Cognitive Solutions A776, B780 manual Check serial number

Chapter 5: Programming commands  119

Once a parsing format is specified, the following values are returned:

MICR characters	ASCII	Hexadecimal
Numerics	0 ... 9	0x30 ... 0x30
Space		0x20
Dash	-	0x2D
Field separator*
Country code*

*As specified in the parsing parameter string

Check serial number

Parsing the check serial number

Most banks print the check serial number in three easily recognizable spots. The printer firmware will look for the number in these spots, using the following ordered algorithm. The examples use letters to represent symbols on the check:

tTransit symbol

o“on us” symbol

$ Amount symbol

-Dash

cCheck serial number

x Any other number

A number bracketed by “on us” symbols in the auxiliary “on us” field is the check serial number.

occcccco txxxxxxxxxt xxxxxxxxo

Otherwise, a three or more digit number to the right of the rightmost “on us” symbol, and to the left of the leftmost amount symbol if an amount field is present, is the check serial number.

txxxxxxxxxt xxxxxxxxo cccc txxxxxxxxxt xxxxxxxxo cccc $xxxxxx$

If both of these searches fail to produce the check serial number, extract the whole account number field from between the rightmost transit symbol and the rightmost “on us” symbol. A three, four, or five-digit number to the right of the rightmost transit symbol, separated by a space or a dash from the rest of the account number is the check serial number.

txxxxxxxxxt cccc xxxxxxxxo txxxxxxxxxt cccc-xxxxxxxxo txxxxxxxxxt cccc xxxxxxxxo xx

If all of these searches fail to produce the distinct check serial number, and the check serial number field has been specified in the parsing parameter string options, no check serial number will be returned. If it is imbedded within the account number field, it will be returned as part of that variable length field.

Exceptions

Some banks print the check serial number in a location that cannot be electronically distinguished without specific exception information, although it can be visually distinguished because it is repeated in the upper right corner of the check. For these cases, the printer can hold up to nine exceptions for specific banks in its non-volatile memory (NVRAM), which is accessed by the read and write NVRAM commands. The specific bank is picked out by its transit number, and the firmware will look in the exception table for a transit number match before looking in the normal check serial number locations.

A776-PG00001 C 12/09 A776 (B780) Programming Guide