Blog

For business owners who send and receive payments at a higher volume than the average consumer, protecting accounts from fraud is especially important. That’s why Positive Pay is such a valuable tool.

What is Positive Pay? 

Positive Pay is a service that matches checks and ACH transactions presented to your business account against a list of payments or checks that you have submitted to Park Bank.

If a check or ACH item attempts to pull funds from your account and it does not match what you have previously authorized, an exception email is sent to you, and you can then log into online banking to review the transaction. At that point, you will have the option to approve or reject the transaction. 

For check payments, you can upload a file (using QuickBooks, Quicken, a simple spreadsheet, or individually) including the check numbers and dollar amounts of authorized checks into the Online Banking platform. Then, when a check is presented on your account, it will be compared against the list that you uploaded.

For example, say you write a check for $100 – if someone alters the check and tries to cash it for $1000, Positive Pay will recognize that the check does not match what you entered, and an exception email will be generated.

Similarly, if someone steals a check and tries to present it for cash, the system would not allow the transaction, because the check number and/or dollar amount would not match your list of authorized checks.

For ACH transactions, you can authorize certain companies to pull funds from (or debit) your account, as well as a dollar amount range for each company. When an ACH item is presented to your account, if any of the information does not match what you have authorized, an exception email is generated. Then, as with check Positive Pay, you can log into online banking and choose to approve or reject the transaction.

What is an ACH transaction? 

ACH stands for Automated Clearing House, and an ACH transaction is simply an electronic funds transfer system. Examples would include direct deposit for payroll, homeowner association dues pulled directly from accounts, or automatic bill payments. 

Why should a business have Positive Pay?

You can think of Positive Pay as an insurance policy to protect your account from fraud. It will defend your account from someone stealing physical checks, creating fake checks with your account information, altering dollar amounts, and debiting your account electronically without your authorization. 

You have better things to do than constantly monitor your accounts for fraud. Let our Business Services team help you run your business more efficiently and more securely. After all, you have a business to grow.