Crystal Conversion to BI Publisher

Hello all Financials PUG members:

At the last session at Reconnect, where it was an open forum on Financials, a discussions focused on the conversion of Crystal Checks to BI Publisher and what printer worked best to create the MICR line for the banks.

I took this item as a takeaway and would like your thoughts and opinions and I will combine them into a blog on Quest.  Here are some questions:
Have you converted your Crystal Checks to BI Publisher?

If yes, what steps can you recommend to others?

If you print your PeopleSoft checks in house, do you go straight from PeopleSoft to a printer?

Do you use a third party software provider to compose the file for printing?

If yes, who and whom do you recommend?

Do you use a third party to process a check file and do the mailing?

If yes, who do you use and what recommendations do you have?

Do you have any recommendations on testing the MICR line with the banks?

I have attached three Oracle papers on this specific topic.  I will compile all responses and publlish a document on Quest.

Hi Kathy and Natalie,

We have been running our tests with the switch to BI Publisher last month as well.  For the regular cheques, we seem to be ok with the 22 lines maximum.  For our overflow cheques, page 1 is printing fine with the cheque, but subsequent pages are not printing correctly.  No solution right now to this, just a workaround by the AP staff.

In terms of inventory MSR printing, as stated by another user in this thread, we need to upgrade our printer to one with direct pdf printing feature.

Sandra

Natalie, Sorry to hear of your issues.  I am making the assumption that you are running BI Publisher.  Since I went to Oracle for my suggestions on the conversion, I highly recommend that you go to the Oracle , My Oracle Support, page and look in PeopleTools and see if others have your same issue.  You can also see who else responds here.  One thought that I had was if there was a counter for the number of vouchers printing on one check, perhaps it is inserting a page break before it prints any data.  Let me know if you resolve the issue and I will publish your resolution on this site.

Help ! When we have an overflow condition (more than 22 lines will print on a check) the first page prints a blank check with only a Micr Line.  The second page contains the check and pertinent voucher payment information.  I do not know what is causing the first empty page (minus) micr line to print.  Thank you !

We have outsourced our check printing.  It’s a service you pay for through the bank, JPM in our case.  Then we only have to worry about the occasional express check.

**Best,

Justin**

Have you converted your Crystal Checks to BI Publisher?

- We go to production next week

If yes, what steps can you recommend to others?

- converting to BI Publisher is really a lift and shift report development process.  No rocket science here.  Just diligence.

• We use 3 HP printers for MICR check printing.  The biggest issue is that each printer prints the image slightly different, so you have to dial it in in your check layout and then also dial in each printer (at the printer).  Nearly impossible to get a layout to print exactly the same on every printer.

• We also certified it on QA with the bank and then again in Production before completely cutting over to the full BI Publisher check printing.  Lots of good work by the team to make that happen.

If you print your PeopleSoft checks in house, do you go straight from PeopleSoft to a printer?

• We go straight to the printer from PS

Do you use a third party software provider to compose the file for printing?

• No

If yes, who and whom do you recommend?

Do you use a third party to process a check file and do the mailing?

• We do it in house, but I would be interested in anybody who has outsourced check printing.  We print a customized remittance with the check, which is why we still do it in house.  It seems like it should be possible to send the data via XML to an external provider.  Would love to hear how others are doing it.

If yes, who do you use and what recommendations do you have?

Do you have any recommendations on testing the MICR line with the banks?

• Trial and error.  You should be able to get it close based on an overlay template provided by your bank.  At the end of the day we still have to send it off to the bank for approval.

We are getting ready to convert our checks to BI Publisher. We have them developed and tested with the bank.

We send our checks directly to the printer and have a customization to store the signature in our database.

We do not use any third parties.

We used our old checks as a guideline for the MICR (as well as a MICR guide) and once we got it as close as we could, we sent sample checks to the bank for testing.

You might want to ask the Tech Sig also about BI Publisher.  It was definitely discussed at the Tools roundtable at the end of reconnect.​

Caryn Paulson-White | PeopleSoft Support | 513.357.3186 | 513.412.4012 fax