Check Printing & Mailing

When issuing checks through Column, you can print and mail your checks directly with Column or use a third-party service.

Mailing checks with Column

Column offers check printing and mailing services. When you issue a check with our API, you can include the following optional parameters: message to the payee, memo on the check, and payee address. If Column receives both message and payee address, Column will print and mail the check to the specified payee's address on your behalf. Column only supports payee addresses within the United States. The DeliveredbyColumn parameter will be set to true in the response body.

After calling our API to Issue a Check, if a preview is available, the isPreviewPDFAvailable parameter in the response body will be set to true. You can use the Check Preview API to download the check preview.

We provide the delivery status of a check in the DeliveryStatus field in the check transfer object. The delivery status may be as follows: created, mailed, in_transit, in_local_area, processed_for_delivery, delivered, re-routed, returned_to_sender . We also emit webhooks for every status update. Learn more in the check mailing notification & states section.

Stop Payments

If a stop payment request is received on a check that has yet to be mailed, we will cancel check mailing. You will see no updates to the check delivery status and will not receive webhooks.

If a stop payment request is received on a check that has already been mailed, Column will continue to update the delivery status for data integrity purposes, but we will not send additional webhooks.                      

Mailing checks with other providers

You can also work with a third party of your choice for check printing and mailing. When you create a check through our API, the response will have the data you need to easily share with your third-party check printing service. If using a third party service, you should not include message and payee address when issuing a check.