Introduction

Welcome

Welcome to QDrafts, the bank draft software fully integrated with QuickBooks, designed to save you from costly merchant processing and ACH fees. By using this easy to use software, you can improve your cash flow of your business. Invoice your client, print a draft, and deposit the draft in your company’s bank account. The client’s account is automatically updated to show payment received and your business has cash flow. No more merchant fees, monthly fees and credit card charge-backs!

What is a Bank Draft?

A bank draft is a pre-authorized check drawn on a customer’s checking account. Unlike “standard” checks, bank drafts are printed on blank check stock using the customers banking information provided over the phone, via the internet, or with written authorization. With the customer’s authorization, the bank draft does not have the customer’s signature; instead, the draft indicates that it was pre-authorized by an authorized signer on the checking account being charged.

Why use a Bank Draft?

Bank drafts are convenient, easy to produce, fast clearing, have no transaction fees like credit cards and ACH payments.

How do Bank Drafts work?

Printed bank drafts work just like depositing a check into your checking account. They clear in the same way as any check payment.

Why use QDrafts integrated with QuickBooks to manage bank drafts?

QDrafts software can be used to set up recurring Bank Draft Debits for regular customers directly within your QuickBooks Company file. Unlike any other Check Draft software, QDrafts is fully integrated into your QuickBooks processes. Never enter data twice! There is no need to learn another software. Anyone who knows how to use QuickBooks, can use QDrafts with almost no additional training. It works just like printing checks from QuickBooks. You do not have to do an export / import of data or to do redundant data entry into the other software. When drafts are printed, QDrafts applies the payments to the open invoices they were drafted against, and show up as payments automatically. They are then listed in “Payments to Deposits:. Once selected and deposited, they will appear in QuickBooks deposit summary.

What is the advantage of a Bank Draft over ACH?

ACH transactions can bounce. If ACH bounces, you can make a second attempt to collect for the same amount only. If a bank draft bounces, you can change the amount and collect as funds become available as long as the amount is less than the pre-authorized payer limit. ACH transactions are limited to $2500. Bank drafts are limited to the maximum policy of the payer's bank, usually the entire account funds balance. There are over eighty reasons why an ACH can be returned unpaid. There are fees for doing every ACH transactions. There are no merchant or transaction fees for printing & depositing bank drafts.

How does QDrafts save me time and money?

Wouldn’t it be nice to eliminate the need of opening up the envelopes with the mailed in payments and the tedious task of posting the check payments to your customers’ account? Let QDrafts save you efforts for the task. When you print a successful check though QDrafts, the payment is automatically posted to your customer’s account without any additional keystrokes!

QDrafts can help you eliminate the costly, time consuming, and repetitive tasks associated with weekly, monthly, and quarterly invoicing. Save money from eliminating the cost of postage. With QDrafts there would be no need to send out physical invoices or billing statements. Your customer will receive a copy of the check in their next monthly statement from their bank. This will act as a receipt of their payment.

Are there any transaction fees for using QDrafts?

No. Unlike merchant credit card fees, and ACH drafts, there are no transaction or monthly fees.

Support, upgrades, and money back guarantee.

After licensing and registering QDrafts we offer 30-days of free telephone support. (See support section.) We offer free upgrades and software fixes for a 90-day period from registration. During the first 30-days, if you are unhappy with QDrafts and we are unable to resolve your dissatisfaction with the product, we will fully refund your license fee.

Custom change requests.

Zerman, Inc. is a high skilled custom software design house. We are also QuickBooks Premier Developers. We can make changes to QDrafts, custom add-ons for QuickBooks, or any other software design task requested by our client. Please contact us if you require additional automation.

Getting Started

What information is required?

Bank name
Bank routing number
Checking account number
Check writer’s name and address
Dollar amount authorized

Check Stock

Bank drafts are formatted for standard bank check stock of 8 ½ inch x 11 inch sheets either three per a page (3-up) with a bottom margin or voucher style (1-up) check at top with two perforated voucher parts.

MICR

MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) is the standard way required for printing of the account number, bank routing number, and draft or check number at the bottom of the check. MICR is printed on the checks with a special MICR ink cartridge you install into you printer. Usually MICR is a laser printer cartridge that you can swap out with the standard laser printer cartridge for printing checks and drafts. Ink jet style printers are typically unsuccessful since the magnetic particles tend to attract each other and do not print properly out the ink jet head.

Printing on a laser printer with a MICR printer cartridge is the recommended way of proceeding. However, because of the “Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act”, or “Check 21 Act” (see FAQ) some banks have upgraded their check processing equipment to scan the check optically and therefore do not utilize MICR print but read the check number, account number, and routing numbers using cameras. Check with your bank to see if MICR is required.

MICR or not, it is always best to print a few test draft deposits of your own and deposit them into the proper checking account and see if they clear without issue prior to accepting drafts for transactions.

Installation

Software requirements

These are the supported versions of QuickBooks for Windows that QDrafts presently supports.

QuickBooks Pro 2004 – 2006 US Editions
QuickBooks Premier 2004 – 2006 US Editions

· QuickBooks Enterprise 2004 – 2006 US Editions

QuickBooks Accountant Edition 2004 – 2006 US Editions

Hardware requirements

Any Microsoft Windows PC supported by the above versions of QuickBooks.
10 MB of disk space.
Printer with MICR toner or ink cartridge installed. (Optional)
Bank drafts that are formatted for standard bank check stock of 8-½ inch x 11-inch sheets either three per a page (3-up) or voucher style (1-up) check at top with two perforated voucher parts.

Installing QDrafts

To install QDrafts, make sure that QuickBooks is closed. Then run the file QDraftsSetup.exe. It will launch a simple installation wizard and just follow the prompts.

Uninstall

To uninstall QDrafts, make sure that QuickBooks is closed. Then select “Add or Remove Program” from Windows control panel. Select QDrafts and select the “Remove” button.

Backup

QDrafts place a file named “QDrafts.ini” in the location of the QuickBooks Company file. This file should be backed up with the QuickBooks Company file. It needs to be backed-up independently of the Company file since the QuickBooks back up only knows to backs up the Company file.

QDrafts / QuickBooks Setup

QuickBooks Integrated Application setup

The first time you run QuickBooks after installing QDrafts QuickBooks will bring up several dialog boxes you may be unfamiliar with. On this dialog you will select any one of the “Yes” selections. We recommend selecting “Yes, whenever the QuickBooks company file is open” or “Yes, always allow access even if QuickBooks is not running”. The later requires putting in a user name and password for that user. Then select “Continue…”.

The next dialog is informational in saying the application does not contain a digital certificate. That is correct and select “Yes” to allow access.

The last dialog confirms your selection. Select “Done”. If you selected either of the two recommended “Yes” selection on the first dialog you should not have these dialogs presented to you again.

Setting up your Company file for QDrafts

Setting up the fields for the Customer’s Banking Information

1. You must be logged into the QuickBooks Company data file with Administrator permissions and in single-user mode.

2. Display the Customer:Job List (QuickBooks 2006 Select Customer Center.)

3. Do one of the following:

3.2. Click New to add a new customer to the list.

3.3. Select any name on the list and click Edit.

4. Click the Additional Info tab.

4.2. Click Define Fields.

5. There will be four (4) required fields you want to add. Enter the following names of each field in the label column.

DraftName
DraftAccountNumber
DraftRoutingNumber
DraftBankName

6. Select the check box for each label to be used for Customers:Jobs.

7. Click OK.

8. Go to the Terms field on the “Additional Info” tab. Select “Add New”. On the Terms dialog Enter “Draft” in the terms field and select the radio button “Standard”. Click OK

Restrictions: You can add up to seven fields to each list. Overlapping fields count as one field on each list. For example, if you add the same field to all three lists, you can still add six other fields to each list. If you have exceeded your limit – you will see an error “You cannot use more than 7 custom fields for customers.” You may write over QuickBooks pre-defined labels of Contact #, B-Day, or Spouse’s Name if you are not using them.

Payment Method

Go to the Lists menu, choose Customer & Vendor Profile Lists, and then click Payment Method List.
Click Payment Method at the bottom of the list to add a payment method.
In the “Payment Method” field type in “Draft”
In the “Payment Type” field select “Check”
Click OK

Customize Invoice for QDrafts

From the Lists menu, choose Templates.
Select the invoice template used in your business and select Edit from the Templates menu button.
Click on the “Fields” tab and add these four (4) additional fields to be displayed on “Screen”.

DraftName, DraftAccountNumber, DraftRoutingNumber, DraftBankName

Note: The Draft information fields should ONLY be for “Screen” because you don’t want this billing information to be printed on the invoice.

Click OK to save your changes. If you have more than one invoice, select another invoice and repeat the steps.

This screen is a modified invoice showing on “screen only” the required field for QDrafts.

Ready to go.

You are now ready to enter Customer’s checking information and print drafts.

Setting QDrafts preferences

From the File menu, choose QDrafts, and then choose Preferences.

Payee field

Payee field is usually your company or the name of the account you are depositing the draft to.

Next Draft Number

This is the next draft number to be printed. This number is increment for each draft that is printed.

Click OK to save the information.

Product license registration

QDrafts comes with a free 30 day trial for the user to install and test-drive the software before requiring purchase. After the trial period expires QDrafts will no longer print drafts unless a license has been purchased and the product registered. Press the Purchase… button and a web browser will bring you to the ChecksAndDrafts.com shopping cart. You can then purchase a license or set of licenses. You will be supplied a Name and Serial Number pair that is entered on About screen. Follow the instruction in the post purchase e-mail and copy the Name and Serial Number pair into the proper fields and click the Register button. This will activate the license and you will no longer see this screen each time you go to print drafts.

Using

Entering Customer’s Banking Information

1. (Optional) Fill in the information for a customer now or leave the fields blank if you'd prefer to fill it in when you are creating the invoice for the customer.

2. Display the Customer:Job List

3. Select the name on the list to be added as a draft payment method customer and click Edit.

4. Click the Additional Info tab.

5. Select for Terms –“Draft”

6. Enter in “DraftName” field either “Bill To” or “Ship To”

QDrafts will than use the information that appears under the “Address Info” tab of the customer to be printed on the upper left corner of the check. You want to make sure you use the address that matches your customer’s information on their check. In the case that neither the “Bill To” or “Ship To” information is not a match for your customer’s check information., see the support form on ChecksAndDrafts.com

Note: The names “Bill To” and “Ship To” are not case sensitive. A space between each word is required. No Quotes should be used.

7. Enter in “DraftAccountNumber” field the account number from your customer’s check. The account number is ten (10) digits but can be as few as six (6) or as many as eighteen (18).

8. Enter in “DraftRoutingNumber” field the bank routing number from your customer’s check. The routing number is nine (9) digits. It can also be easily identified as the number between the two symbols.

9. Enter in “DraftBankName” field the name of your customer’s bank.

10. Click OK.

Entering Customer’s Banking Information when your are Creating the Invoice

1. From the Customers menu, choose Create Invoices.

2. Fill in the name of the customer or job.

3. Complete the invoice as you normally would entering merchandise or service items sold to the customer.

4. On the screen make sure that the fields Terms is set to Draft.

5. DraftName, DraftAccountNumber, DraftRoutingNumber, and DraftBankName should be completed with the customer’s check information. If you are entering for the first time or making changes to the above-mentioned fields, you will receive a Name Information Changed prompt. “Would you like to have this new information appear next time?” By clicking on “Yes”, you will be adding all the information necessary for a Draft for this customer eliminating the need to duplicate the data entry next time there is an invoice for that client. By clicking on “No”, the information will be used one time only to create a QDraft payment. The next time there is a QDraft payment to be done for this customer the information will have to be re-entered.

NOTE: Terms must be set to “Draft” and all of these fields must contain information for a check QDraft to be generated.

Changing Customer’s Bank Account Information

1. Display the Customer:Job List

2. Select any name on the list and click Edit.

3. Click the Additional Info tab.

4. Make the changes to any of the four (4) fields

1. DraftName

2. DraftAccountNumber

3. DraftRoutingNumber

4. DraftBankName

Restrictions: If the customer has any outstanding invoices, you must change the information directly through the outstanding invoices. QDraft will always use the information that appears on the invoice.

5. Click OK.

Printing the QDraft Checks

1. Load your blank check paper into the printer.

2. If this is the first time running QDrafts or if you would like to change the Payee to another name, from the File menu, choose QDrafts, and then choose Preferences. Enter the name to appear on the Payee portion of your bank draft. This will remain in effect for all draft check runs. Press OK.

From the File menu, choose QDrafts, and then choose Print Drafts.

All open invoices with draft selected as payment type, will appear with a checked box. If you don’t want all of the checks to print, than deselect the checks you don’t want to print by clicking on the box with the right side of your mouse. Or use the Select None button and than select the checks to print.

Note: If you see "Incomplete Draft Information” listed in the Select Drafts to print dialog, see the Trouble Shooting section for further deatils.

3. The check draft will print with the amount shown on the screen. You may modify the amount field to be any amount less than the amount that appears on the screen. This can be useful if the client is making a partial payment of an open invoice. To modify the amount, right click on the amount of any check draft. A window will pop up with a prompt for the new amount. Enter the new amount and click OK.

Choose the printing options you need.

4. Click Print.

If you notice a problem while your checks are being printed, press Esc to cancel the printing process.

5. If all of the draft(s) printed correctly, press OK. Otherwise, fill in the draft number of the first incorrectly printed draft , press OK.

Reports

Open Invoices report.

Since the bank drafts are generated against invoices, one of the best way to manage the process is to use the Open Invoices report in QuickBooks. It is available from the Reports menu.

To take advantage of this report you should make a few basic modifications to it so you can see the “Draft” data fields that you added to the QuickBooks company file, customer record, and the invoice template. This is a simple process. Open the “Open Invoices” report and click the “Modify Report …” button on the upper left corner of the report window. You will modify items in the “Display” and “Filters” tabs.

On the Display tab, scroll down in the “Columns” list box and select all of the required draft fields, DraftName, DraftAccountNumber, DraftRoutingNumber, DraftBankName.

Now select the “Filters” tab. In the choose filter list box, select “Terms”. In the terms combo box, select “Draft”. It will then be automatically added to the “Current Filter Choices” list. . Then select OK.

It will regenerate the report to one similar to this.

Tip: Memorize the modified report as “QDrafts Incomplete Information Report”.

Memorized Transactions

If you are using Memorized Transactions in QuickBooks to invoice on a regular basis, QDrafts can help you eliminate the time consuming and repetitive tasks associated with weekly, monthly and quarterly invoicing. Just add the banking information to your current customers’ account.

Run the invoices through Memorized Transactions

Print the drafts. All customers’ invoices will be recorded paid and you’re ready to make a deposit. This payment method eliminates the need to send invoices. The check is returned to the customer in their next bank statement as a receipt of the transaction.

Support

Policy

QDrafts comes with 30 days of free telephone support once it has been licensed and registered. The unregistered 30 day trial version support is by support forums or e-mail only.

The best way to obtain support for any Zerman, Inc. product is through our online support forum. The forum is monitored most days. Before you post a new question, use the forum's Search feature to look for the information you need. Your question may have already been answered! The support page is at support.zerman.com and the support forums are at fourms.zerman.com

If you need to support by e-mail please write us at Support@ChecksAndDrafts.com Our turn-around time for email support is usually less than one day. Weekends and holidays will delay responses. Please make sure that your return email address is valid.

Telephone support: (877) 828-2759 (available 10am - 5pm Pacific Time Monday - Friday)

Trouble shooting

Integrated application is not responding.

If you select a QDrafts menu item and this dialog appears, it means that QuickBooks may have temporarily lost contact with QDrafts. This is a rare situation. Once contact has been lost, closing the current QuickBooks Company file and reopening it will reestablish contact. There is no need to restart QuickBooks, reboot the computer, or reinstall QDrafts.

Incomplete Draft Information

If you see "Incomplete Draft Information" in the QDrafts Select Draft selection dialog, it means that not all of the draft required information is supplied. This could be an empty field in DraftName, DraftAccountNumber, DraftRoutingNumber, or DraftBankName. The best way to correct this is to go to the Open Invoices report (see Reports section above) and click on the proper invoice and that will take you to the invoice to correct. Make the corrections and rerun QDrafts, “Print Drafts” selection on the QuickBooks menu.

Another option would be to deselect the drafts with incomplete draft information and continue with the draft print. When printing is completed, run your open invoices report. All editing of invoices can be done through this report. When information has been completed, return to print drafts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How is a draft different then a check?

A draft is just like a check with a few minor differences. A draft does not have they payer’s signature but a line stating, “This draft is pre-authorized by your account holder”. This pre-authorization may take the form of written, web agreement, fax, or verbal over the telephone.

What is MICR printing?

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, or MICR, colloquially pronounced “my'-kur”, is a special kind of optical character recognition (OCR) technology that was adopted mainly by the U.S. banking industry to facilitate the processing of checks. Almost all U.S. and U.K. checks include MICR characters at the bottom of the paper in a font known as E-13B.

What is a MICR printing ink cartridge?

MICR printing usually uses magnetized toner printed using a laser printer. It is not possible to print MICR characters using a standard inkjet printer as the magnetized materials settle to the bottom of the cartridge.

What is Check 21?

Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, or Check 21 Act is a United States public Law 108-100, enacted into law October 28, 2004 by the 108th Congress. This act allows authorized recipients of a check to convert it to a digital form. Images of both sides of the check are imaged and a batch file is then transmitted to the Federal Reserve Banks (FRB) for credit, as if it were the actual check without the need for further handling of the paper check.

License

READ THE FOLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING THIS SOFTWARE.

Zerman, Inc. (“the Company”) is willing to license the enclosed software to the purchaser of the software (“Licensee”) only on the conditions that Licensee accepts all of the terms and conditions set forth below. By installing this software, Licensee is agreeing to be bound be these terms and conditions.

Disclaimer of Liability

THE COMPANY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COMPANY OR ITS EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS OR CONTRACTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE LICENSE GRANTED UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST PROFITS, DOWNTIME, GOODWILL, DAMAGE TO OR REPLACEMENT OF EQUIPMENT OR PROPERTY, OR ANY COSTS FOR RECOVERING, REPROGRAMMING OR REPRODUCING ANY DATA USED WITH THE COMPANY’S PRODUCT.

Software License

In consideration of Licensee’s payment of the license fee, which is part of the price Licensee paid for this product, and Licensee’s agreement to abide by the terms and conditions on this page, the Company grants Licensee a nonexclusive right to use and display the copy of the software on a single computer at a single location. Company retains all right, title and ownership (including the copyright) to the software recorded on the original distribution media and all subsequent copies of the software. Licensee may not network the software or otherwise use it on more than one computer terminal at the same time. Copies may only be made for archival or backup purposes. The software is licensed only to the Licensee and may not be transferred to anyone else, nor may copies be given to anyone else. Any violation of the terms and conditions of this software license shall result in the immediate termination of the license.