So far this year I have had to void 6 checks because they had the incorrect reference number. Often two checks are given the same number or the numbers do not match the printed numbers on the checks. We have made sure that the correct number is entered into the program when we print the checks but either the program is not automatically advancing the numbers or something else is messing up. This is producing a lot of frustration and a very messy check register.
Any ideas about what is going on or suggestions for procedures which will help us to find out what is going on with this problem
9 times out of 10 when we get this question, it's because the printer is set to "reverse collate." This is a pretty useful feature, if you're printing a multi-page report, because it prints the last page first, which gives you all your pages in order when you're ready to pick it up off the printer. For check printing, it's not so good. Make sure you aren't printing your checks in reverse order. If so, check your printer driver settings to see how to turn that feature off.
That other 1 time out of 10 is when the printer accidentally feeds two checks through instead of one.
We had our checks printed and packaged in reverse order to compensate. What about the checks that have the identical reference number - once that happens everything else is incorrect. Why would it print to identical reference numbers on two different checks??