What is Positive Pay?

Positive Pay is a cash management service designed to help businesses detect and prevent fraudulent payments before they are processed. By matching information about issued payments to items presented for payment, Positive Pay identifies discrepancies—such as altered amounts, unauthorized payees, or duplicated checks—and routes them as exceptions for review. The result is reduced fraud losses, stronger internal control, and greater confidence in payment operations.

How Ally Financial’s Positive Pay Works

Ally’s Positive Pay integrates with your existing treasury processes. You supply a file containing details of checks or ACH entries you authorize—issue date, check number, payee, and amount—either through the secure business banking portal, file transfer, or supported integration methods. When a payment is presented for clearing, the system automatically compares the presented item to your issued file.

• Exact and fuzzy matching: Items that match are paid automatically.
• Exceptions flagged: Items with mismatched amounts, unauthorized check numbers, or incorrect payee names are flagged as exceptions.
• Exception decisioning: Designated approvers review exceptions and instruct Ally to pay or return the item.
• Timed workflows and alerts: Set response windows and receive notifications for unresolved exceptions to ensure timely decisions and reduce risk exposure.

Key Benefits

• Fraud reduction: Prevent costly unauthorized disbursements by identifying suspicious items before funds leave your account.
• Operational efficiency: Automate routine matching and exception handling to free treasury staff for higher-value work.
• Customizable controls: Tailor match rules, approval hierarchies, and alert settings to align with your company’s policies and risk tolerance.
• Comprehensive reporting: Maintain an audit-ready record of issued items, exceptions, decisions, and user activity to simplify reconciliations and compliance.
• Improved cash visibility: Better predict outflows with faster resolution of payment items and fewer unexpected clears.
• Cost containment: Reduce losses and administrative burden caused by manual review and reconciliation of fraudulent or altered items.

Core Features

Ally’s Positive Pay is built with practical, business-focused features that support secure, scalable cash management:

• Check Positive Pay: Match checks by number, date, amount, and payee; support for dual controls and multi-step approval.
• ACH Positive Pay: Monitor incoming ACH credits and debits, establishing authorized originator lists and rules to block suspicious origination patterns.
• Flexible file formats: Accepts multiple upload formats and automated feeds to accommodate ERP and payroll systems.
• Real-time exception alerts: Email and system notifications for immediate awareness and action on exceptions.
• User roles and permissions: Segregation of duties with assignable roles for submitters, reviewers, and approvers to strengthen internal controls.
• Detailed activity logs: Secure, timestamped audit trails that document every decision and change for compliance and forensic use.
• Custom rules engine: Create rules based on amount thresholds, vendor types, or account activity patterns to automate routine decisions.
• Integration-ready APIs: Seamlessly integrate Positive Pay workflows into treasury platforms and accounting systems for end-to-end automation.

Exception Management and Workflows

Exception handling is central to the value Positive Pay delivers. Ally provides an intuitive interface where exceptions are presented clearly, along with the details needed to make informed decisions. Configurable workflows let you define who receives exceptions, how approvals are routed, and the time windows for responses. For recurring vendors or high-volume payees, rules can be created to auto-accept or auto-reject within predefined parameters, further reducing manual review.

Security and Compliance

Security is a foundational element of Positive Pay. Ally applies controls across authentication, data transmission, and access management to protect sensitive payment data. Detailed logs and reconciliations support internal audit and regulatory requirements, helping your organization demonstrate strong controls over cash disbursements and ACH origination.

Who Should Use Positive Pay?

Positive Pay is ideal for companies that issue checks, process ACH transactions, or manage high-volume disbursement activity. It is particularly valuable for organizations that:

• Have experienced or want to prevent check or ACH fraud.
• Require stronger internal controls for treasury operations.
• Need scalable solutions to handle seasonal or growth-related transaction spikes.
• Seek better reconciliation and audit readiness.

Getting Started

Implementing Positive Pay with Ally Financial is straightforward. Begin by registering the accounts to be protected and establishing the file submission process for issued items. Configure your match rules and approval workflows, assign user roles, and set notification preferences. Training and onboarding support are available to ensure your team can manage exceptions confidently and efficiently.