How to Create a Positive Pay File for Gusto Payroll Checks

Positive pay is a bank fraud control. You send your bank a list of every check you issued: check number, amount, issue date, and sometimes the payee. When a check hits your account, the bank matches it against your list and flags anything that does not match. If you pay employees by paper check through Gusto, your bank may require this file before it will honor those checks.

There is a catch with Gusto specifically, and it is worth understanding before you start. This page walks through the honest workflow.

The Gusto problem: no check register, no check numbers

Most positive pay guides assume your software hands you a clean check register with bank check numbers already filled in. Gusto does not work that way.

• Gusto does not assign your bank's check numbers. When you run payroll and choose to pay an employee by check, Gusto produces the net pay amount and a printable check, but the physical check number that matters to your bank comes from your own check stock or your bank's numbering, not from Gusto.
• Gusto has no check register report. There is no single screen that lists check number, amount, and issue date in the columns a positive pay file needs. You get payroll and payment data, which is a different thing.

So the work is reconciliation, not export. You take the net-pay and payment data Gusto gives you, pair each payment with the actual check number it was written on, and only then do you have a complete issue file. If you want the background on what these files are and why banks ask for them, read what is positive pay first.

Step 1: Pull the payment data out of Gusto

Run your payroll as usual, then locate the report that lists each employee payment for the period: net pay amount, pay date, and employee name. Gusto's payroll history and payroll reports cover this. Export to CSV or Excel so you can edit it.

Menu paths in Gusto change over time, so the rule is: find the report that gives you one row per payment with the net amount and the date. That is your starting table. Do not rely on it for check numbers, because they will not be there.

Step 2: Get your real check numbers from the bank or your check stock

This is the step that is unique to Gusto. The check numbers live outside Gusto. There are two common ways to capture them:

• From your check stock. If you print on pre-numbered checks, the number printed on each check is the one your bank sees. Record which number went to which employee as you print.
• From your bank. If your bank assigns numbers to printed or issued checks, pull the issued-check list or the recent activity from your bank's online portal and match by amount and date.

Whichever source you use, the goal is a reliable link between each Gusto net-pay row and the exact check number on the paper that will clear your account. Get this wrong and the bank will reject good checks, because the number on the check will not match the number in your file.

Step 3: Combine into one check register

Now merge the two sources into a single spreadsheet with at least these columns:

• Check number (from Step 2)
• Amount (the net pay from Gusto)
• Issue date (the pay date from Gusto)
• Payee name (the employee, if your bank's format requires it)

One row per check. Confirm every amount ties back to the Gusto net pay exactly, including cents. Confirm every check number is the physical number on the paper. This combined sheet is the check register that Gusto never gave you directly.

Step 4: Convert the register into your bank's positive pay format

Banks do not accept a generic spreadsheet. Each bank wants a specific layout: fixed column positions or a particular CSV order, a set date format, amounts with or without a decimal, and sometimes a header and trailer record. Your combined sheet has the right data; it is in the wrong shape.

You have a few options to do the conversion:

• Format it by hand in Excel against your bank's written spec. This works but is slow and easy to get wrong on field widths and date formats.
• Buy desktop software. Big Red Consulting's PositivePay File Creator runs about $119 the first year and $99 per year after that; it is Windows desktop software, and even its QuickBooks Online edition is a Windows program that also needs Microsoft Excel installed. Treasury Software's Bank Positive Pay runs roughly $30 to $90 per month per seat (about $360 to $1,080 a year) and is installed Windows software. MoneyThumb and ProperSoft sell paid desktop converters too. These prices are current as of 2026; verify before buying.
• Use a free browser tool. PositivePayMaker converts your combined check register (CSV or Excel) into a bank positive pay file entirely in your browser. Your check data never leaves your computer, there is nothing to install, and it works on Mac or Windows. It ships with 11 bank layouts, including several built from published bank specs, plus a custom format builder for banks that are not on the list.

If your bank is one of the common ones, start from its page: Chase positive pay format or Huntington positive pay format. If it is not listed, the custom format builder lets you set the columns, date format, and field order your bank documented.

Step 5: Validate before you send

Run the finished file through a positive pay file validator to catch obvious problems: wrong column count, malformed dates, missing amounts, or a bad record total. A validator does not know your bank's exact spec, so it is a sanity check, not a guarantee.

Then do the one thing every bookkeeper should do with a new format: send the first file to your bank and confirm they accept it before you depend on it. Banks differ on small details, and the only proof that your layout is correct is your bank loading it without errors. Never assume a format is accepted until your bank confirms it on a real file.

If you also run checks through QuickBooks

Many Gusto users post payroll into QuickBooks and write other vendor checks there. QuickBooks does have check numbers and a register, but it cannot export a positive pay file natively. The same convert-then-validate workflow applies. See the QuickBooks positive pay guide for that side of the work.

The short version

1. Export net pay, date, and payee from Gusto.
2. Get the real check numbers from your check stock or bank.
3. Combine them into one register, one row per check.
4. Convert that register into your bank's positive pay format.
5. Validate it, then confirm acceptance with your bank on the first file.

The reconciliation in steps 1 through 3 is the part Gusto forces on you. Once you have a clean combined register, the conversion is fast and free.

Create your positive pay file