What is Positive Pay? Positive Pay is a fraud-prevention service offered by most banks. Your firm provides the bank with a list of the checks it has issued (typically the check number, issue date, and amount), and the bank clears only the checks that match the list. Anything that does not match is flagged for your review before it is paid.
To use it, you need a list of the checks your firm wrote during a given period. You can pull that list yourself in CARET Legal from the Banks & Registers tab by searching for checks within a date range, then hand the results to your bank in whatever format they require. CARET Legal will let you export this filtered view to a PDF report or CSV spreadsheet.
Before you begin
You will need access to the Accounting module, and you should know the date range your bank expects (usually the checks written since your last submission).
Steps
- Go to the Accounting module and open the Banks & Registers tab.
- In the Select Account field, choose the bank account you are producing the report for (for example, your operating or trust account).
- Open the register search, and set the transaction type to Checks. This limits the results to checks your firm issued, and leaves out deposits, transfers, and other activity.
- Apply a date range filter for the period your bank needs, then run the search.
- Review the results. Each check will show its details, including the check number, date, and amount, which are the fields your bank uses to match against Positive Pay.
- Export or download the results so you can send them to your bank. Your bank may ask for a specific file format or column layout, so check their Positive Pay requirements and adjust the file before you submit it.
Tip
Run this on the same schedule your bank expects (for example, right after each check run) so every check you issue is on the list before it is presented for payment. If a check is missing from your report, confirm it was actually recorded in the register for that account and falls inside the date range you searched.
Here are some related articles:
How do I print a check from the Register?
What Reports does CARET Legal Offer? – CARET Legal