Patent ID: 8255598

Claim:
A method of managing item sequence numbers to prevent overruns in a magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) encoded financial check processing system, the method comprising: setting, by a computing device, a buffer size, wherein the buffer size is indicative of how close a current item sequence number (ISN) is permitted to be to an overrun value before restricted processing occurs, wherein the ISN is assigned to a captured MICR-encoded financial check image and is a rolling number having one of six or eight number of digits that increments by one each time a new image of an MICR-encoded financial check is captured; receiving, by a computing device, a hard stop range, wherein the hard stop range is indicative of how close a current ISN is permitted to be to the overrun value before all processing stops; calculating, by a computing device processor, an ISN buffer value based on the overrun value and the buffer size, wherein the ISN buffer value is the overrun value reduced by the buffer size; calculating, by a computing device processor, an ISN hard stop value based on the overrun value and hard stop range, wherein the ISN hard stop value is the overrun value reduced by the hard stop range and the ISN hard stop value is defined as an ISN value at which, when reached during financial check sorter processing, all processing stops; restricting, by a computing device processor, during a single processing cycle, a financial check sorter from processing new entries of MICR encoded financial checks when the current ISN exceeds the ISN buffer value, wherein restricting includes providing for a force mode that is defined as manual intervention by an authorized individual that allows new entries of the MICR encoded financial checks to begin when the current ISN is between the ISN buffer value and the ISN hard stop value; and stopping, by a computing device processor, the financial check sorter from processing all MICR-encoded financial checks when the current ISN exceeds the ISN hard stop value.