Fulton Bank Positive Pay and the Check Issue File
If your business banks with Fulton Bank, positive pay is one of the fraud controls you can add to a commercial checking account. It works by comparing every check that comes in for payment against a list of checks you actually issued. When something does not match, Fulton holds it as an exception and asks you to pay it or return it.
The short version: Fulton sets the exact file layout at setup, that layout can vary by account, and you should always confirm your first file with the bank before relying on it. The free check issue file generator on this site can produce a file in whatever column order and format Fulton specifies.
What Fulton Bank offers
Fulton Bank lists several related fraud-protection services for commercial and small business customers:
- Positive Pay (check positive pay). You submit your check issuance details up front, and Fulton verifies presented checks against that information as they clear.
- Payee Positive Pay. An added layer that verifies the payee name on a check matches the payee name in your check issue file.
- Reverse Positive Pay. Instead of submitting an issue file, Fulton provides a list of presented checks through its online platform, with digital check images, so you review and decide which to return.
- ACH Positive Pay. A separate tool that lets you review and approve incoming ACH debits before they post to your account.
- Max Pay. A threshold control where checks above a dollar amount you set will not process automatically.
If you want to understand the difference between standard and reverse positive pay before you choose, see positive pay vs reverse positive pay. Payee matching is covered in more depth in payee positive pay.
Where positive pay lives in BOSS
Fulton Bank delivers treasury services through BOSS, its business online banking platform for commercial customers. Check positive pay, exception review, and reverse positive pay lists are all handled inside BOSS, and a mobile reference guide is published for reviewing exceptions on the BOSS app. Customers who came over from the former Republic First Bank were migrated onto BOSS, and Fulton asked those customers to update their file format to BOSS specifications beginning November 4, 2024.
Inside BOSS there are two ways to get your issued checks into the system. You can import a check file, or you can enter checks manually. Manual entry skips the file entirely and is meant for one-off checks or accounts with light check activity. For anything beyond a handful of checks, uploading a file from your accounting system is the practical route.
What goes in a check issue file
The exact field positions and format for a Fulton check issue file are provided by the bank at setup, and they can differ from one account to another. That said, almost every positive pay file, including Fulton's, carries the same core pieces of information for each check:
- Account number the check was written against.
- Check or serial number.
- Amount, sometimes with the decimal point and sometimes as an implied-decimal value where
125000means1250.00. - Issue date.
- An action code that marks the record as issued or void. In BOSS this is the Issue/Void option, and a check file uploaded to BOSS should always include it.
- An optional payee name, required only if you use Payee Positive Pay.
For background on these elements and the common formatting traps, see the positive pay file format reference, the note on implied decimal amounts, and the difference between fixed width and CSV files. Handling voids correctly matters too, which is covered in void checks and positive pay.
The upload workflow in BOSS
Once your file is ready, the general flow in BOSS looks like this:
- Export or build your list of issued and voided checks for the period.
- Import the check file into BOSS, or enter the checks manually for small batches.
- Approve the file. If a file is not approved, items in that file will generate exceptions. Confirm the file shows as approved before you consider it done.
- Review any exceptions Fulton flags by the daily cutoff, then pay or return each one.
If a file is rejected at upload, the usual cause is a format mismatch against Fulton's specification. The guide on a rejected positive pay file walks through what to check. For how exceptions and decision deadlines work, see positive pay exceptions and positive pay cutoff times.
Build a matching file from your check register
Most accounting systems can export a check register, but the columns rarely line up with what a bank expects. The free custom format builder lets you map your register to Fulton's required order, set fixed-width or delimited output, choose the date format, and handle implied-decimal amounts. If you keep your books in QuickBooks, the QuickBooks positive pay guide shows how to pull the register and shape it into an issue file.
One firm caution. The layout Fulton provides at setup is the source of truth. Build your first file, then verify it with the bank by sending a small test file or confirming the field map with your treasury contact before you depend on it. A file that imports cleanly but maps a column wrong can let a fraudulent check through, which defeats the purpose. To validate structure before you upload, run your output through the file validator.