Check Fraud Prevention with Positive Pay

Positive Pay Processing

Proactive Fraud Protection Made Easy

Check fraud is a real and growing problem for businesses. By industry estimates there are more than 500 million checks forged each year, with losses totaling more than $50 billion.

Prelude Software’s payment processing application, called PayPilot, provides a security feature called positive pay to combat check fraud.  Positive pay gives you the means to combat check fraud by easily and efficiently verifying issued checks before the checks are cashed. When checks are printed in PayPilot, a file containing information such as check number, date, amount, and payee is automatically sent to your bank. When a check is presented at the bank for payment, the bank reviews the positive pay file to see if the check is valid. Funds are released only when the payment details match the exact items on the check file. Any exceptions are automatically flagged for special handling.

Be proactive in the fight against fraud! Positive pay is simple to set up and much less expensive than a check fraud loss. In fact, stopping just a few fraudulent checks more than pays for the feature.

The Power To Be Bank Agnostic

PayPilot features a built-in suite of banking functions that can be added one at a time or all at once, at installation or anytime you choose. Use one or all of the functions to streamline processes, lower costs, and reduce your risk. With cost containment a business priority, it is not surprising that bank fees are in the spotlight. Prelude’s solutions allow you to be bank neutral. You have greater leverage to negotiate fees with your bank when you have the power to change your formats as easily as you do with PayPilot.

MICR Check Printing

Using pre-printed checks for your payment processing sounded like such a good idea at the time. Your customers, agents and vendors all receive a professional-looking check, complete with your logo, address and bank information.  And then you acquired a subsidiary or add a new division with a different address. Soon one inventory of check stock became four inventories.  And that is when you started noticing problems.  Prelude's MICR check writing software enables MICR check printing on an laser printer.  

MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) check printing on blank check stock offers clear advantages over its pre-printed counterpart.  With the PayPilot MICR check printing solution, yhou can centralize all of your payment processes using one blank check stock and apply data-driven check layouts for all of your different operations.

Some of the advantages of Prelude's MICR check writing software include:

• Changes:  Any changes to your bank, address, or logo require you to replace your entire pre-printed inventory (and wait for its arrival). With PayPilot MICR check writing software, an authorized user simply updates the check layout in the database and the change takes effect immediately. 

• Errors:  Check numbers on pre-printed stock can easily get out of sync with what your software expects them to be. This is never an issue with blank stock. 

• Voids and Re-Issues:  Voiding and reissuing checks a chronic problem made needlessly more complicated when dealing with pre-printed checks. 

• Security:  Pre-printed stock can be stolen, and the party responsible can easily issue their own checks simply by filling in the blanks. PayPilot MICR check printing solution, along with the use of blank stock, negates this risk and adds further security through the use of authorized system access and detailed audit trails tracking all issued payments. 

• Hassle:  If you employ several payment systems today, you know how cumbersome it is to manage your processes using multiple printers, multiple checks stocks, accommodating batch and hot runs, etc. Blank stock drastically simplifies your payments, eliminating complex and hard-to-maintain disbursement processes and reducing costs.

PayPilot’s MICR check printing software adapts to any set of systems that issue payments: general ledger, claims, policy, accounts payable, and more. For insurance clients, the software also handles specific lines of business such as property & casualty, workers’ compensation and disability, among others. 

Perhaps the best feature of Prelude's PayPilot MICR check writing software, however, is its ability to let you set the pace of your conversion to MICR check writing and check printing. Implement payments via MICR check writing and MICR check printing one department at a time, or company-wide—it’s up to you! Prelude's MICR check writing software is agnostic and can be configured to enable MICR check printing on whatever MICR printer or printer that accepts MICR ink of your choice.

Switching from pre-printed to MICR check printing on blank safety stock can save 70% of processing costs on every check issued. The savings are greatest when checks are printed for multiple companies and/or multiple bank accounts. Incorporating digital signatures further extends the cost reductions by eliminating key manual steps in your process.

With PayPilot processing your checks by its MICR writing software on blank stock, you also have at your disposal a number of easy-to-add expansion modules that can significantly increase your payment capabilities. Bank reconciliation, positive pay security, electronic payments, virtual card payments, escheat processing, and OFAC compliance are just some of the features that can be included with the initial PayPilot MICR check writing solution implementation, or added over time. Pre-printed checks for payment processing may have sounded like a good idea at the time, but now, with PayPilot MICR check printing solution delivering such compelling benefits, blank stock is the preferred way to go.