How to Create a Synovus Positive Pay File
If your business banks with Synovus and has turned on positive pay, you owe the bank a check issue file every time you cut checks. The file lists the checks you just wrote so Synovus can compare them against checks that come in for payment. Anything that does not match gets held for your review before the bank pays it. This page covers how that process works at Synovus, where the file format lives, and how to produce a matching file without retyping your check register by hand.
How positive pay works at Synovus
The mechanics are the same as at most banks. You send Synovus an electronic issue file listing the details of each check you have issued. Synovus compares incoming checks to that list every business day and flags any item that does not match. Payment on an unmatched check is released only with your approval. That review step is the whole point: a forged or altered check that was never on your issue list shows up as an exception instead of clearing silently.
Synovus runs several related services, and it helps to know which one you are using:
- Check Positive Pay matches check number, dollar amount, and account against your issue file.
- Payee Positive Pay adds the payee name to that match. Synovus enhanced this service on June 1, 2024. Because the payee is checked, the name in your issue file has to match the name printed on the check, which matters if your accounting software stores a vendor name that differs from the check's display name.
- ACH Positive Pay is a separate service that screens electronic (ACH) debits against rules you set, not paper checks. It does not use a check issue file.
All of these are administered through Synovus's commercial online banking platform, Synovus Gateway, under Treasury Management. If you are not sure which services are active on your account, your Synovus treasury contact or relationship manager can confirm.
Where the Synovus file format comes from
Synovus does not publish a single fixed positive pay layout for everyone. The Treasury Management agreement states that you supply an issue file "in a format that has previously been approved by the Bank." In practice that means the exact layout depends on how your account is set up, and you confirm it from two places:
- The Synovus Gateway Positive Pay User Guide, whose Appendix contains the File Mapping Requirements. You reach the guide through the Gateway Commercial Resources page inside online banking.
- Your Synovus treasury or implementation contact, who can tell you which preset your account expects and approve a custom layout if you need one.
On the upload side, Gateway's "Upload From File" function is flexible. It accepts NACHA-formatted files, a system-standard five-column CSV for clients who do not already have a custom format, and custom file types including comma-separated (CSV) and fixed-width layouts that you map to your data. That flexibility is good news: it means you are rarely locked into one rigid spec, and you can usually produce a file that Gateway will accept from whatever your accounting system exports.
Because the precise field order is account-specific, this page does not reproduce a byte-by-byte Synovus layout. Anyone who hands you an exact column map without it coming from your own Gateway guide is guessing. Pull the real File Mapping Requirements from your guide or your treasury contact, then build a file to match.
The QuickBooks gap
QuickBooks is where most of the friction starts. QuickBooks Online and Desktop cannot export a positive pay file natively. The usual workaround is to run a check or transaction report, export it to CSV, and reshape the columns by hand into what Synovus expects. Payee Positive Pay makes this worse, because QuickBooks tends to export the vendor name rather than the name actually printed on the check, and Synovus is matching against the printed name. Hand-editing a CSV for every check run is slow and easy to get wrong, and a single misaligned column can cause the upload to fail or, worse, flag good checks as exceptions.
Build a matching file with PositivePayMaker
This is the gap PositivePayMaker fills. It is a free, browser-based tool that turns your check register (CSV or Excel) into a positive pay file. Because Synovus's layout is configured per account, you use the custom format builder to lay out exactly the fields your Gateway mapping calls for: choose CSV or fixed-width, set the column order, date format, amount format, and any header or trailer, and save it so each future check run takes seconds. If your account uses the system-standard five-column CSV, a generic CSV preset gets you most of the way there.
Two things worth knowing about the tool. First, it runs entirely in your browser. Your check data never gets uploaded to a server, which keeps account numbers and payee names off the wire. Second, it is free, so it is a sensible default before you decide whether higher-volume software is worth paying for.
When a paid tool may fit better
For very high check volume or deep accounting integration, a paid desktop product can earn its cost. Big Red Consulting's PositivePay File Creator pulls directly from QuickBooks and supports well over 100 bank formats; it runs about $119 the first year and $99 a year after, is Windows-only, and the QuickBooks Online edition needs Excel installed. Treasury Software's Bank Positive Pay ships with 350-plus layouts and runs roughly $29.95 to $89.95 a month as installed Windows software. MoneyThumb and ProperSoft sell paid desktop converters as well. If you cut checks occasionally and just need a clean file for Synovus, the free builder is usually enough; if you are running large batches daily and want the file generated straight out of QuickBooks, those tools may save time.
Verify the first file with Synovus
Whatever you use, treat the first file as a test. Generate it, then upload a small batch or send it to your Synovus treasury contact to confirm the format is accepted and the checks reconcile correctly before you rely on it for a full run. You can also check a file's structure with the built-in validator first. Confirming the layout once with the bank is far cheaper than discovering a column is off the day a real check needs to clear.
For background on the file itself, see our positive pay file format reference and the QuickBooks positive pay guide.