Check, please!

Panasonic's new "CPA" Check Printing Accountant is a clever gadget that adds a refreshing new category to the cluttered field of personal electronic organizers and accessories. Unlike pocket electronic products that provide little advantage over their paper counterparts, the CPA, though pricey, represents a clear improvement over ordinary paper checkbooks--especially for those people, including this reviewer, who simply leave their checkbooks unbalanced.

It's a bit of work to type in the information for each check, but the extra effort, compared to writing checks by hand, is worth it. The advantages are accurate automatic record keeping (eliminating any possibility of discrepancy between the amount you write the check for and the amount entered in your records) and professional check appearances.

Plus, by taking advantage o the CPA's 25-name memory, the tedium of typing the names of check recipients can be eliminated. This feature is perfect for a small business or for household use to pay monthly bills. Just type in the payee's name once, and from then on, with two or three keystrokes you're done.

THE LOOK AND FEEL

CPA is about the same length and width as an ordinary checkbook, but two or three times thicker. At 14 oz., it's noticeably heavier than its paper counterpart, mostly because of built-in rechargeable NiCd batteries (plus a five-year lithium battery for memory backup).

For comparison, we weighed two typical personal checkbooks--a 2-1/2-ounce "stripped down" version and a 4-1/2-ounce "loaded" checkbook filled with other papers (business cards, deposit slips, bank-by-phone brochures, etc.) CPA's weight and its unavoidably tiny keys are our only real complaints.

Setup is simple and straightforward. CPA asks users to enter the name of the bank account, how much money is in there, and to enter names r the payee list.

CPA prints on standard-size personal checks. A container holds up to...