Printing and Voiding Supplier Checks
When you use Supplier Check Print to print checks, the remittance stub of the check stationery contains details of the invoices paid by the check, with one line on the check allotted per invoice. You define the number of invoice lines to be printed on the check using the Invoice per Check field in Payment Format Maintenance.
During a check print run, the preprinted check numbers of the check stationery are stored and traceable in the system to prevent fraudulent printing of checks. However, there are a number of situations in which the numbering sequence of the checks can be disrupted:
• A paper jam or other printer error occurs during printing.
• The address details on the check are incorrect, and need to be reprinted.
• The printed checks are lost in transit and must be reprinted.
In these cases, you maintain the integrity of the numbering sequence by voiding the supplier payments for the lost checks. Use Supplier Payment Mass Change to select the corresponding payments and change their statuses to Void. This creates empty check records for the voided checks with the original preprinted numbers assigned to them. At the same time, the original payment records are reset to an unprinted status (without preprinted numbers) so that you can use them for a new check print run using a new number range.
Example: You are printing a payment selection of 100 checks on stationery prenumbered from 001 to 100. The printer jams at the form numbered 076. In the system, all 100 checks are marked as printed and are assigned preprinted numbers from 001 to 100. On the printer, the forms numbered 076 to 079 are scrambled, but the stationery can be reused starting from 080. To rectify the problem and reprint the last 25 checks correctly, open Supplier Payment Mass Change. Select the four payments that correspond to the scrambled forms and change their statuses to Void. The selected payments are assigned the status Void and keep the preprinted numbers 076 to 079. At the same time, four new unprinted payments are created automatically and linked to the same invoices as the voided payments. Now, you can reprint (using a print type of Duplicate) the 21 checks that were already assigned numbers 080 to 100 on forms prenumbered from 080 to 100. After that, you can print the four new checks that replace the voided checks on forms prenumbered from 101 to 104.
The check numbering sequence is also disrupted when the number of invoice lines to be printed on the page exceeds the page length.
Example: Three checks are to be printed on the pages numbered 10000001, 10000002, and 10000003. The invoice lines on the first check exceed the length of page 10000001. The system does not let you print a check on two pages; instead, it prints Void on the second page, and creates a voided check record to account for this number. The print run continues with the second check on the third numbered page (10000003), and the third check on the fourth numbered page (10000004).
In this way, the numbering sequence is kept consecutive and the skipped prenumbered page is recorded.
Ultimately, if the preprinted numbers in the system are completely unsynchronized with the physical check forms that have been printed, there is also a manual way to rectify the situation. However, you must have access privileges to run the Supplier Payment Renumber activity so that you can then use Supplier Payment Mass Change to manually update the preprinted check numbers for the payment. Also, at any time, you can use Payment Format Maintenance to reset the next preprinted number that the system will use during a check print run.