Patent ID: 8589301

Claim:
A method for processing paper checks, comprising: a) receiving at a computer over a computerized network, a first merchant data file containing a first identifier, the first merchant data file describing a first set of transactions including an amount for each transaction and raw MICR information in a first MICR format for the check used in each transaction; b) receiving at the computer over the computerized network, a second merchant data file containing a second identifier, the second merchant data file describing a second set of check transactions including an amount for each transaction and raw MICR information in a desired MICR format for the check used in each transaction, wherein the desired MICR format is different than the first MICR format; wherein the raw MICR information in the merchant data files was created by point of sale systems of the merchants, with different point of sale systems creating different formats for raw MICR information; c) using the first identifier in the first merchant data file to identify a first predefined translation for the first MICR format; d) for the first merchant data file, applying via the computer the first predefined translation to convert the raw MICR information in the first merchant data file from the first MICR format into MICR data that is formatted in the desired format; e) receiving at the computer a plurality of digital images created by scanning the paper checks; and f) for each of the paper checks, associating at the computer said digital image with transactions in the first and second merchant data files using the MICR data in the desired format.