How to Design and Configure Cheque/ Check Forms in Sage 300

Many Sage 300 customers have requested custom design cheque/ check forms for individual banks. Some of them may use the pre-printed forms while others may use flat cheque paper (which has not been formatted with bank information and account information) to print the cheques.

Fortunately in Sage 300, there are templates for Account Payable (AP) and Payroll Cheques. They are very helpful for designing custom cheque forms.

Below I have listed the steps relating to cheque form design and configuration. Note: this may require some crystal reports experience.   

Templates for cheques in Sage 300

The templates for AP Cheque form are APCHK*.RPT in the AP report folder in Sage 300. Using crystal reports designer, you can see all the tables, fields, and formulas required. Those templates are usually designed to support STUB/STUB/CHEQUE or CHEQUE/STUB/STUB – different position for the cheque at the cheque form. Usually at Stub portion, the detail information for the cheque will be shown line-by-line. At the cheque portion, the actual cheque information will be shown, such as company/vendor/bank/account/amount information. Based on the templates, you then can design the custom cheque form quickly.

For example:  STUB portion (template)

For example: Cheque portion (template)

Design your custom cheque form

A normal cheque printing will include three portions – STUB / STUB / Cheque. In most case, two STUBs will show the same or similar information which are the break-down of the cheque details, for example, payment applied to AP invoice lines. For such requirements, it usually needs sub reports which could be duplicated for two STUBs.

For example, two customized STUBs are below for reference.

At the cheque portion, it may require you to add your company logo, company name and address, bank name and address, vendor/payee name address, payment amount, cheque number, payment date, and bank account information.

Company Logo

• The logo image can be copied and pasted directly to the report as the above sample cheque. It also can be linked to the location which the image file was stored. That means you can have different company logos if you have multiple companies. The image file path could be stored at the company profile in Sage 300.  

Company Name and address

• The Company Name and address can be designed on the cheque or extracted from company profile in Sage 300.

Bank name and address

• Bank name and address can be designed on the cheque or extracted from the address information at Bank profile in Sage 300.

Vendor name / Payee address

• The payee name and address are extracted from the Sage 300 database relating to the payment. The template has the formula fiels created for reference.

Cheque number

• The cheque number could be specified at each Cheque Stocks of bank account (bank profile), or changed during printing the cheque (refer to the following screenshots).

Bank Account

• The account number on the cheque form includes Transit number, Institution number, and bank account number in a special font format – mICR font. Please refer to the bottom line at the cheque form. The bank account information can be extracted from the bank account in Sage 300, such as transit number “07203”, part of Description “003”, Bank account number “154-213-7”. Please refer to bank account configuration.

Configuration of bank accounts

Bank account settings

Three parts – Institution number (003) as the portion of description; transit number (07203); and bank account number (154-217-3) as below.

Cheque Stocks

• In the cheque stocks, the cheque form will be linked to the bank account which will be selected for payment. Next cheque number will be setup before printing the cheque in order to match the cheque number which may be pre-printed cheque paper. The advice line per page is set for the maximum lines to be displayed at the STUB portion.

Bank Branch Address

• The bank branch address could be entered at the bank account in Sage 300. The following screenshot is for reference.

mICR Font requirement

For many cases of cheque design, the bank account is not pre-printed on the cheque paper. It is required to print the Cheque number, Transit Number, Institution number, Bank account number at the bottom of cheque form using mICR font format. There are also requirements regarding the position of the account by individual banks. For example –

The mICR / E-13b TrueType font could be purchased from some service companies such as IDAutomation.com and morovia.com. For testing purpose, there is one free font available online here. 

Summary

Cheque printing is one of the main custom forms to complete during any Sage 300 ERP implementation. The above solution may help you or your customers during the design / development stage. To learn about more detailed report designs, please feel free to contact the Mantralogix Sage 300 team at 1-866-320-8922, and we will be happy to help you!  For us it’s personal; not just business.