Inside Payroll - Help - Printing there is information about printers as follows:

About printer configuration

For optimum printing performance, we recommend that you use laser printers with your Sage software.

Inkjet (including bubble jet) printers can be used as secondary or backup printers but are not recommended as primary printers.

Your selection of a primary printer should be based on your company's printing needs. Consider the following when you purchase a new printer:

• A laser printer must support a PCL 5e printer driver. The PCL 6 driver may cause the software to stop functioning.
• We do not support dot matrix or inkjet printers for the generation of reports that use the Crystal Reports format.

Inside Payroll - Help - Checks - There is information about printing a "strike sheet".  This method is used if you order check forms that are already encoded with your company and bank account information.  It reads as follows:

Printing sample checks in Payroll

Printing sample checks is useful when ordering check forms from Sage Construction & Real Estate Forms. Print sample checks using the font size and font style you intend to use for printing checks from your live data, and mail it to Sage Construction & Real Estate Forms prior to ordering checks.

Before printing sample checks in Payroll, you must set up a bank account in Cash Management. Refer to Cash Management Help for assistance with setting up bank accounts.

1. 1. From the File menu, select Open Company, and select the Construction sample data.
   2. From the Tools menu, select Modify Forms, Check Forms to define a check format or to select an existing check format. Be sure to select the check box for Single sheet laser check in the Modify Check Forms window. The title of this item may be different if the Field type CM Check is changed in Custom Descriptions.

Note: If you are using the Standard format with continuous feed check stock to a DOT matrix printer, do not select the Single sheet laser check check box. See Creating and changing check forms.

1. From the Tasks menu, select Enter Time, and enter time for two or three employees. See Entering time.
2. From the Tasks menu, select Process Payroll, and process payroll for the employees you entered time for in step 2. See Processing hourly checks.
3. From the Tasks menu, select Print Checks, enter a Bank account, and print the checks on plain paper using the printer driver that you will be using for your live Payroll check runs. See Printing checks.

Note: A 10 point maximum font size is allowed when printing checks. For checks printed to a text file, a default font size of 12 points is always used.

Caution! If you used your live company data instead of Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate sample data to print sample checks, you must void these checks.

Inside Payroll - Help - Printing Checks there is information about MICR as follows:

About MICR encoding payroll checks

Payroll interfaces with MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) software to allow you to create customized payroll checks and direct deposit notifications. The interface works by printing a payroll check or direct deposit notification to a text file (.TXT). This text file is used by the MICR software to produce checks and direct deposit notifications. Adding MICR encoding to a payroll check enables you to customize the arrangement of items on the check face or check stub, and to place an electronic signature on the check or direct deposit notification.

Sage has selected Create-A-Check, Inc. as our preferred MICR software vendor. Create-A-Check is prepared to generate check formats based on the "Default" check format supplied with Payroll for checks and direct deposit notifications.

If you are producing payroll checks with MICR encoding and need assistance with the Payroll interface, please contact Create-A-Check, or your independent third-party vendor. For information about third-party relationships with Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate, contact your Sage business partner.