Pre-printed check stock comes with your bank's information, your routing and account numbers, and the MICR line already printed by a commercial check printer — your software or printer only needs to add the variable details: date, payee, amount, and signature.
Tradeoffs versus blank stock
- Less for your software to get right, since the MICR line is already professionally printed rather than generated on your own printer.
- Tied to a single bank account — if you switch banks, your existing stock becomes unusable.
- You typically order in batches of several hundred, which means storing a stack of paper that already has your account number printed on every sheet.
- Reordering takes time, which can be a problem if you run out mid-month.
Pre-printed stock makes sense if you want one less thing for your software to handle correctly. Blank stock makes sense if you want flexibility across accounts and to print exactly as many checks as you need, on demand.