About checks and Check 21 regulations

The Check Processing for the 21st Century Act (Check 21) requires that banks accept scanned representations of checks sent electronically in place of the original paper checks. This legislation came into effect in October of 2004 with the dual purposes of speeding up check clearing and helping to prevent future disruption of the cash flow in the United States if air traffic were to be halted for any reason.

For all banks to accept the electronic representations of checks, there must be very strict requirements for how they look. For example, all fonts must meet certain specifications, and the placement of fields, such as the check dollar amount, must be standardized. At the present time, however, this only affects machine-printed checks.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. ANSI regulations have changed the requirements for printing checks, and Sage 100 Contractor has made specific changes to check forms to meet these requirements. For example, the fonts for the dollar sign ($) and for text in fields across the check are ANSI‑compliant.

Because of the new law, it is important that our customers understand the risks associated with changing the Sage 100 Contractor supported formatting. These risks are detailed below.

The bank’s scanner may not recognize the text and dollar amount and reject the check if these conditions exist:

• If you move or change the font for the dollar sign ($) or the amount on the check form.
• If you fail to properly update your old check form to meet the ANSI requirements, the banks at some point will notify you that your checks are not compliant.

Note: When you install Sage 100 Contractor, you install the new check forms that meet the Check 21 requirements. You can, however, continue to use the old check forms, which print just as they did before. As you have time, you can transition to the new check forms.