Printing Migration

[JCI]

Hi.

My company wants to phase out an old Epson tractor-feed, dot matrix printer that we use to print our checks. We would like to go to laser, and the accounting office currently uses a HP Laserjet 4m for all their other printing needs. What is the best way to migrate to that printer? The operating system used is Windows 98 SE. I would not be opposed to buying a new printer, but I would like to use the one we have if possible. Also, I'm assuming that we would need to order new checks to coincide with the laser printer. I noticed that there might be some printing issues from a earlier thread, and I would be interested in any info on that as well.

Any suggestions on how to make this transition as painless as possible?

Thanks in Advance,

Scott Daehling
Joe Christensen, Inc.
Lincoln, NE 68521
800-228-5030

[Deborah Bean]

How you set up your printers depends on the type of operation that you have. If you print a lot of Checks (which are almost always pre-printed forms) and print invoices on plain paper or pre-printed paper, the problem is constantly changing out the forms. Of course, this problem can be alleviated by a large printer with multiple paper trays or by multiple printers.

The setup is very easy in PT (although not as easy as it used to be since Peachtree disabled the Page Setup in the File menu). Open the form in Design mode and then click the Setup button and then the Printer button. Select the printer and click OK. Then Save the form. The network printer must already have been shared and the printer added in Windows.

Interestingly enough, I usually set things up the opposite of what it appears to be at your office. I suggest that my clients use a laser printer for checks and reports and that they use a dot matrix printer for invoices, packing slips, etc. The laser checks are the 2-stup variety so that they have the stub(s) to keep and the check to mail. For the work orders, invoices, and packing slips they use 3- and 4-part NCR paper (some use pre-printed, some use blank paper) so that the the top 1 or 2 copies goes to the customer and the other copy(ies) are filed.

Laser checks are very inexpensive. You can get multi-part checks, if needed, but you then need to set the number of copies on your check form. Checks in the Mail, Delux, NEBS, and all those others have PT checks.

Your HP printer should be fine in your setup. I'm not a personal fan of Win98 for networks or XP for that matter. I much more prefer Win2000 Pro for stability.