Positive Pay
Positive Pay is an automated fraud defense system that actively protects your business accounts against unauthorized transactions. By matching the checks and electronic payments you issue against the items presented for payment, the system immediately flags any discrepancies for your review before funds leave your account. This proactive treasury management tool prevents forged, altered, or counterfeit payments from clearing and ensures your team maintains total control over daily cash flow.
What Are the Benefits of Positive Pay?
- ✔ Protect against fraudulent activity. Reduce the risk of unauthorized transactions on your accounts.
- ✔ Make quick, informed decisions. Use timely information to act fast when something looks wrong.
- ✔ Improve audit control. Strengthen internal review of every check issued and presented.
- ✔ Reduce the risk of financial loss. Catch mismatches before funds leave your account.
- ✔ Spend less time reconciling. Free up time to focus on growing your business.
- ✔ Gain peace of mind. Know your account information is receiving increased security.
How Does Positive Pay Work?
The basics of Positive Pay are simple. When you issue a batch of checks through your accounting program, the specifics of those payments are recorded and exported from your accounting program and imported to the Positive Pay system. Positive Pay capabilities include:
- ✔ Catching fraud early. Identify fraudulent activity before the money leaves your account.
- ✔ Automatic comparison. Checks presented for payment are automatically compared to your check-issued file.
- ✔ ACH approval lists. Create an approved list of ACH transactions.
- ✔ Mismatch alerts. Receive alerts the moment a mismatch occurs.
- ✔ You decide. Choose whether or not to approve each flagged payment.
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Frequently Asked Questions
+ Why would my business need Positive Pay?
Fraud is a never-ending problem, affecting businesses of all sizes. Criminals can use modern technology to create check forgeries that are hard to spot, and cybercriminals frequently target small businesses to create fraudulent ACH payments. Positive Pay can help you stop fraud before it happens.
+ How exactly does Positive Pay work?
With Positive Pay, you submit a list of the checks and ACH payments issued by your business. This can be done automatically by linking your accounting and payment systems with our Positive Pay database.
+ How does Positive Pay know if a paper check is fraudulent?
With paper checks, our Positive Pay system examines the date, the check number, the recipient, and the amount of each payment and compares it against the list of payments submitted by your business. If there’s a discrepancy, we’ll put a hold on that check and flag it for your review.
+ How does Positive Pay work with ACH payments?
With automated clearinghouse (ACH) payments, you can set your own rules, such as a list of authorized vendors, limits on the transaction amount, and other details. If there’s an attempted payment from one of your accounts that conflicts with your transaction rules, we’ll put a hold on it and flag it for your review. You can also choose to block all ACH payments unless they’re individually approved by your business.
+ What if my accounting software doesn’t work with Positive Pay?
Most types of accounting software work with Positive Pay. If your software can print checks, it will probably work with Positive Pay. If it doesn’t, you can enter the information manually.
Contact Our Treasury Management Team
If you’re interested in setting up Positive Pay in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, or if you have any questions, please contact our Treasury Management team.