MICR printer. 

Obviously this has many benefits, including eliminating the need to
discard old preprinted checks when information is outdated, and guarding
against printing errors, that as you may have already experienced, are
quite common. 
The best part, however, is all the advanced features and tools that come
with a MICR Check Solution: positive pay is created, a log of checks is
kept automatically, and an electronic copy of each check issues is
automatically saved within a designated directory. Additionally, the
increased level of security options is unmatchable. 

My company, Quadrant Software, has a very flexible and powerful MICR
check solution that integrates seamlessly with diverse IT environments.
If you would like more information, please call us at (508) 594-2700, or
email us at sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx You can also visit our website
at www.quadrantsoftware.com.  

Best Regards, 

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Eduard Sluis
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 11:28 AM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: Cheque printing direct from the iSeries.

Thanks Wayne,

We will investigate what Acom and others offers in this respect.
Looking at there site they will be able to do what need to happen.
If they are 'affordable'...... they do what they do best and we will do
what we do best.

Kind regards,
Eduard Sluis. 

----- Original Message ----
From: Wayne McAlpine <wayne.mcalpine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 4:43:35 PM
Subject: Re: Cheque printing direct from the iSeries.


Before deciding to go with the EFT solution, I had been working with the

folks at ACOM.  Had we decided to print checks, it would have been with 
their product.  They offered a total solution, hardware and software. 
Here's a link to their web site, but there are other vendors of similar 
packages.

http://www.acom.com/iseries/ezpm400.html


Eduard Sluis wrote:

Thanks Wayne (and al the others),
 
Our customers are banks.
Normally we do not have to do this Cheque thing because cheques are

more and more a thing of the past.

In this case it is not a very big bank and because of lack of a

national clearing system they have an considerable total of cheques to
print.

Not only Cheques 'on us' but also cheques issued for other banks they

have relations with (EURO cheques on the name of ABN-AMRO Amsterdam, USD
cheques on the name of 'Bank of America' NewYork, JPY cheques on the
name of Bank of Tokio, etc).

Those will have different formats and will be in different ways pre

printed.

Some will be pre numbered other happily not (generating/administrating

your own numbers is far simpler than having someone to enter a number).

I guess we will have to use laser printers with sufficient tray's that

are AFP capable.

Oops, that opens up a lot of new challenges.
- AFP printing (never done)(longtime ago played a bit with PCL5 escape

codes).

- All kind of spoolfile management (This user this printer, This

Printerfile this tray), Vaguely know how to do.

Any suggestion that could make life easier?

Kind regards,
Eduard Sluis. 

----- Original Message ----
From: Wayne McAlpine <wayne.mcalpine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 12:30:30 PM
Subject: Re: Cheque printing direct from the iSeries.


There are turnkey solutions out there from vendors like Acom that 
produce the entire check on blank check stock.  They use a special

laser 

printers that support MICR (magnetic ink character recognition?) 
printing.  Many stock printers can be converted to print MICR. 
Typically the checks are printed on stock that includes a self mailer.

These require a separate device to fold and seal the envelope.  You've

seen these checks with the perforated edges that have to be torn off

to 

open it.

The other alternative is to roll your own and print to pre-printed and

numbered checks.  Typically these are continuous form checks that are 
printed on an impact dot-matrix or band printer.  The check forms can

be 

  purchased in several configurations, i.e., carbon copies,  These 
checks can be burst by hand or by machine and processed by normal 
mailroom folder/inserter machines.  There is RPG shareware available

to 

produce the spelled-out amount on the check face.

Typically the MICR checks are used for high-volume processing and the 
impact printers for more moderate operations.

But the best way to handle payment processing is to use EFT.  Your

bank 

can easily set you up to upload your data and they will do the funds 
transfer for you, usually for far less than what it would cost to 
produce paper checks.  Our check printing project was shelved 
permanently once we started looking into EFT.

Hope this helps as a starting point.

Wayne



Eduard Sluis wrote:

Dear all,
 
For one of our customers we are to print cheques direct on a cheque

printer.

This Cheque printing requires a bit more than normal printing because

we want to be damn sure that the cheque is printed and is printed only
once and ....?!

 
I have to assume that we are not the first ones to do so and that

perhaps this is a very common thing to do.

What we would like to know is:
- Are tools available to do this?
- What kind of printers are suitable?
- Are there routines available to use with specific printers?
- Anything to think about we might overlook?
- Any experience that could help us!!
 
Any help/response appreciated.
Kind regards,
Eduard Sluis.