Quadrant Addresses Canadian Check Requirements

Published: April 3, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Are you feeling challenged by the Canadian Payments Association's (CPA) new check specifications, and the "strong suggestion" to meet them by June 30? If so, you might want to check out Quadrant Software, which last week released a new ChecksPack that enables companies to generate CPA-compliant checks from the Formtastic electronic forms software running on OS/400 and i5/OS servers.

The CPA is making several changes to its standards for check (or "cheques," as the organization calls them), to boost the capability to electronically capture check images, and to increase security.

The CPA's changes include adoption of one of three date standards, the inclusion of a serial number in the MICR line encoded at the bottom of the check, specified positions for data and amount fields, an increase of one-quarter of an inch in check length (to 6 1/4 inches) to accommodate the new fields, and the exclusion of things that may mess up check imaging, such as italic and slanted fonts, a bottom border below the MICR line, and the use of black carbon on the backs of checks, among other requirements. For the full list, see www.cdnpay.ca/faqs/new_specifications.asp.

For organizations that have already made the switch to electronic forms, such as those enabled with Quadrant's Formtastic product suite, adopting the new CPA check standards can be relatively simple. For Formtastic users, most of the compliance work entails installing the new ChecksPack for the CPA standards (provided by Quadrant), and making a few other changes.

Formtastic supports a range of i5/OS ERP systems out of the box, including J.D. Edwards, Infor's XA, BPCS, PRMS, and Infinium, and Lawson S3 and M3 applications. As of last July, Formtastic pricing started at $8,400. For more information, visit www.quadrantsoftware.com.

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