10/15/2026
Fraudsters don't need to hack your systems to steal from your business account. In many cases, all they need is one check.
A single intercepted check altered with chemicals or recreated using stolen account details can clear your bank before your accounting team catches the discrepancy. By then, recovering the funds is far from guaranteed. According to the AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, 79% of organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud in 2024.
The problem is that standard account management wasn't designed to intercept a counterfeit check that looks authentic or a legitimate check that's been chemically altered after it left your office. That's a different problem entirely, and it requires a different solution.
Positive Pay is that solution. So, if you're a CFO, controller, finance manager, or office administrator responsible for issuing business checks, Positive Pay is one of the most effective safeguards available against check fraud.
Positive Pay is a cash management service offered by banks that creates a verification layer between a presented check and your account. The core mechanic is straightforward. When your business issues checks, you send the bank a corresponding data file. When those checks are presented for payment, the bank matches them against your file before approving the payment. Anything that doesn't match gets flagged.
The matching process typically verifies the check number, dollar amount, and account number. Some banks also compare additional fields, such as the issue date or payee name, depending on the Positive Pay service they offer. When all fields align, the check clears, but if any detail is off, the check is held as an exception and routed to you for a decision.
Positive Pay doesn't give the bank unilateral authority to reject checks. Your business retains control of the exception review process, which means legitimate checks that trigger a flag due to data-entry errors or formatting issues won't be rejected without your input.
The workflow is less complex than most businesses assume, and much of it can be automated through accounting software.
When your accounting platform generates a check run, it can simultaneously produce a Positive Pay issue file containing the relevant check data. That file is uploaded to your bank through online banking or a secure file transfer. From that point, the bank handles the matching automatically on the back end.
When a check is presented for payment, the bank system runs a comparison against your uploaded data. Matched items clear without interruption. Unmatched items, called exceptions, generate an alert that your designated reviewer usually receives on the same business day. The reviewer examines the discrepancy, then approves or rejects the payment. That decision is logged, and the check is handled accordingly.
The process adds a meaningful checkpoint without creating significant administrative overhead, particularly once the file generation is integrated into your existing check issuance workflow.
Not all implementations of Positive Pay offer the same scope of protection.
Basic Positive Pay verifies the check number, dollar amount, and account number. It's effective at catching counterfeit checks where the check number or amount doesn't match your records and flagging checks that were never issued at all.
Payee Positive Pay adds one more variable to the verification: the name of the payee.
Some check fraud attempts do not involve changing the amount. Instead, criminals alter the recipient’s information while leaving other details intact, then attempt to deposit the check into an account they control. A check legitimately issued to "Meridian Supply Co." gets redirected to an individual using a fraudulent account. Basic Positive Pay won't catch that. Payee Positive Pay will.
For businesses that issue high-value checks to vendors or contractors, Payee Positive Pay is generally the stronger option. The higher cost of service over basic coverage is typically modest, and the protection it offers is significant.
Positive Pay is particularly well-suited to intercepting the three check fraud methods most commonly reported by businesses.
Check washing involves stealing a legitimate check in transit and applying chemicals to remove the original ink, then rewriting the check with a new payee and amount while keeping your authentic signature and account number. The check appears legitimate because the original document and account details are authentic, even though the payment instructions have been altered. Positive Pay catches it because the rewritten amount or payee won't match your issue file.
Check washing is generally most successful on checks written with standard ballpoint ink. Gel ink and laser-printed checks are much harder to alter chemically, making them a more secure choice whenever possible.
A fraudster intercepts a $750 payment and changes it to $7,500. The check number and account remain unchanged, but the dollar amount now diverges from the amount mentioned in the file your bank received. The exception is flagged before the funds move.
Counterfeit checks are created from scratch using stolen account information and routing numbers, sometimes with sophisticated printing that closely replicates your check format.
Banks primarily rely on visual inspection and the MICR line at the bottom of the check to identify suspicious items. Sophisticated counterfeit checks can closely mimic both, making them difficult to detect without an independent verification process. With Positive Pay, however, a check number that doesn't exist in your issue file becomes an automatic exception.
Any organization issuing checks regularly can benefit from Positive Pay, but the risk-to-protection ratio is most compelling for businesses that:
Process significant check volume
Make large payments to vendors or contractors
Operate across multiple locations
Manage payroll by check
Construction companies, property management firms, healthcare organizations, manufacturers, and nonprofits fall consistently into this category. These businesses manage high payment volumes across many payees, creating more opportunities for interception and more exposure per incident.
That said, size isn't the determining factor. A small professional services firm that cuts 20 checks a month to vendors is still a viable target, and a single fraudulent check for a substantial amount can represent a meaningful financial impact relative to the business scale.
Positive Pay has existed for decades and has a well-documented track record, yet many small and mid-sized businesses still don't use it. Three objections come up repeatedly.
Banks typically charge a monthly fee for Positive Pay, and some businesses weigh that against a perceived low probability of fraud. The calculus changes quickly after one incident. The financial damage from a single altered or counterfeit check, including the time spent investigating and disputing the transaction, can quickly exceed years of service fees.
This concern is largely outdated. Many accounting platforms, including QuickBooks and similar systems, can support Positive Pay file generation. The setup process at most banks is straightforward, and many business banking teams can walk you through it in a single call.
"Fraud won't happen to us" is a reasonable thing to believe, until it does. AFP survey data has consistently placed checks at or near the top of targeted payment methods for nearly a decade. The businesses that experience check fraud are not predominantly careless or unsophisticated. They simply didn't have a control in place designed to stop this specific type of attack.
Positive Pay is only as effective as the data entering the system. When checks are printed with inconsistent formatting, unreadable MICR lines, or data that does not align properly with your accounting records, legitimate payments may be flagged as exceptions even when no fraud is involved.
TechChecks produces MICR-encoded business checks compatible with QuickBooks and most major accounting platforms. Checks printed to that standard feed readable and accurate data into your bank's verification system from the start. Fewer false exceptions mean less time spent on routine reviews, and a cleaner exception queue means a fraud flag is easier to spot when it appears.
A tighter issuance process makes the entire Positive Pay system more reliable.
Check fraud isn't a relic of the pre-digital era. It's a current, active threat that affects businesses across industries at a rate that has remained stubbornly consistent for more than a decade. The tools to counter it are widely available and are less complicated to implement than most businesses assume. Positive Pay is the most direct control available for stopping fraudulent checks before they clear.
If your business issues checks with any regularity, ask your bank about Positive Pay enrollment and whether Payee Positive Pay is available for your account. The conversation takes less time than disputing a fraudulent transaction.
