I've spent this week implementing a Cheque (yes -- that is the correct and very English way of spelling 'check') scanning solution for a client.
The basic idea is -- company receives lots of money payments by cheque, these are scanned, sorted and deposited direct into the companies bank account and the deposit information is then automatically uploaded to their back office accounting system (in this case an in house RPG IBM i application). It's been a fun project with some neat automated features which are now working nicely in production. *phew*
The clever scanning and talking to the bank bit is handled by a cheque scanner and some rather nifty software to control it, called RemitPlus by Profitstars:
RemitPlus® Remittance/LockboxTM
Electronic check, remittance, and lockbox processing solution.