Check Printing

I was curious if anyone has done an application in Wappler where there was a need to print checks? If so I am curious how you went about it? Simple as printing to a pdf?

Will the checks be blanks (where you’re printing the entire front of the check, including banking account/routing numbers)? Or, are you just adding the amount and memo and date to a check that has been printed?

Only name, amount, date, memo

Not sure we can print all the banking info here in the states as it has to be on a legal check with water marking.

That’s good! Very easy to pull off & PDF is recommended. You can generate an image in any server side or secure API tool of your choice. I don’t recommend screen grab/website live capture tools, as the font is then rendered client side and sizing will throw off a check very quickly.

After all, the info on the check needs to line up enough to be readable and appear professional/legitimate so no one runs into issues cashing it. Browser-based printing and alignment is a nightmare, and users almost never read instructions :rofl:

We ended up solving a high volume check printing need by:

  • Pull relevant info from DB for check, generate approval request
  • Website generates PNG of check using bannerbear.com; once approved, this PNG is released back to the person who requested the check (this was later converted to a server side PNG generation by simplifying the layout)
  • Check is manually approved by showing sections of check like date zoomed in; user clicks yes to each item verifying it is accurate
  • While the user is going through this process, the PNG of the check is stored in the database and then converted to a PDF with appropriate margins for the printer being used so it is ready if a print is requested. If the user confirms the check is ready to be printed, the PDF is emailed to a special email address.
  • We ended up buying printers with an “Email PDF to print” option. It adds a level of passive security in that the end user never gets a copy of the PDF of the check, it just comes out of the right printer within about 1 minute from them confirming they want to print. Since this was a widely used internal tool, the company ended up buying the same printer for everyone who needed this tool.

It’s harder to get right if you’re working with various browsers and printer models, but if you get check blanks that have the minimum pre-printed info, that makes things easier. Checks with pre-printed lines for amount and date are a problem in many cases - get a check blank without the line in such a case.

Ours was a weird situation because they needed to print the entire check, not just the date, memo, amount… They used printers with special toner that is magnetic to print the account and routing info.

Given that you’re not having to do that, you may be able to approach this much simply. The hard part in my experience will be how do you get the PDF out of the printer without the margins changing when the person clicking print will not read instructions :wink:

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PS, I am here in the states as well. Unless you or your bank or client are requiring the watermark, it is optional.

One of my clients often had to send very small check amounts - under $25 - by mail. They used regular printer paper, 20 gsm bond office stock, and then cut the letter size paper into three checks using a cutting device.

It saved them hundreds of dollars a month in specialty check paper, and they simply set a rule with their bank never to accept a check over $25.

I think you can literally write a check with all the info by hand and a person can cash it at their bank with a teller. With Check21 its really wild, I don’t think the magnetic toner is even required anymore!

Not trying to be argumentative, just saying what may be considered a requirement definitely hasn’t been one in my neck of the woods across multiple states.

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Interesting, I learned something today :slight_smile: I figured a check printed on plain paper would be a no go.

The need is the same in this solution, checks are going to be very low amounts and only 1 time a year right after the fair. They use “QB” style voucher checks so it should not be too hard to print to a PDF and then make the adjustments to the pdf to match the check.

Are you using a print to pdf api or doing it all in wappler?

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I built this site pre-Wappler. We have used a few different PDF generators over the years, they send so many checks it was necessary to get a cheap provider.

We currently use https://www.convertapi.com/ but they may not be the best fit for you. I’m sure there’s a way to pull this off with 10x fewer steps if I was rebuilding in Wappler!