# How do I produce a positive pay file from my accounting software to send to the bank for check-issue verification?

Applies to: United States · Updated 2026-09-26

Get your bank's issued-check file specification for each enrolled account, then produce the list of checks written since your last file: from a positive pay export if your software has one, from a report you reformat if not, or, where your bank allows it, by keying checks into its portal. Send it before the checks can reach the bank, add voids and hand-written checks, confirm the bank loaded it, and have a named person decide exceptions before the bank's deadline.

## What does the bank do with your list of issued checks?

It decides which checks to pay. Wells Fargo's payments-fraud page describes positive pay as systematically comparing checks presented for payment with your issued-check files to detect serial numbers and dollar amounts that do not match. Frost Bank's Treasury Management Services Procedures, Terms and Conditions state it plainly: the customer sends information about issued checks, and the bank only pays checks that match the issue file. Items posted to the account that are not on the issued check file, or are on it for a different amount, appear on Frost's daily exception report for you to decide.

That makes completeness the whole control: a legitimate check you forgot to list looks exactly like a counterfeit and is handled like one unless someone decides otherwise in time.

## Which version of the service is your account enrolled in?

Ask the bank for each account, because the variant decides what the file must carry and how much daily review you take on.

| If the account is enrolled in | Then |
|---|---|
| Basic positive pay | The file carries the fields your bank's layout requires, at minimum check number and amount, and you decide only the items that fail to match. |
| Payee matching | The file must also carry each payee name as printed on the check. Wells Fargo's Payee Validation identifies payee names that do not match the payee name information sent on your check issue files, so a name keyed differently in the file becomes an exception. |
| Reverse positive pay | You send no file. Wells Fargo offers it as an alternative for companies unable to transmit issued-check files, with you reviewing the checks presented and deciding whether each is paid or returned. Truist's commercial, corporate and institutional page describes its version as a review of all prior-day checks, a best fit for businesses that want a default decision to pay items not decided by the deadline. |

## Where do you get the file layout?

From your bank, for each enrolled account. Frost's terms require files to be prepared and submitted in compliance with the formatting as provided, in the format agreed to by bank and customer. At UMB the layout is settled at setup: its user-guide page on uploading an issued check file says the file mapping is worked out with the bank during onboarding, and the customer selects that previously mapped file type at each upload.

Do not start from a template found online or from another bank's layout: a file in the wrong layout may be rejected or read with fields in the wrong places, and the checks you think are protected are not. Ask your treasury management contact for the written specification for each enrolled account, and make sure it answers these questions:

- Which fields are required, in what order, and which are optional, such as payee name or a void indicator
- Whether the file is delimited or fixed-width, and which delimiter or column positions it uses
- How dates and amounts are written, such as date order, leading zeros and implied decimals
- Whether a header record, a trailer record or a separate count and total must accompany the data
- How the file is sent, what the daily cut-off is, and where the bank shows that it loaded
- Whether issued checks may be keyed into the bank's portal instead of sent as a file

## What can your accounting software produce?

One of three things, and the procedure differs for each.

| If your software | Then |
|---|---|
| Has a positive pay export in your bank's format | Set the bank account to that format and export after every check run. |
| Has an export or report, but not in your bank's layout | Export the data and reformat it to the specification, or ask whether the bank will map your layout. |
| Has nothing usable | Build the list from a check report, or key each check into the bank's portal where your bank allows it. |

### What if the software has a positive pay export?

Microsoft's documentation for Dynamics 365 Business Central shows what a native export looks like. It says the file contains vendor information, check number and payment amount that you send to the bank, and that Business Central is preconfigured to support positive pay files for Bank of America and City Bank. You choose the format for your bank on the bank account card; the export then displays payments made for that bank account since the last upload date and time, and you save the file and upload it to your electronic bank site.

If the software has no format for your bank, you are on the second path. Even where a format exists, compare one exported file with your bank's specification before relying on it.

### What if you have to build the file from a report?

With no suitable export, a report of the account's checks is the source. Intuit's article on running an uncleared check report in QuickBooks Online builds a report from the checking account's register and filters it by transaction type, naming Bill Payment (Check), Liability Payment (Check) and Paycheck, and gives that filtered method for QuickBooks Online Essentials, Plus and Advanced. On another edition, check whether the register report offers the Transaction Type filter; if not, run it unfiltered, which the same Intuit article lists as needing only an active subscription, and delete non-check lines from the exported CSV. For a positive pay file, change two settings: limit the report period to checks written since your last file, and drop the uncleared filter, because every issued check belongs on the list whether or not it has cleared.

Select every transaction type that produces a paper check on the account, then compare the report's check numbers with your printed and hand-written check sequence so nothing is missing. Intuit's article on running reports in QuickBooks Online says a report can be exported to Excel or as CSV; the CSV is what you reformat into the bank's layout.

### What if you key checks into the bank's portal instead?

If volume is low or nothing usable comes out of the software, ask your bank whether issued checks may be keyed into its portal instead of sent as a file for that account. UMB's user-guide page on manually entering a check describes an Add New Issued Check feature used if a check was manually written or was otherwise not included in the electronic issued check file that was submitted to the financial institution, and has you enter the check number, amount, date issued and payee information. Learn that feature even if you normally upload; it is the natural route for out-of-run checks.

## How do you map one check record to the bank's layout?

Take each field the bank asks for, in its order, and find its source. The layout below is invented for illustration; replace every rule with your own bank's specification. In it, the bank wants comma-separated detail records of six fields, amounts in cents without a decimal point, dates as MMDDYYYY, payees in capitals without commas, and one trailer record of three fields: the letter T, the item count, and the total in cents.

| Bank field, in order | Source | Software export value | Example layout rule | Value sent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Account number | Bank account setup, not the export | Operating checking | Full account number, digits only | 000123456789 |
| 2. Check number | Num column | 10452 | Digits only, as printed | 10452 |
| 3. Issue date | Date column | 09/14/2026 | MMDDYYYY | 09142026 |
| 4. Amount | Amount column | -1,250.00 | Cents; no sign, comma or decimal point | 125000 |
| 5. Payee | Name column | Harbor Supply Co., Inc. | Capitals, commas removed, 40 characters at most | HARBOR SUPPLY CO. INC. |
| 6. Status | Added by you | None | I for issued, V for void | I |

The record the bank receives:

```
000123456789,10452,09142026,125000,HARBOR SUPPLY CO. INC.,I
```

If the same run held checks for 480.75 and 2,019.25, the trailer carries a count of 3 and a total of 1,250.00 + 480.75 + 2,019.25 = 3,750.00, written in this layout as `T,3,375000`. Tie that total to the software's report before sending. A misapplied decimal rule changes every amount a hundredfold, and if your account has payee matching, ask how the bank compares names before you strip punctuation or truncate them.

## When must the file reach the bank, and how do voids, reprints and hand-written checks get onto it?

Before any check on it can be presented, which for a check cashed at the bank's counter can be the same day. Frost's terms say issued check file data received by 7:00 pm Central Time each business day is used to verify checks posting that day, and that checks presented in person at its tellers are cashed only if verified against the most recent issued check file made available to them. Frost's terms add that if the online issued check file is unavailable, its tellers follow normal check-cashing procedures instead. Take your own cut-off from your bank's terms. The working rule is to send the file as part of each check run, before checks are mailed or handed over.

Items outside the normal run are where lists go incomplete, and they are the ones that come back as exceptions:

- **Hand-written and emergency checks.** Enter each one in the bank's portal before it leaves your hands, through manual entry or a supplementary file. Whoever carries the checkbook needs to treat this as part of writing the check.
- **Voids.** Send the void to the bank as well as recording it in the software. Frost's terms count voided items in the file alongside issued items, say a void through its positive pay service lasts 45 days before it falls off the system, and say the void does not place a stop payment on the item. If a check is lost or stolen rather than spoiled, also place a stop payment through the bank's procedure.
- **Reprints.** Treat a reprint as two events: void the spoiled check number, then list the replacement's number, amount and payee. If the spoiled number was already on a file, it keeps matching until you void it.

## What if checks are written on more than one account or from more than one system?

Treat each enrolled account and each channel separately. Frost's terms call for the issued check data along with the status of each check by deposit account. List every place a check can be written on each account: the accounting system's check runs, a payroll system or provider that prints checks on the account, a hand-written checkbook, and any other office or person. For each channel, name who sends its items and how; a payroll provider that prints your checks has to give you its issued list so those items reach the bank. Any channel left out is an uncontrolled gap beside a controlled one, and its legitimate checks will arrive as exceptions.

## How do you confirm the bank actually loaded the file?

Read the bank's result; a finished upload is not an accepted file. UMB's user-guide page on uploading an issued check file says the file processing status will display at the bottom of the page once you process the file. Microsoft's Business Central instructions say to write down or copy the confirmation number displayed when the upload is successful and to enter it against the export record. Frost's terms add a totals check: with each file the customer sends a transmittal register giving the total number of items transmitted and their total dollar amount, and the data counts as delivered only when all of those steps are complete.

Whatever your bank provides, compare its accepted item count and dollar total with your own for the run, and look up one or two checks on the bank's side. If the bank shows fewer items than you sent, treat the missing checks as unprotected and resend them before they can present.

## Who decides exception items, and what happens if nobody does?

You do, every business day, inside the bank's window; the bank's default covers any item you leave. At Frost, the exception report for each enrolled account is available at or before 9:00 am Central Time each business day, payment of an exception must be requested by an authorized user on or before 3:00 pm Central Time that day, and if the bank has no instructions by then it returns all items on the report. Frost's terms also say it does not check items on the exception report against previously cleared items.

A return default sends an undecided legitimate check back to your payee; a pay default lets an undecided counterfeit clear. Set up the decision duty before the service goes live:

- Name a primary decision-maker and a backup, and make sure both have portal access with authority to decide exceptions.
- Turn on exception notifications for both if your bank offers them; if not, schedule a daily check of the exception report before the cut-off.
- Get the account's decision cut-off and default in writing, and choose the default where the bank lets you.
- Decide each exception from your own records, such as the software's check register and the bank's image of the item, never from contact details printed on or supplied with the presented check. Before authorizing payment, confirm the check number has not already cleared.

If one person writes the checks, decides the exceptions and reconciles the account, the separate question on controls when one person records, pays and reconciles covers what to add.

## What does the file leave unprotected?

Every payment that is not a check, and some checks. The list holds checks only, so ACH debits and credits, wires, card payments and other electronic disbursements are not protected by it; their controls are a separate question. Truist's page describes its Payee Positive Pay as matching payee names in addition to the standard check number and amount fields; without that, a listed check with an altered payee but unchanged number and amount still matches. Nor can the file catch a check you issued to the wrong party: a check made out to an impostor after a fake change-of-details request matches your own list and pays. Verifying a vendor's request to change payment details is covered in its own question.

Frost's terms and UMB's user guide each speak to who carries a loss. Frost's terms make it the customer's responsibility to routinely and regularly update the issued check file, say the bank is not liable for paying or rejecting items consistently with the agreement, or for an erroneous payment or rejection caused by an encoding or posting error, and let the bank terminate the service if the customer fails to keep the file updated. UMB's user-guide page on uploading an issued check file notes that required use of positive pay may affect your ability to make claims for unauthorized or erroneous payments under its online banking agreement. Read the positive pay provisions of your own deposit account and treasury services agreements to see how they treat a loss on your account before relying on the service.

## What does the routine look like each time you issue checks?

Run the same cycle for every check run and every out-of-run check:

1. Confirm you are working to the current specification for the account and that the bank has not changed it.
2. Generate the issued items since the last file from the export or report, including voids.
3. Add out-of-run items, such as hand-written, emergency, payroll and other-system checks, and reprints as a void plus a new item.
4. Validate the file against the software's count and total, the check-number sequence, and the bank's formats for dates, amounts and payees.
5. Send it before the bank's cut-off and before the checks leave your hands.
6. Confirm the load by reading the bank's status or confirmation and matching its count and total to yours.
7. Work the exceptions every business day before the deadline, with the backup covering absences.
8. Keep the file, the bank's confirmation and the exception decisions together for each run.

## Sources

1. Wells Fargo — *Payments Fraud*, undated. https://www.wellsfargo.com/com/fraud/payments-fraud/
2. Frost Bank — *Treasury Management Services Procedures, Terms and Conditions*, effective January 15, 2026. https://www.frostbank.com/dam/Docs/AgreementsAndDisclosures/Business/TreasuryManagementServicesProceduresTermsAndConditions.pdf
3. Truist — *Check fraud control*, undated. https://www.truist.com/commercial-corporate-institutional/risk-management/check-fraud-control
4. UMB Bank — *Premier Business Online Banking User Guide: Positive Pay, To Upload an Issued Check File (page 159)*, online edition dated 8-31-26. https://mcompany.cld.bz/UMB-Business-Online-Banking-User-Guide/159/
5. UMB Bank — *Premier Business Online Banking User Guide: Positive Pay, Manually Enter a Check (page 161)*, online edition dated 8-31-26. https://mcompany.cld.bz/UMB-Business-Online-Banking-User-Guide/161/
6. Microsoft — *Export positive pay files - Business Central*, 12/16/2024. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/finance-how-positive-pay
7. Intuit — *Run an uncleared cheque report in QuickBooks Online*, last updated August 4, 2026. https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/pay-bills/run-report-uncleared-checks/L5VCVXTIE_US_en_US
8. Intuit — *Run reports in QuickBooks Online*, last updated 8/5/2026. https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/report-management/run-reports-quickbooks-online/L7aILHhbl_US_en_US

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