Creating a Cadence Bank positive pay file
Positive pay is the check-fraud control Cadence Bank runs for business and commercial accounts. You send the bank a list of every check you have issued (check number, dollar amount, issue date, and usually the payee name), and Cadence matches that list against checks presented for payment. Anything that does not match becomes an exception you review and either pay or return. The file you upload is called a check issue file, and the question most bookkeepers have is the practical one: how do you turn your check register into the exact file Cadence expects?
This page walks through where the Cadence format comes from, the general upload workflow, and how to produce a matching file for free without buying desktop software.
How positive pay works at Cadence Bank
Cadence describes the service as an automated cash-management tool: you send a file of checks issued each day, the bank stores your issue data, and it matches checks as they are presented. Checks that are not found in your issue data are reported back to you as exceptions. You manage and decision those exceptions from a desktop browser or the Cadence Treasury Mobile app, and Cadence notifies you of exception items by SMS alert or email so you can act inside the required return window.
A few details from Cadence worth knowing before you set this up:
- The portal is Commercial Center. Cadence's treasury services, including positive pay upload and exception decisioning, run through Commercial Center, its single sign-on commercial online banking portal. Cadence states no new software is required, and access can be limited by job role.
- Payee Name Verification is available. Cadence's automation can read the payee name from the check image and compare it to the payee in your issue file, which catches altered payees. If you enable this, your file must carry an accurate payee name, not just a check number and amount.
- Exceptions move fast. Positive pay gives you the chance to return a questionable check inside the bank's required timeframe, often a same-day or 24-hour decision. Cadence also declines checks presented at a branch teller line if they do not match your issue file.
Where the Cadence file format actually comes from
Cadence Bank does not publish its positive pay file layout on the open web, and we will not invent field positions here. The exact specification, whether it is a comma-delimited CSV or a fixed-width text file, which columns are required, the date format, and whether amounts include or omit the decimal point, is provided to you by Cadence when your account is enrolled. You get it from your Cadence treasury management officer or from the file-import setup screens inside Commercial Center.
This is normal. Most banks let each commercial customer map their own file, so two Cadence customers can legitimately have slightly different column orders if they were set up at different times. That is why the only reliable source for your layout is the spec Cadence handed you, not a generic template you found online. If you do not have the spec in writing, ask your treasury contact for the positive pay file format guide before you build anything.
What stays consistent across nearly every positive pay file is the core set of fields:
- Account number
- Check (serial) number
- Check amount
- Issue date
- Payee name (required if Payee Name Verification is on)
- An issue or void indicator, on layouts that support voids
Why QuickBooks alone will not produce the file
If you write checks in QuickBooks, you already have every field Cadence needs. The catch is that neither QuickBooks Online nor QuickBooks Desktop exports a positive pay file in a bank-ready layout. You can export a check register or a transaction report to CSV, but that CSV will not match Cadence's column order, date format, or amount formatting. Something has to sit between your register and the bank.
Build the Cadence file for free with PositivePayMaker
PositivePayMaker is a free, browser-based converter. You start from the CSV or Excel export you already pull from QuickBooks or your accounting system, map your columns once, and it produces a positive pay file in the layout your bank wants. Because Cadence's exact layout is account-specific, the right tool here is the custom format builder: you tell it the field order, delimiter or fixed-width column widths, date format, and amount style from the spec Cadence gave you, and it writes a file that matches. You can also start from a generic CSV or fixed-width preset and adjust.
Two things make this approach safe for handling check data. First, the tool runs entirely in your browser. Your check register is never uploaded to a server, which matters when the file contains account numbers and payee names. Second, you can run the output back through the file format reference and validator to confirm the structure looks right before you submit it.
Always verify the first file with Cadence
No matter how you build it, treat the first file as a test. Generate one issue file, upload it through Commercial Center, and confirm Cadence accepts it cleanly and that the check numbers, amounts, and payee names match what posts. Watch for the usual culprits: a date format mismatch (MM/DD/YYYY versus YYYYMMDD), amounts with a stray decimal or a leading dollar sign, check numbers that lost a leading zero, or a header row the bank does not expect. Once one file imports without errors, you can trust the same mapping for every batch after that. If anything is rejected, your Cadence treasury officer can tell you which field is off.
When a paid desktop tool might fit instead
PositivePayMaker is free and covers the typical small-business workflow. For higher-volume or more specialized needs, a couple of paid products are worth knowing about. Big Red Consulting's PositivePay File Creator pulls directly from QuickBooks and runs about $119 the first year, then $99 per year; it is Windows-only, and the QuickBooks Online edition needs Excel installed. Treasury Software's Bank Positive Pay is an installed Windows application with 350-plus prebuilt bank layouts, priced roughly $29.95 to $89.95 per month. MoneyThumb and ProperSoft also sell paid desktop converters. If you process large daily batches across multiple banks, the deeper layout library and direct QuickBooks integration in those tools can be worth the cost. For a single Cadence account and a once-a-day file, the free browser route usually does the job.
The bottom line: get your exact layout from Cadence's Commercial Center setup or your treasury contact, map it once in the custom builder, validate it, and verify the first upload with the bank.