A/P Check formatting changed

Debbie Thacker

Is anyone noticing an issue with the formats for A/P checks? We went to print checks this week and the alignment is way off and some font sizes were changed. We're using the same check format in FE, same browser and process as last week, but this week's checks are unusable. We do not use Blackbaud check stock, but we never have and set our own alignment. From what it looks like, it looks like the FE check format was changed. We're a small group and no one has actually changed our alignment settings.

Miriam Geryol

@Debbie Thacker - Yes, I went to print A/P checks today and the alignment was completely off and the signature that we print on each check was much smaller than normal. This happened a few weeks ago as well. That time I was able to re-format fairly easily. Today I was unable to re-format and ended up printing in database view which normally has not worked since moving to printing in NXT - but today it did work. I'm VERY frustrated as this is the 2nd time in a month that I have been derailed by this problem.

Debbie Thacker

@Miriam Geryol We've opened a case with Blackbaud but they have to get back to us. We find it very frustrating as well – everything worked fine last week when we printed. Something changed somewhere. I'm sorry you're having issues too, but gives us a little comfort that it's not just us and we didn't do anything to cause the problem!

Debbie Thacker

@Miriam Geryol Thanks for the suggestion of printing from database view – we were able to do that too. Off slightly on the MICR line, but not enough to be a problem. The rest was like what we had been seeing prior to today.

kathy kreeger

@Miriam Geryol thanks very much for suggesting using the database view (check printing is one of the few things I do nearly exclusively in the webview) - especially as I've yet to hear back from anyone at Blackbaud after we finished our ‘chat’ at 11:30am yesterday.

Christina Moore

@Debbie Thacker I am now experiencing this same problem as of today. We have had ongoing issues with the check alignment not being perfect, but it worked okay enough. We did not know if the problem was with our checks, our computer settings, or Blackbaud's PDF. Now I see it must have been a Blackbaud issue all along, which is the most frustrating of all, because there is nothing we can do about it until they eventually decide to fix it (probably in six months or so after they start paying attention to complaints). So tired of Blackbaud glitches!!!

Laura Vaughan

@Debbie Thacker Yes, my NXT check format also mysteriously changed this week. I agree it is quite frustrating!

Sarah Searle

@Debbie Thacker

We had the same problem and it's infuriating. We use Blackbaud check stock and it's expensive. I had to adjust all the alignment again in order to print checks that were actually usable.

Dovid Lando

@Debbie Thacker

The first time i tried printing in NXT it produced a PDF instead of sending it to the regular printer. I have only printed from the desktop since then.

This is another example of Blackbaud's inflexibility. It is their way, or the highway.

Laura Vaughan

@Dovid Lando
To further complicate, if you don't use a built-in browser PDF viewer, it's impossible to align the checks using NXT.

Debbie Thacker

@Christina Moore We're still waiting to hear back from Blackbaud after reporting the issue and it's been a few days now. Luckily the database checks worked for our main A/P checks. We have another A/P account for a subsidiary and we printed those checks (check stock is same alignment of major features), printed same day and those checks were aligned differently. If it were only this issue, it would be more tolerable, but some weeks it's multiple things that don't function the way they used to and nothing appears on the status page of any issues.

Debbie Thacker

@Dovid Lando Yes, ours print to PDF and we have to change to print actual size to get the checks to print with the alignment in NXT, but that didn't work this time – those checks were really crazy! Printing through database view was the best. Still waiting to hear back from Blackbaud on the issue and fix but nothing. We print A/P checks weekly so if we'd have waited for them we wouldn't have issued any checks last week. They don't understand the urgency most times - A/P check printing is a basic function and shouldn't be changing.

Dovid Lando

@Debbie Thacker I do not feel comfortable printing the checks to pdf. While they stil need to be signed, it is still not a healthy practice.

Shelly White

@Sarah Searle this is interesting to me because when I filed a case last week Blackbaud's response was “We support only pre-printed forms ordered through Blackbaud (forms.blackbaud.com). Third-party vendor forms may or may not align properly when printing from our software.” They would not acknowledge that they had made a change that would cause our checks to print with the alignment being off. I felt they were saying that if we had used Blackbaud's check stock then the alignment would have been fine, but you are saying that is not the case.

Laura Vaughan

@Shelly White
I use Blackbaud's check stock and also had an issue.

kathy kreeger

@Shelly White and honestly - how does using their check stock vs any other make a difference when the placement of the actual printing coming from their system is what has changed???

kathy kreeger

@Dovid Lando I used to pull up a file from the webview and print straight to my printer from there, but they changed that a while ago so now I have to export it to a .pdf. I don't usually save it but it's still an extra step.

kathy kreeger

@Shelly White they said the same to me about ‘not having made any changes’ which is hilarious. The top corner of our remittance information used to only print three lines - vendor name and then two lines of address. If, for some reason, the vendor record had more than three lines total then the last line of the address just didn't print but now it does (although the font is tiny). So saying that they didn't change anything when I can literally see that they did is just … unbelievable.

Sarah Searle

@Shelly White You are correct that it “is not the case.” Interestingly, Blackbaud actually acknowledged that others were having this problem in my chat with them.

Julie Goldsberry

@Debbie Thacker Yes we also had this issue all of a sudden.

Dovid Lando

@kathy kreeger it just feels like a lack of control.

Debbie Arthur

@Debbie Thacker Yes, we had the same problem printing A/P checks last Thursday. The alignment was definitely off. We also use Blackbaud checks. I'm glad to hear printing checks in the database is an option, if not ideal. Has there been any more feedback from Blackbaud on this issue?

Regina Okonkwo

@Debbie Thacker
Good day, the last FENXT release formally addressed long standing alignment issues with the Blackbaud check format. This 'fix' corrects the default alignment for checks printed out of WebView. To resolve this kindly set your format check settings back to default. If you still experience issues after resetting this, kindly reach out to support or file a support case.

See KB article 203653 for more details.

Thank you.

Debbie Thacker

@Regina Okonkwo
Hi Regina, thank you for your response. It's interesting that we received an email from the person at Blackbaud handling our support case the day before that said nothing had been changed by Blackbaud and we were out of luck because we didn't use Blackbaud forms. Today Blackbaud acknowledges that there was a change made and we need to start over with the alignment process again. Could you provide more information on the issues that this change fixed? We didn't have issues before so just curious.

If this was a planned change, wouldn't it have been prudent to notify users prior to the change so we could watch for it?

Thanks,

Debbie

Sarah Searle

@Debbie Arthur
I just got an email from "Nick S" at Blackbaud. Here's the text

“We are excited to announce a recent update to FE NXT that addresses an issue related to default check alignment settings, which previously required many organizations to customize check printing alignment in FENXT. This update significantly improves the alignment process, eliminating the need for most organizations, including those using checks purchased from Blackbaud Forms, to use customized adjustments and allowing users to rely on default check alignment settings within FENXT.”

It would have been nice if they had said “oops” & “sorry”, but perhaps they have fixed the problem.

Debbie Arthur

@Sarah Searle

Thank you so much, and I agree! Let's hope this fixes the problem.

Katie Fox

@Debbie Thacker . Has anyone had a solution to this? We are still experiencing issues. Blackbaud support was of no help, with similar responses in the below thread.

Debbie Thacker

@Katie Fox

This is the article they sent us finally after first telling us that they didn't make any changes:
See KB article 203653 for more details.

https://kb.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase/articles/Article/203653

Basically tells you to restore defaults and manually align the checks again.

Katie Fox

@Debbie Thacker Thank you. I used this link after reading this thread and it still did not work. I've started another case. Did restoring to default work for you (or anyone else out there)?

Tricia Fourman

@Katie Fox manually restoring default did not work, but aligning manually did get us back in proper alignment for printing.

Aaron Bronson

@Katie Fox We were having a heck of a time getting our checks to print correctly. Ultimately in order to get the checks to print properly we had to change the Scale (under print settings > more settings) to “Fit to Printable Area” and that seemed to fix our issues.

Here is what all we had to adjust (we utilize DocuGard 04519 check type):

• Adjust All Content down 0.12 inches,
• Adjust Address up 0.12 inches
• Export checks to PDF
• Change Scale under more settings to “Fit to Printable Area”