Eleven checks a finance or operations team can run on its own check output before the bank runs them for you. It covers toner, fuser condition, stock, font, and the signal test itself.
Every check tests something your bank's reader/sorter also tests. Most take a few minutes and need nothing more than a test sheet, a roll of clear tape and a MICR gauge. The last one needs a MICR verifier.
Send me the checklist
Download it right away. PDF, 11 pages.
Thank you. Your message is with the Rosetta Technologies team, and a member of the team will reply by email.
* Required. We never sell, rent or share your information. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA; the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The eleven checks
What the checklist has you test
Run all eleven whenever you change toner, fuser, stock or check software, and on a fixed schedule in between. Each one names the reason it matters, the way to run it, and what a pass looks like.
Toner
Every check printer runs genuine MICR toner
Print density is at full strength
The clear band is clean
Fuser
The fuser is inside its rated life
The toner passes a tape test
The media setting matches the stock
Stock
The stock meets your bank's paper specification
The stock is stored and conditioned
Font
The MICR font is genuine E-13B at its designed size
The MICR line sits where the standard puts it
Signal test
Signal strength measures 50 to 200 percent of nominal
Also inside
What a reader/sorter actually measures
A reader/sorter does not look at your MICR line. It feels it: a write head magnetizes the iron oxide in the toner, and a read head senses each character's waveform. Five things decide whether a check reads:
Signal strength, accepted at 50 to 200 percent of nominal under U.S. standards
Waveform shape, set by the outline of each character
Position, inside the 5/8 inch clear band along the bottom edge
A clean clear band, with no other magnetic toner in it
Durability, because the line passes more than one reader/sorter
The checklist also shows how to read your bank's reject report in four steps, and the five failures that cause most rejects.
