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| Easypay for Windows |
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| New Cheque Specifications: CPA Standard 006 |
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All cheques must conform by September 2, 2008
New cheque printing options available in Easypay
What you need to know when ordering new cheques
Cheque numbers
Are you currently using a cheque that is 7 inches long?
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All cheques must conform by September 2, 2008
In order to make cheque processing faster and more convenient, the Canadian Payments Association (CPA) has announced a new standardized layout for cheques, known as CPA Standard 006. Businesses are strongly encouraged to update their cheques to meet these new standards by June 30, 2007. Any new cheque orders printed after that date should reflect the new specifications.
To help their business customers make a smooth transition, financial institutions will continue to process “old format” business cheques until implementation of the new clearing process begins on September 2, 2008. This extended transition or “grace period” will allow businesses that are still working on the changes to use up their existing supply of cheques. For more information, visit the Canadian Payments Association web site at www.cdnpay.ca. |
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New cheque printing options available in Easypay
Easypay for Windows includes new options that will allow you to print on payroll cheques that comply with the new standards. The new options will not interfere with your ability to print on your old cheques.
Easypay will continue to support printing all standard and custom cheque formats. For example, if you are currently using a stub/cheque/stub format, you can continue to use that format with the new CPA standards.
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What you need to know when ordering new cheques
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1. If you have recently ordered cheques, but are not sure if your cheques comply with the new standards, please check with your supplier. If you will be ordering new cheques, please ensure that your supplier modifies your cheque formats to comply with the new standards.
2. Easypay is working with Viceroy Business Forms to design a series of cheques that comply with the new standards and are 100% compatible with Easypay Payroll. For further information about these cheques, please call Viceroy Business Forms at (416) 588-0077.
3. There are three items in the new CPA standards that are especially important:
- The word "DATE"
- Date field indicators (DDMMYYYY, MMDDYYYY, or YYYYMMDD)
- The dollar sign ($)
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For LASER printers:
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We strongly recommend that you have the three items listed above pre-printed by your cheque supplier. This will ensure that the font, size, and quality of these items comply with the CPA standards. If these items are not pre-printed, you will have the option of printing them when printing on laser cheques with Easypay - however, you will be relying on the quality of your laser printer to print them to the required standards.
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For IMPACT (DOT MATRIX) and BUBBLE JET printers:
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The three items listed above must be pre-printed on the cheque. Many impact and bubble jet printers are unable to print these items to the standards required by the CPA.
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Cheque numbers
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There are two locations for a cheque number on a cheque:
( A ) A cheque number in the upper right of the cheque is optional.
( B ) A cheque number or "serial number" is required in the MICR line encoded on the bottom of the
cheque. This serial number must be pre-printed on your cheques by your forms supplier.
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If you decide to have the cheque number pre-printed on the upper right of the cheque by your forms supplier, it will match the serial number that is pre-printed in the MICR line at the bottom of the cheque.
If you decide not to have the cheque number pre-printed on the upper right by your forms supplier, then you have the option of printing the cheque number when Easypay prints the payroll cheques.
If you opt to have Easypay print the cheque number on the upper right, then you can specify the starting cheque number for that set of payroll cheques. The cheque number that Easypay prints on the upper right of the cheque does not need to correspond to the serial number in the MICR line at the bottom. The serial number in the MICR line is the number that will appear on your bank statement.
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Are you currently using a cheque that is 7 inches long?
If you are currently using a cheque form that is 7 inches long , we recommend that you take this opportunity to switch to an 11" long laser cheque. Printing on 7" forms is often problematic due to variations in printer drivers and issues associated with the Windows operating system. For these reasons, Easypay cannot guarantee successful printing on 7" cheques.
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For future announcements by Easypay concerning the new cheque standards, please check our News page periodically.
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The above information is also available as a PDF file (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read it): New Cheque Specifications (PDF)
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