News & Events

With plastic supposedly dominating the financial landscape, many small-business owners don't realize the need to invest in a dual-purpose cash and check scanner. The ongoing joke about millennials is that none of them know how to write a check, and this age group typically just writes checks for big sums of money, like rent. However, only 38 percent of consumers claim to never use personal checks, according to a 2014 poll from GOBankingRates. Here are a few reasons your small business needs to take checks:

You won't have to turn away business

There is no risk of having to turn business away if you allow your customers to pay with checks. Many people, especially older ones, prefer to do all of their shopping with checks, so if they go to pay for their goods or services with one, and you have no way to scan and accept it, they may have to take their business elsewhere. This is especially detrimental to small businesses, since they don't have the financial clout of a corporation.

Low processing fees

Cash will always be the most economical form of payment to accept, but checks are a close second. According to the Small Business Chronicle, credit and debit card merchant accounts charge between 1 and 4 percent of the customer's total as a transaction fee, as well as a transaction fee for the business owner. Checks, however, may not have any fees at all attached to them. While between 1 and 4 percent may not seem like a large amount for a single transaction, those small percentages add up after multiple purchases.

It's safe 

While check fraud does still exist, it isn't nearly as prevalent as credit and debit fraud. Just follow these simple steps to ensure your customers aren't paying with a bad checks:

• Watch the customer sign the check.
• Be wary of checks with low numbers - this indicates that the check is being written from a new account.
• Check ID to ensure the customer is writing a check with his or her information on it.
• Do not accept post-dated checks.
• Make sure everything written on the check is clear and nothing is whited or crossed out.

By scanning your checks with a dual-purpose cash and check scanner upon receiving them, you can also avoid having to deal with the dreaded "bounced" check, as well allows your company to get faster access to revenue by speeding up the deposit process.