Bank accounts
Printing checks
Print checks onto your own check stock, line them up with your printer, and keep every check number accounted for.
What you need
- Check stock: standard 8.5" × 3.5" business checks on letter-size (8.5" × 11") sheets, the kind sold for accounting software. Either a voucher sheet (one check at the top, stubs below) or three checks to a page.
- Stock that already has your bank's details printed on it: your name and address, the bank, the routing and account numbers along the bottom, and the check number. EscBooks prints only the fill-ins, not the bank details, so blank check paper won't work.
- A check saved in EscBooks, from a bank account (see Paying vendors and bills).
What prints on the check
- The date, as banks read it (10/28/2026)
- The payee, on the "Pay to the order of" line
- The amount in the box, with stars in front ("**1,840.00")
- The amount in words, with stars to the end of the line ("One thousand eight hundred forty and 00/100****")
- The memo
- The payee's name and address under the payee line, if you choose it (for a window envelope)
You sign it. With Stubs on, the other two parts of the sheet get the check's details to tear off and keep: the payee and amount, the check number, date and account, and the category and memo.
Printing a check
- Open the check with its printer icon, on the account's Vendor Payments or on Expenses. Or click Save and Print as you write it.
- Check the Check Number. A check waiting to print has the account's next number filled in: change it to match the check that's actually in the printer. Later checks follow on from it.
- Under Check on the Sheet, pick where the check is, and turn Payee's address and Stubs on or off (see The sheet below).
- Click Print Check. In your browser's print window, set the scale to 100% (or "Actual size") and the margins to None, then print.
- Answer Did check 1043 print correctly? (see below).
The preview at the top of the window shows the fill-ins in place on a check, with a standard check's lines drawn in gray underneath. Your choices are kept for that account, so the next check prints the same way. A void check can't be printed.
Did it print correctly?
When the print window closes, EscBooks asks Did check 1043 print correctly? Look at the printed check before you answer. Its number is recorded only when you say it printed right.
- Yes, It Printed: the check is recorded under that number, and it's Outstanding until it clears.
- It Didn't Print (you cancelled the print window, or nothing came out): nothing is recorded. Print again on the same number.
- It's Spoiled (a jam or a misprint): that number is kept in the register as a void check worth $0, "Spoiled while printing the check to" the payee, so it's never used again and every check in your stock is accounted for. The next number is filled in: load the next check and print. Write VOID across the spoiled paper check and keep it.
The sheet
Top: the check is the top third of the sheet, as on a voucher sheet with stubs below it.
- Check on the Sheet: Top for a voucher sheet. For three checks to a page, pick the one that's next in the printer: Top, Middle or Bottom.
- Payee's address: prints the vendor's name and address under the payee line, to show through a window envelope. It needs the vendor's address on file: add it under Address and notes when you edit the vendor on Vendors. Until then, it says there's none on file.
- Stubs: fills in the sheet's other two parts with the check's details, to keep.
Lining it up with your printer
On this check, as printed:
- Date0.35″ left, 0.10″ high
- Pay to & amount0.15″ left, 0.10″ high
- Amount in words0.15″ left, 0.10″ high
- Address0.15″ left, 0.10″ high
- Memo0.15″ left, 0.10″ high
Printers feed paper a little differently, and check stock varies. Line it up once per account, on plain paper:
- Click Print a Test. It prints the whole sheet with the check's guide lines (the date line, the payee line, the amount box, the memo line) under the fill-ins. Nothing is recorded, and no check number is used.
- Hold the test over a sheet of check stock, against a window or a light, and see what's off.
- Under Line It Up, move Everything right or down, in inches: positive numbers move right and down, negative ones left and up. Each click of + or − moves it 0.05", up to 2" either way, or type the number in the box.
- If only one line is off, open One line at a time and move just that one: Date, Pay to & amount (the amount box moves with the payee line), Amount in words, Address (when it's on) or Memo. These add to Everything.
- Print another test until it sits right, then print the real check.
The layout is saved for the account when you print, a test or a check. Closing the window without printing drops the changes. Reset sets every move back to 0.
Reprints and changes
- Reprinting a printed check on a new check: open it, enter the new check's number (it says it was printed before) and click Print Again. Once you answer Yes, It Printed, the check takes the new number, and the old one is kept as void the same way as a spoiled one.
- Changing a printed check (the amount, payee or date): it says to print it again on a new check, since the one you printed no longer matches.
- A check you won't send: void it (see Paying vendors and bills). A void check can't print again.
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