Cheques

[etherial]

One of my responsibilities this week (my direct boss being in Florida and all) is to write the company checks (but not sign them. boo hoo). This means I will be writing them out manually. I'm having difficulty if I should write them out in the manner I do, or in a more traditional fashion.

The differences between me and everybody else:

1. I write AD on all my christian calendar dates, or at least those that include the year, which would mean all the ones on these checks.

2. I write all my dollar amounts (the words, not the numerals) as mixed fractions. Thus, $150.50 would be One-hundred Fifty and a half dollars. The idea for this originated from the fact that I like writing out as much as I can, and that every check I've ever seen already has the word "dollars" printed on it, so it would be silly to write so it says "One-hundred fifty dollars and fifty cents dollars."

Comments

On the Writing of Cheques

[kadath.livejournal.com]

1. I don't know that you need to write "AD," though, since I doubt that anyone's going to take the check back in time and attempt to cash it at the First Bank of Athens in 2004 BC. I don't know how they'd find out the dollars/drachms exchange rate, anyway.

2. On my checks, I write $150.50 as "One hundred fifty 50/100," which I figure is clear, unambiguous, and avoids what I also consider to be the inanity of writing "dollars" when it's already printed at the end of the line. Would you write $47.85 as "Forty-seven and eighty-five hundredths?" It reads as very fountain-pen to me, which is kind of cool.

Re: On the Writing of Cheques

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Well, point 1 is more to identify which calendar I'm using than which milennium. Though it can be said that no one would make the mistake of misidentifying it as a Chinese or Hebrew date (thouse being the next two most frequently used calendars), I make it a point to put in this tiny reminder that we don't have to take the Christian view of anything if we don't want to, even something as inane as the passage of time. See my Illuminati Calendar post from a few weeks ago.

As for $47.85, that would be "Forty-seven and seventeen twentieths dollars" if you please.

[neuromancerzss.livejournal.com]

As a representative of your company you should write in their style, which probably means no AD and fractions of 100 rather than your reductions.

They're cute ideas but not exactly the stuff I'd expect a company to do. I'm actually kinda suprised no one complains about the reduced fractions method since it requires them to think to verify that what you put in the number box is what you meant.

What do you put for even dollars?

Re: Cute ideas

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Actually, the date thing is not a cute idea. I get knowing looks from the few people that notice.

As far as I know, nobody even looks at the script on the note, though I'm told that technically that is the quantity that matters, not the numerals.

As for following "Corporate Procedure," I'm loathe to do that. It would require using gradeschool ampersands.

Even dollars would just be "One-Hundred" big line "dollars"

Re:

[londo.livejournal.com]

I thought this too, but I was assuming that Etherial knew that and simply chose not to care.

Sometimes, it's more fun this way.

Re: Cute ideas

[kadath.livejournal.com]

And what, prithee, is wrong with ampersands? I taught myself to draw them because they are a very cool symbol.

Re: On the Writing of Cheques

[kadath.livejournal.com]

There's iconoclasty, and there's clarity. In this case, I'm unconvinced they overlap. That reducing fractions thing is just evil. As a former store clerk, I deliver a stinging virtual blow to your face.

Re: Cute ideas

[neuromancerzss.livejournal.com]

They're all backwards and stuff. Only communists write backwards. Are you a communist?

Re: Ampersands

[etherial.livejournal.com]

I love ampersands. I was referring to gradeschool ampersands. A script 'E' with a vertical line through it.

Re: Cute ideas

[neuromancerzss.livejournal.com]

It is cute. My first thought would be "he's writing it in case the calendar changes or for the convenience of alien archaeologists". Also shouldn't you use something other than an abbreviation for Anno Domini as your protest against Christian religion being involved in our calendar? (Are BC/BCE the alternate abbreviations?)

It's not really that dangerous, but no cent fractions does allow for easier editing of your written out amount since straight lines can be more easily incorporated into writing than cent-fractions. That's the main reason I put them in even for even dollars.

Re: On the Writing of Cheques

[mpgalvin.livejournal.com]

on 1) AD vs CE? specifically christian? since you're already assuming the person processing the check can read english, you can likely assume they'll default to the same calendar you're using.

on 2) 00/100. i thought it was standard form. of course, my standard form of writing on checks (which i use for clarity's sake) is all-caps oldschool computer-inspired. i just make the first letter bigger to denote capitalization. :)

Re: CE

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Why did the Current Era begin at the birth of Christ? What was so wrong with recording the idea that every year came from God? Why have we secularized a Calendar that came into existence because a Pope was divinely inspired with an unevenly monthed calendar whose days and months are named after Roman Emperors, and all manner of Pagan gods?

If we pretend these things don't exist, then we lose some of our cultural heritage. We can't forget where our everyday thoughts and ideas come from, or else we'll never be able to even think to change them. I'm not saying we can't use it, I'm just saying that since other calendars have been in use for millennia, and new ones are being developed all the time, we don't need to marry ourselves to the idea that this is the only one.

[7threality.livejournal.com]

I guess go with the standard company style.

For myself, I cross out the word "dollars" that appears at the end of the line and it ticks me off that it's there. I write out the whole amount. For instance, $147.62 would appear on my checks as one hundred forty-seven dollars and sixty-two cents dollars

jeebus built my sundial danng a dang ding-y ding-y

[mpgalvin.livejournal.com]

well, calenders *do* need a starting point. so that's why. it's gotta be SOMETHING, so why not what people already picked for that AD thingy? that way the conversion between the two is pretty direct, no math.

yeah, and that calendar has 7tober 8tober 9vember and 10vember as months 9 10 11 and 12. real inspired, that. :P at this point, i'd sign it all of as "tradition!"

yeah, we could all keep time by the Unix Epoch, but i just don't wanna be arsed to do the math. *pictures people doing binary on their hands* nope, sounds like a big pain to do it that way.

Re: CE

[bonisagus.livejournal.com]

CE is not the Current Era. It's the Common Era btw.

Re: Ampersands

[bonisagus.livejournal.com]

really I did a curly-q cross thingy...

[bonisagus.livejournal.com]

Here's a question? How does your manager do it? I would do it the same way. There's a time for creativity it is not during the writing of corporate checks.

Re: CE

[etherial.livejournal.com]

I've never heard it called Common Era before. What's so common about it?

Re: CE

[bonisagus.livejournal.com]

It's the Religion Neutral way of saying AD. It's the Common Era because it's the one we are in now I guess. I don't know why they changed it either to be honest.

Creative corporate checking

[thatjoe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had a house mate who was in to that at one point.

For those of you to young to remember, he became very popular in certain cicles due to this.