ASAP Cheques
Credit Union Notices

 




April 22, 2020 Site Maintenance Notice

April 22, 2020 3PM Update
Please note that we will be down for maintenance and therefore unable to take orders on Saturday April 25th and Sunday April 26th, 2020.


March 24, 2020 COVID-19 Statment

March 24, 2020 1PM Update
In an effort to support our Business Partners and their continued maintenance of essential services laid out recently by our Government, our operations will remain open. We are operating under strict guidelines, ensuring that our staff and customers remain safe in this tenuous time.

We preemptively apologize for any delays and inconvenience that you may experience because of the adaptations we have made in strict adherence to such guidelines.

We look forward to resuming our business operations to full capacity once the state of emergencies have been lifted throughout the proper channels.

Your satisfaction with our products remains top of mind. If you have any questions regarding our operations, new or reorders, please do not hesitate to reach out to one of our Customer Service Representatives at the following resources:

Customer Service: 1-888-324-3783
Customer Service CHAT: Click the LiveChat at top of any AFIO page
Customer Service Email: [email protected]


We appreciate your continued patronage and wish that you and your loved ones stay safe and in good health
March 16, 2020 COVID-19 Statment

March 16, 2020 2PM Update
ASAP [Cheques/Checks] continues to closely monitor the developments around COVID-19 (Coronavirus) . We remain committed to ensuring the health and safety of you and our team members, as well as minimizing the impact on processing orders.
As of today, all our offices remain open, and we are conducting rotational work from home to ensure continuity and availability of the customer service teams that you rely upon. If it becomes necessary to do so, we will close our offices and post an update on our website.
Should you require support, rest assured that we will be answering phones, answering LiveChats and responding to emails however it may take us a little longer.
Please note, the World Health Organization has made it clear that it is safe to handle packages from us.
We appreciate your understanding during this uniquely challenging situation.
July 4th, 2016 Potential Canada Post Disruption in Service and ASAP Contingency Plan

As many of you are already aware there is a potential Canada Post strike looming that will affect many shipments. As such we like so many other businesses, are having to make contingency plans to deal with the disruption in CPC Delivery services. We have a FedEx account and we plan to do consolidated shipments once weekly to the branch location.

1. What does this mean for your members and clients?
They will still be able to order cheques and receive them however they will be inconvenienced by having to come into the branch to pick them up when they arrive.

2. What does this mean for your front line staff?
Your front line staff will need to remind the members about the alternate delivery plan and ask if the member is in dire need for the cheques. We will do our best to accommodate those special RUSH requests even during the CPC Strike.

3. How does consolidated shipping work exactly?
We will print and package orders as usual however we will set up a number of boxes for each AFIO Branch and place the orders into the respective boxes. When the box is full, we'll ship it via FedEx to the branch.

4. What if we don't order frequently and the box will take a lot longer to fill up?
Whether the box is full or not, we will ship to everyone at least once weekly on Thursday.

You can help us by letting us know if your Credit Union, Caisse populaire or Bank would prefer to have all shipments sent to your main branch for distribution in your internal courier service from there.
This will help consolidate shipments more so and will help alleviate the extra volume being shifted to FedEx on short notice.


October, 18 2013 A number of new background designs have been added (or will be soon) be added to your AFIO profile.

In an effort to support various Charity and Community Organizations, ASAP has developed a number of new background designs and there are more coming soon. Each design has been developed for a specific organization and a portion of the proceeds from these orders will be donated to the respective organization.
Amount of Donation: $2 from each personal style order and $5 from a business or computer cheque order

Field of Crosses and Salute
Supports the RCL - Royal Canadian Legion

Until You Return
Supports the CMFRC - Canadian Military Family Resource Centres

Fighting An Overwhelming Foe and Another Heroic Rescue
Supports the CFFF (Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation)

Local Food Bounty
Supports the NFU (National Farmer's Union)

Helping Hand
Supports the LCI - The Lions Club International

Daffodil
Supports the CCS - Canadian Cancer Society


July 30, 2013 ACUO is going to have a new name and a new login link.

ASAP is growing again and as such it's time to change the name of ACUO (ASAP Credit Union Orders) to AFIO (ASAP Financial Institution Orders). Our partners now include credit unions, banks and other financial partners so we thought the software name should be changed to reflect that. The new AFIO software will be running on a new upgraded server and end users may also see improved speed. The software itself has not changed. All of the same functionality that you see in ACUO today will be the same in AFIO. Please bookmark the new login page https://fi.asap-cheques.com/afio on any computer that you use to place cheque orders. You should begin using the new link right away and let us know immediately if you have any difficulty however we are not anticipating that this change will cause any issues.

Please note the old login link will be disabled as of August 9th 2013.
November 23, 2012 Debits for member USD accounts can now be done on another CDN account!

One of the problems we've had with ACUO was not being able to debit the member USD account because the debit would be in US Funds even though the cost for the cheque order is in Canadian funds. These orders required special handling for both ASAP and your staff. Now when you have an order on the member USD account you simply type in the Transit and account number for the member's Canadian funds account in the new Billing Account fields.
November 23, 2012 Viewing All Entered but Not Submitted Orders on main page!

Another improvement to ACUO to help prevent unnecessary delays on orders is finally in place. You can now view all orders which have been Entered but not yet submitted for printing. Simply click on the order number hyperlink and it will take you to the member account so that you can double-check whether several orders were created on the member account. In that case any duplicate orders would simply need to be cancelled.
August 17, 2012 Orders over 60 days old will be automatically Cancelled!

Many times in ACUO we would see orders Entered but not submitted for printing either because the member decided not to proceed with the order or because there were several back to back orders, only one of which was submitted for printing. In an effort to keep the order status up to date, we changed the software so that orders over 60 days old that were never submitted for printing be automatically flagged as cancelled. Cancelled orders can be re-activated by reviewing the order and changing the status by clicking the submit button.
November 9, 2010 Order Computer Cheques from ACUO !

You can now order Computer Cheques directly from ACUO ! And to simplify ordering even more, the long list of cheques you select from has been separated by cheque type, so when you click on Personal Cheques, Business Cheques or Computer Cheques, you will only see that type of cheque listed.

Just give Karen or Marilyn a call for training or with any questions.

Note that there are 5 layouts of Computer Cheque, so you will need to ask your member which they require for their accounting or personal finance software:
- PSBT - most popular; business cheque on top of the page with 2 vouchers
- PSBM - business cheque in middle of page with a voucher above and below the cheque
- PSBB - business cheque on bottom of page with 2 vouchers above
- PSB3 - 3 business cheques on the page and no vouchers
- PSW3 - 3 "wallet" (personal) cheques on the page with a stub to the left of each

April 8, 2009 Viewing All Orders by Month!

At long last, you can now view all orders by Month, not just by Quarter.
April 17, 2009 MICR Transaction Code for USD accounts

If your Institution was originally using an older MICR Transaction Code in ACUO, such as 90, and then updated it, you previously had to go into the Account (eg. click Change) and then Save it for the MICR account to include the new MICR Transaction Code.

ACUO now takes care of this for you. When you go to view an existing account, if ACUO sees that the MICR Transaction Code originally used for the account has changed, ACUO reformats the MICR account number and displays a message in red near the top of the Account window to let you know that this has just occurred.
April 6, 2009 Account Codes

ACUO now handles "Account Codes".

Previously, when you created or changed an account, you could select an Account Code but this was simply for information purposes.

Now, these codes can be used to automatically set the correct discount to use when placing an order, and also take care of some behind-the-scenes things automatically that ASAP had to do manually for these accounts.

Please contact us with a list of special account designations so we can set them up properly.

Notice History
 
October 14, 2008 New Products: "Salute" Personal Cheques, and Deposit Book Binders

ASAP Cheques is pleased to announce two new products:

Just in time for Remembrance Day, "Salute" is the second design in our Veterans Remembrance Cheque series. As with Field of Crosses, it is available in the single personal cheque format in quantity of 100, and a portion of the proceeds goes to the Royal Canadian Legion for programs that assist veterans. Both of these designs will soon be available in the business cheque format as well.

We now have an attractive Deposit Book Binder, complete with a sleeve and a snap to keep it closed and its contents safe.
September 14, 2008 Phone Numbers and the Cheque/Deposit Imprint

In the original version of ACUO, the Account address(es) and the Imprint (what gets printed on cheques and deposit slips) were one and the same. While this streamlined the entry of orders in many cases, it also led to many complications when the account address had to be different than the Imprint, or where the order had to be shipped to a different address. This is why in the new version of ACUO we separated Account information from Order information.

With the new version of ACUO, we also decided to not provide a place for phone numbers because the only time this information was required for cheque printing was if you wanted the phone number printed on the cheque, and in this case you would simply include the phone number in the Imprint. However, we were unable to make this clear enough, so ..

With today's update, you can now enter a phone number for each address (eg. Primary and Alternate). And whenever you add a new account to ACUO, if you have entered a phone number with the Primary Address, it will automatically be added to the Imprint (if you would prefer for this to not happen, just let us know and we will turn this feature off).

This is a good opportunity to raise an important point about the Imprint. When you add a new account to ACUO, after you enter the initial information (eg. account number, primary address), ACUO automatically uses the primary address to create what the Imprint will look like, and you can then freely change this any time. However, this is the only time that this automatic update occurs. So it is important to remember that whenever you change an address, you also need to see if the Imprint needs to be changed. And whenever you change the Imprint, you need to check whether the Address area needs to be changed as well.

If you have questions about this or any part of ACUO, don't hesitate to call Marilyn or Karen at 888-3-CHEQUE (888-324-3783). There is no charge for these calls, or for the additional training for your staff.
July 23, 2008 Searching by order number

In the new version of ACUO, we assumed that there would no longer be a need to search by order number since all orders for an account are listed. However it turns out that there are some situations where searching by order number is required, so this capability is once again available. Note however that this search imposes a large load on the server and should only be used when looking up the account and reviewing the list of orders underneath it does not locate the order you are looking for.
July 21, 2008 The new version of ACUO is now running!

ACUO will still look very familiar, but a lot has changed. Some of the changes are listed below, and don't hesitate to contact Marilyn or Karen at 888-3-CHEQUE (888-324-3783) with any questions or for a training update.

- The biggest change from a training standpoint is that you now first look up the account that you wish to work with, make changes to the account information if required, and then place the order (or select a previous order to reorder from).

- Until now, the city, province and country were not separated, they were just part of an address line that was also used for the imprint. This has been changed, and one of the first things you will run into is that when you first use an existing account, you will need to clean up the address.

- Until this update, if you needed to order an accessory such as deposit books or chequebook cover, you had to order cheques as well. This is no longer required.

- You can now save an alternate shipping address as well as the primary account address and choose the desired ship-to address when you place orders.

- Until this update, the address and the cheque imprint had to be the same. This is no longer the case.

- The structural changes in this update set the stage for the next set of enhancements.
April 4, 2008 Password Expiry Changes

If your organization would like passwords to expire sooner or later than the current setting, contact us. Note that frequent password changes are a critical part of preventing unauthorized access to your member's sensitive information.
March 27, 2008 New Field of Crosses Personal Cheques available now!

We are proud to announce the immediate availability of the first in a series of personal cheques honoring war veterans. A portion of each order will go to the Royal Canadian Legion for various programs supporting war veterans and their families. It is available in a 100 cheque quantity only, and the product code PSSC-WV01 will be added to your profiles by the end of this week. Click Here to watch a news story covering the product launch.
June 11, 2007 Have a look at some of the personal cheque designs we are considering ..

Click Here to see the new personal cheque designs we are working on, and to let us know what you think about them. Check back periodically .. new designs should be added on a regular basis. Once a design is ready to be ordered by your members, we will let you know here.
May 27, 2007 You can now enter member names and addresses in French and some other languages!

We are pleased to announce that ASAP Cheques has taken the next step in supporting French and some other languages in our ACUO order software.

You should now be able to enter special characters (eg. French, Portuguese) in the member's name and address, and these should print on their cheques.

We are not resting this summer .. watch for more announcements in the coming months, including further French support.
April 30, 2007 This has been a very busy month!

Business Deposit Slips and Deposit Books are now available in both Printed and Blank formats. All of them are 2-part carbonless, and all of them offer savings over traditional suppliers. The benefit of Deposit Slips over books is that they fit in the back of the cheque binder. Printed slips and books save your members and your staff time and reduces errors. The account holder name, account number, bank name and address, and MICR line are printed on both the original and the copy.

For your French members, you can now change the language of the headings on cheques to French. If the majority of cheque orders are for French clients, let us know and we will set French as the default language to save your staff some time when ordering. Very soon, the text on the back of the cheques will be bi-lingual as well!

Speaking of defaults, if there is one particular quantity of personal cheque and a discount type that are used more often than others, let us know and ACUO will start new orders off with these settings automatically.

If you offer U.S. Dollar Accounts, simply check the checkbox underneath the cheques and the appropriate text will print on the cheques. Don't forget to add the 45 coding to the MICR line as required by CPA 006.

The online catalog will be updated soon with all of our new products and better images. Stay tuned, there is much more in the works!
March 17, 2007 We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of our Business Starter Kits! Each Kit includes 200 2/page business cheques and 50 personalized 2-part carbonless deposit slips in a binder, personalized deposit endorsement stamp and an anti-cheque-washing pen. Our Kit is an exceptional value for your business members.
February 3, 2007 There may not have been any announcements lately, but this doesn't mean that there has been nothing happening. In fact, we have several new things coming your way. In the next week or two, our Business Starter Kit will be available. And we have also been busy working on new cheque designs. We will be providing a sneak preview soon! And that's not all .. keep watching the notices for more announcements.
November 10, 2006 At long last, our duplicate cheques are available. Initially these will be offered in the same pastel blue with the same extensive list of security features as our other cheques, in quantities of 40 (2 chequebooks) and 80 (4 chequebooks). By the second quarter of 2007 they will be available in the other 3 color schemes as well. If you wish to make duplicate cheques available to your members, contact your ASAP account representative or Marilyn Fitzgerald and we will add them to your ACUO setup.
September 3, 2006 Yet another security enhancement. ACUO now requires everyone to select a new password every 45 days, and each new password will have to meet certain criteria. We trust that you will appreciate this minor inconvenience in order to better protect your member's sensitive information.
August 1, 2006 The Profile Menu has been renamed to the Administration Menu, where you will now find the option to view your Profile, and more features will be added here soon.
July 17, 2006 As part of ongoing security enhancements, we are going to limit access to online ordering to business hours. If you need access beyond these hours, have an authorized representative from your organization contact your ASAP Cheques' account representative.
July 17, 2006 We continue to streamline ACUO to make your order entry faster, easier and more accurate. You no longer need to enter the MICR Transit field, and ACUO now validates the format of account numbers you enter.
June 13, 2006 Duplicate Cheques are almost here! We expect
to be able to provide samples in late August.
June 12, 2006 ACUO will be unavailable from 5 PM to 8 PM eastern time for maintenance.