The amount appears twice on a cheque — figures and words — and they must agree. A mismatch is the most common technical reason a cheque is returned, because the bank will not choose between them.
Lakh or million?
This is not a style preference; it is about what your payee and their bank read as normal.
| Convention | Where | 1250000 becomes |
|---|---|---|
| Lakh / crore | India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka | Twelve Lakh Fifty Thousand |
| Million | Gulf states, and most other markets | One Million Two Hundred Fifty Thousand |
Both are arithmetically correct. Using the wrong one for the market invites a second look at a cheque you would rather clear quietly. In ChequeMaster this is a general setting — see general settings.
Decimal places: two, except where it is three
Most currencies use two. Three currencies in ChequeMaster's main markets are divided into 1,000 rather than 100:
- Kuwaiti dinar (1,000 fils)
- Bahraini dinar (1,000 fils)
- Omani rial (1,000 baisa)
For those, set decimal digits to 3. Leave it at 2 and KWD 1.250 prints as 1.25 — off by 250 fils, and simply wrong on a payment instrument. The setting is global rather than per cheque book, so check it when you switch between markets.
Close the gap
Whatever space remains after the words is where someone can add to them. "Five Thousand" with a long empty tail can become "Five Thousand Five Hundred" without much effort.
Two standard remedies:
- End with "only", or draw a line to the end of the field.
- Bracket the amount with
**, which is what ChequeMaster's tamper-proof setting does.
This matters most where the cheque gives you a single amount-in-words line — Philippine cheques often do — because a short amount on a long line leaves a lot of room.
Other things that trip people up
- Currency name. Write the currency, not just the number in words.
- The subunit. Paise, fils, baisa — name it rather than leaving a bare decimal.
- Case. Uppercase is traditional and marginally harder to alter. A ChequeMaster setting.
- Running out of room. Long amounts need the second word line enabled so they wrap instead of overflowing.
Why printing removes most of this
The words are generated from the figures you typed, so the two cannot disagree — the single most common technical bounce reason is eliminated rather than reduced. The convention, decimals, case and tamper marks are settings you get right once instead of decisions you make on every cheque.
What remains is entering the right figure in the first place.
