For businesses today, business checks are considered one of life’s conveniences, as are paper clips or staplers. No one stops to think about the ingenuity of the concept of business checks. However, business checks were not always in existence, and before they made their way into offices, life for small business owners and bookkeepers was a lot more complicated.
Historians say that as far back as the ancient Greeks, business transactions were sometimes transcribed by a scribe, but the scroll was an impractical possession, and paying a scribe was very costly. With the passage of time, the method slowly evolved, but business transactions were recorded in ledgers in some form. In England in the early 1700’s, more advanced business
checks began to appear. These ‘checks’ were also written by scribes on heavy paper, and adorned with decorative seals and crests. They were anything but practical. Checks were costly to write, and it was even harder to keep a ledger of the checks distributed and received.
Over the years, business owners began to write checks on cheaper and more practical paper, and eventually carbon paper came into being. By placing a piece of carbon paper between two blank checks, accountants could more easily keep accounts. Paperless carbon paper was another big advancement in the development of business checks. Computers represented the ultimate in convenience for business checks. Business owners could now print checks, but they still had to sign them by hand. Eventually, banks began to accept digitally printed signatures, and the business checks that are used today came into being.
Business checks are constantly being made more inexpensive and convenient to obtain, with many online sites selling business checks. These sites must adhere to the standards set forth by the FAC, to ensure that no company’s security is compromised. Customers today can order business checks right from their computers. All that has to be done is to enter the business’s information, and the bank’s information, such as the account number and bank’s routing number. Businesses can also personalize their checks to reflect the company’s interests, and the company logo can even be uploaded and printed on the check.
Business checks such as Quickbooks checks and the like make life even easier by automatically recording facts and details that are associated with the payment. Bookkeepers today need to just learn how to work the specific accounting program, whether it is Quickbooks, Intuit, or some other variety, and they’re set to go.
Life for accountants and small business owners is a lot easier today than it used to be. Business checks have helped modernize today’s economic system for small businesses.