Your business is your pride and joy, which is why you want to keep it as safe as possible. With fraud on the rise, you’re likely taking precautions and looking for ways to protect your organization. If that’s the case, then you might want to consider enrolling in Positive Pay. Positive Pay is a service offered by many financial institutions – including FFB Bank – that is designed to protect your accounts from fraud early on. Specifically, using Positive Pay means that you’ll have the ability to spot and stop fraudulent checks before they have a chance to do any damage. Interested in learning more? Read on to see how Positive Pay can be beneficial for you, your customers, and your business in the fight against fraud.

How Does Positive Pay Work?

The first step in using Positive Pay is to upload a list of checks that your business has issued that day. Once this is uploaded, the system will compare the incoming transactions to information such as the issuing date, dollar amount, check number, and payee information on the items you’ve uploaded. If a transaction looks suspicious or one of the items is not preauthorized, then Positive Pay will notify you of potential fraud. From here, you’ll be able to go in, review the flagged item, and either approve or return it. So if it truly is a fraudulent transaction, you can stop it from going through before it’s too late.

How Can Positive Pay Benefit You?

  • Added Protection for Your Account
    As already noted, fraud is on the rise and unless we take precautions, it won’t be stopping anytime soon. In particular, checks can now easily be forged, or “washed,” a form of altering, if criminals get their hands on them. With this payment method becoming more vulnerable to fraud, Positive Pay’s ability to warn you of suspicious transactions can be a handy tool when it comes to identifying altered checks and preventing them from going through.
  • Stops Fraud Sooner Rather Than Later

    When it comes to fraud prevention, acting quickly and immediately is key. One way to quickly spot fraud is by consistently monitoring your account – which Positive Pay can do for you. With Positive Pay in place, you’ll get a second set of eyes on all your transactions. That way if you miss a red flag, the system will pick up on it and warn you of the potential fraud so you can stop it in its tracks.

  • Saves Resources 

    Time and money are important resources that can help your business grow and succeed. So, it’s safe to say that you’d rather pour those resources into your work rather than into dealing with fraud. After all, it can be financially devastating to fall victim to cases of fraud. Criminals may take thousands or more dollars from your account, costing your business its profits and the monetary resources used to pay for reoccurring expenses.  Not to mention, dealing with fraud means dealing with filing police reports, closing your business’s accounts, and opening new ones – processes that can be incredibly time-consuming. With Positive Pay, you can avoid all these inconveniences by having a system that will warn you in advance when you become a target of fraud.

  • It’s Safe and Easy to Use 

    You can enroll in Positive Pay with a number of banks and oftentimes you’ll be able to access the program easily through the bank’s online banking system or mobile app. Although it may seem like a hassle to upload a list of issued payments each day, it can make your daily tasks easier in the end by monitoring fraud for you and only requiring action if an item gets flagged. Plus, there are also accounting software programs available to help generate the check-issue file that Positive Pay requires, meaning that all you’ll have to do is export the file and upload it to Positive Pay rather than inputting each item manually. You can also authorize multiple users for Positive Pay so if you don’t have time or are unable to upload the list yourself, you can always have a trusted coworker, partner, or employee input the list for you.

Summary

You want your business to stay safe so it can continue to grow – and so do we. That’s why it’s important to us that we make sure businessowners like yourself are informed of every preventative measure they can take against fraud, including Positive Pay. With its easy use and added protection, having Positive Pay in place can be key when it comes to defending your business from fraud anytime, anywhere.