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CPA 006 Overview - Front of Cheque

by Les C. Cseh, ASAP Cheques, Forms & Supplies
revised August 21, 2006

 

Cheque Background Design and Borders
Cheque Date
Convenience Amount Rectangle
Amounts
Cheque Number

 

Cheque Background Design and Borders

The most evident change to the standards is that the background design on cheques should not appear when scanned, and in particular it must not interfere with the Areas Of Interest. This will restrict some of the creativity that cheque printers have used for many years, and result in cheques with light backgrounds.

cpa006-personal-cheqe-dh-backgroundjpg.JPG
The light background on this Davis+Henderson printed cheque
will not interfere with the legibility of the financial institution name
and payee name.

Cheques had frequently incorporated borders into the design, often extending to just above the bottom of the cheque. Borders interfere with the scanning of the MICR line, so they are now expressly ruled out. This is why the bottom 5/8" (1.59 cm) on the front of cheques (the MICR Clear Band) is now free of most or all printing except for the special Magnetic Ink Character Recognition numbers and symbols.

cpa006-personal-cheque-dh-clear-band.JPG
In the past, most background designs would have extended to the
bottom of the cheque. On CPA 006 compatible designs such as
this one from D+H, the background ends at or above
the MICR Clear Band and borders have been eliminated.

Cheque Date

The cheque date must now be numeric, in the form of YYYYMMDD, MMDDYYYY or DDMMYYYY. 

For cheques that are filled out manually, the new standards require Guidance Boxes with Date Field Indicators underneath. Guidance Characters within the boxes are optional.

On this D+H cheque for an Ontario bank account, the DDMMYYYY format
has been used. Because this is a personal cheque that will be filled out by hand,
Guidance Boxes with Date Field Indicators underneath are required.
The light characters inside the Guidance Boxes are now optional.

If the cheque date is printed by software, then guidance boxes are not required but the date must still be in one of the numeric formats described above, and date field indicators must still be printed underneath.

cpa006-date.jpg

This business cheque for an Ontario bank account is filled in using
accounting software, which is why there are no Guidance Boxes.

The date field must be 1/4" (.64cm) away from the convenience amount / amount in numbers. The 3/4" (1.91cm) to the left of the word Date must be free of printing (other than the background). There must also be at least .1" (.25cm) clear around the entire Date field.

Convenience Amount Rectangle

If the cheques are filled out manually, a rectangle must exist with no box or border around it where the convenience amount (amount in numbers) will be written or typed.

There must be at least .10" (.25 cm) clear around the convenience amount rectangle and dollar sign. For business cheques, the rectangle width must be between .80" (2.03 cm) and 2.15" (5.46 cm) and the height must be between .30" (.76 cm) and .50" (1.27 cm).  For personal cheques, the rectangle must be between .80" (2.03 cm) and 2.15" (5.46 cm) and the height must be between .20" (.51 cm) and .30" (.76 cm). The dollar sign must be printed in 10 points minimum size, not using slanted or italic fonts.

cpa006-convenience-amount.jpg
A Convenience Amount Rectangle from a manual business cheque, showing
its proximity to the date field above, the associated dollar sign, and more
than the minimum required space around the rectangle.

Amounts

If the convenience (numeric) and legal (words) amounts will be printed by software, then several rules apply:

  • if asterisks are used, they must be to the immediate left of the amount and to the right of the dollar sign.

  • the font size must be a minimum of 10 points

  • fonts must not be slanted or italicized

  • inverse printing, often used to make amounts difficult to alter, is no longer allowed

  • ink colors must be dark and "image friendly" (eg. black, dark purple, blue)
     

cpa006-amount-in-numbers.jpg
A Convenience Amount (Amount In Numbers) as
printed by QuickBooks Pro 2006. Note the correct use
of asterisks, and ample space around this field.

cpa006-amount-in-words.jpg
A Legal Amount (Amount In Words) as printed by
QuickBooks Pro 2006. The author expects that a future version
will add the word Dollars after the 00/100.

Cheque Number

The cheque number now must be encoded on the MICR line, either in advance by your cheque printer (most of the time), or in some cases by your accounting/personal finance software.

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