Positive Pay is so passé! Now companies who want to protect their checks rely on Payee Positive Pay. But is your bank giving you the information to be set up for success?
Think about all the checks that leave your business in a given month. Unfortunately, those payments are more vulnerable than ever, as crooks get more sophisticated to try and defraud you.
That’s why it’s so critical to have the proper protections in place. And for years, Positive Pay has been the most effective.
But now, those crooks are specifically targeting the payee line on those checks to put your money in their hands. And traditional Positive Pay can’t spot it.
Enter Payee Positive Pay. A “Positive Pay 2.0,” it is considered the new top safeguard for your company’s payments. Too bad so many companies aren’t taking advantage.
In fact, banks are working hard to set more companies up with the technology. But where your Finance department is now makes a huge difference in the way your bank should be approaching you and the information it should be supplying you.
We’ve gotten the inside scoop based on advice being doled out to financial institutions on how to get their business customers to embrace payee Positive Pay. See where you fall on the continuum and what you’ll need to make the most of this key control:
If your company isn’t using Positive Pay yet
This actually isn’t the toughest spot to be in. The biggest hurdle here will be convincing others in your organization that any type of Positive Pay system is necessary, whether it’s your CEO or your A/P manager. The good news is, once the value of Positive Pay is seen at all, adopting Payee Positive Pay will be the logical choice.
Your bank should be providing you with information on the time and cost to get set up. Press them, too, to make sure the solution you select is scalable and flexible to meet the demands and changing needs of your business.
If you already have Positive Pay
This is actually the toughest sell for banks. On one hand, you already understand the value of Positive Pay as a fraud prevention tool. But if it ain’t broke, why fix it? So uprooting what you already have may be a tough sell.
If you’re in this boat, your bank should be clearly spelling out what it takes to adjust your system to capture payee information. And since you don’t have a highly specialized system, the changes should not be too elaborate.
If you already have Positive Pay but use a customized system
Your bank will likely have to give the hardest sell here. Your company has already invested a decent amount into putting Positive Pay in the first place. And since custom-designed programs leave little room for changes to the output file, you’ll likely have to bring a custom programmer in to make the necessary adjustments.
Be sure your bank is providing you with realistic estimates of what that will cost you, based on its experiences with similar other clients. Other must-ask-for information: Detailed documentation about the required changes to your file format. It’s probably a smart idea to implement a system that allows for even more adjustments down the road, should an even newer, more thorough, version Positive Pay comes down the pike.