In a world where businesses are striving to survive by reducing costs whenever possible, many businesses are turning to make their own commodities instead of outsourcing them.
One of the best ways businesses can save money is to print their required items and documents in house, like envelopes, templates, and other commodities.
Some businesses also print their own checks, but is it legal? Continue reading to find out.
The Legality of Check Printing
For the most part, printing checks is 100% legal. What’s not legal is the purpose these checks are printed for.
If you’re printing checks for 100% legal transactions, it’s completely fine as long as you follow the standard layout practices. The problem with check printing is that some people use it for illegal purposes, like check fraud. Check fraud is punishable by law, and the suspect may get jailed for many years because of that.
Therefore, you can rest assured that it’s perfectly fine to print your own checks for business use.
Things You Need to Print Checks
Here are the tools you need to print checks the right way:
- Check Printer with MICR Toner. A check printer must come with an MICR toner, or at least offer compatibility with MICR toners. For more information about the best check printers, visit https://thetechquarters.com/best-printer-for-printing-checks/
- Check paper stock. Check paper is a bit different than regular printing paper that’s used for printing documents. You can find it in bulk amounts at discounted prices.
- Magnetic Ink. MICR toners are filled with a special type of ink, called magnetic ink. As its name implies, this ink has a magnetic feature that makes the check detectable by check-processing machines. It’s used in printing sensitive information like check number, account number, and bank routing number.
- Check design software. You can either design your checks from scratch, but that can be pretty time-consuming. Instead, you can get a software program with preset check layouts that you can choose from quite easily.
Do Banks Accept Printed Checks?
You should have no problem using the checks you printed in banks, as long as they are printed according to the specified check printing standards, like using magnetic ink instead of regular ink.
Bank officials are trained to examine checks carefully, so make sure that you use a standard layout and ensure that all the required information are printed on the checks.
Final Thoughts
Now that you have a better idea about check printing, you can help your business save money by printing your own checks. Ready-made checks aren’t cheap, especially if you need huge quantities of them. The expenses can quickly add up over time.
Just make sure that you have a continuous supply of MICR toners, stock check paper, and magnetic ink to guarantee that your company never runs out of checks.