Patent ID: 7503486

Claim:
A system for processing a substitute check identifier in a check transaction wherein a MICR line associated with the check transaction comprises a plurality of MICR numeric fields separated by at least one non-numeric MICR separator symbol, the system comprising: a parsing module residing on computer-readable media, the parsing module comprising computer code configured to distinguish at least one field within the substitute check identifier; wherein the substitute check identifier comprises at least one replacement non-numeric symbol that replaces and is different from the at least one non-numeric MICR separator symbol in the MICR line; and wherein the substitute check identifier further comprises a plurality of numeric fields; and a validation module configured to validate the substitute check identifier by determining whether a predetermined number of replacement non-numeric symbols exists in the substitute check identifier, and further determining whether at least one of the numbers in the plurality of numeric fields associated with the substitute check identifier comprises a predetermined number of digits for the at least one number; and if a replacement non-numeric symbol is mistakenly entered by a user within the plurality of numeric fields associated with the substitute check identifier, the validation module is further configured distinguish between the plurality of numeric fields associated with the substitute check identifier by determining whether an identified check number corresponds with a previously entered check number.