United States Treasury Check Issued for Economic Impact Payment or IRS Tax Refund With Us Currency

The Cost of Issuing Checks (A Guide for Businesses)

Every business needs to be cognizant of its variable costs and expenditures to create a fiscally viable foundation. Check printing is one such cost and one that can be surprisingly expensive if the process is not optimized. Offering checks online is viewed as insignificant for those who are not in the know. This startlingly common source of financial neglect can be carried out optimally with our check issuing services.

Check Printing for Businesses

Despite how casually consumers use their phones to pay for coffee, PayPal to fund eBay purchases, or virtual coins to pay for other items online, North American financial institutions still prefer checks. Many businesses use typewriters or dot matrix printers. These checks are expensive in two ways: the simple cost of the checks themselves and the time involved in employees manually undertaking the process of printing. 

Secure printing solutions are an answer to the time and money investment in printing checks for businesses. Issuing checks becomes a safe and convenient process for both sides involved. With online check issuing, your business does not need to fund the expensive cycle of purchasing, providing storage for, distributing, and manually tracking pre-printed checks. A business can save nearly 80% on paper expenses, according to research and studies.[1] If you already have a stock of pre-printed checks, some options offer support for these in addition to digital checks. 

Securely printing checks helps eliminate the risk of fraudulent activity. Online solutions for check writing are specifically designed to assist consumers in processing secure transactions. When integrating a financial institution, a host of elements become monitored, from slips and invoices to checks and bills that your account processes. If an unauthorized check appears, you receive instant notification.

Businesswoman’s Hand Signing Cheque on Wooden Desk

A Guide on Issuing Checks

Checks are essential components of the payment processes of many businesses. They allow for easy distribution of funds where they are most necessary, providing the user with needful security. In the U.S. alone, billions of checks become issued each year. An AFP survey undertaken in 2015 shows that the process of issuing checks can cost from as little as $1 to as high as $26 for each check. The mean price is roughly $6 per check.[2] A savvy business uses strategic choices to optimize the check issuing process.

A comprehensive cost analysis is an essential first step in preparing to issue checks. Check printing involves more than mere ink and paper. The infrastructure and labor costs are essential elements to consider. Labor involves production, preparation for mailing, filing, reconciliation, and oversight. Delivery costs incorporate such elements as postage and, when necessary, overnight costs. The materials for printing checks include envelopes, toner for a MICR printer, and the stocks of checks. Fees involve bank fees and monthly expenses. Finally, equipment is necessary. This includes equipment such as printers and the costs for maintenance and depreciation expenses. These costs can easily mount up quickly.

Executing Payment Processing Tasks

Our services make the execution of payment processing streamlined, affordable, and understandable. We offer paper and digital check processing using our API to upload or automate your desired service. Check writing and mailing, digital checks, ACH processing services along with transfers, and tax form services are all services we offer. We also process rebates, handle positive pay services, check for address normalization and verification, and produce printed and mailed statements.

Other tasks that we perform include providing images of your checks once they have been printed. These are offered either through our API or via a secure email. The reporting system we have developed is robust and permits you to export data for software that handles banking and accounting. Many of our clients utilize our ability to send checks throughout the world. International business is easily handled with our services.

Optimize Check Printing for the Best Results

Manually printing checks opens the door for many errors. These are wholly unnecessary when you use our services. Manual check writing is far from merely tedious; human mistakes are simply bound to take place. Secure printing solutions optimize check printing by decreasing the time required for check cutting. A financial institution’s process for issuing checks is time-consuming for both employees and customers. Both parties are forced to endure a boring wait. Modernization of printing checks is a solution to this tedium. Secure online services for printing checks can take care of the task in a minute or two. A check issued on-demand does not require much time for the software to handle its printing.

The Cost of Check Printing

Person Writing a Check Next to a Calculator

The mean cost of check printing is about $6 for businesses. According to the Wall Street Journal, a business check might run between $4 and $20 depending on such factors as check and shipping prices, employee time involved in writing, then mailing, followed by collection and reconciliation of a check.[3] Basic paper checks are burdensome for the economy. The issuing and depositing of checks, according to an electronic payments company, could run U.S. businesses a total of somewhere between $25 and $50 billion as of 2010.

The costs involved are varied and add up quickly. They include an initial and continuing investment in equipment and its maintenance, materials such as toner and stocks, an assortment of types of labor, delivery fees, bank fees, and storage and organization work. Some companies may benefit from the time involved in mailed check sending; extra time gives more liquidity on a short-term basis. However, overall, time equates to money, and manual check printing is a laborious process requiring inefficient amounts of time. This is where our services come in to help your business optimize check printing.

Reducing the costs of printing your checks is simple. In addition to using our services, you can negotiate with banks or develop a hybridized system. For negotiations, you can request that fees be waived to reduce your total check issuance costs. Your bank may well be willing to give a little in this area in order to keep your business. A hybrid system combines digital checks and paper checks. Digital checks may seem complicated, but they eliminate a host of costs. 

Some of the businesses we work with include PayPal, Lyft, Carvana, and Airbnb. Forbes has mentioned our platform and technology, as have the Baltimore Sun and TechCrunch, among others. With our financial solutions, you are in excellent hands. We inspire confidence with our solid history of accuracy and punctuality. Contact us to learn more about how to get your costs corralled and under our competent care for your check needs.