Positive pay exception decisions
How do we get positive pay exceptions to the business and their pay-or-return decision back before the cutoff, with the default applied when they do not answer?
Treat each exception as a decision with a deadline that belongs to the customer. When an item does not match the issued file, Callvu classifies the mismatch, sends the exception to the business's authorized decision makers with the image and the reason, captures their pay or return decision on a process-controlled screen under their dual-approval rule, applies the account's default at the cutoff when no decision arrives, and records the decision, the person and the time against the cutoff.
In scopeSimpleCallvu moves: classify, decide, write back
Last updated November 7, 2026.
The problem today
The exception email goes to one person who is on vacation, and the default pays the counterfeit.
A check presents against a business account and does not match the issued file: the amount differs, the payee was altered, the number was never issued. The positive pay system emails the business. The person who reads it is away. The cutoff passes and the account's default applies, which was set to pay. The business discovers the loss at reconciliation and asks why the bank paid.
Positive pay allocates check fraud loss under the deposit agreement: the business decides, the bank pays or returns as told, and the default governs silence. For that allocation to hold, the bank needs to show the exception reached the right people, when, with what, and what they decided. The UCC's midnight deadline for returns means the cutoff is real.
The decision belongs to the customer, but the process that gets it to them on time belongs to the bank.
How it runs
From the requestto the system of record.
The positive pay match runs on presented items against the issued file and produces exceptions. Callvu picks up each exception with the item image and the mismatch reason, and the account's cutoff.
- Business customer
- The authorized decision makers review each exception and decide pay or return, with dual approval where their setup requires it.
- Treasury operations
- Sees every exception and its status, and handles the cases the policy reserves in the Decision Desk.
- Callvu
- Classifies, sends to the right people, captures decisions, applies the default at the cutoff, returns or pays, and records.
Classify the exception
The mismatch type (amount, payee name, serial number not issued, duplicate, stale date, voided item) is classified with the item image, and the business's decision makers for that account and their approval rule are read from the entitlements.
Decide, by the customer
Each decision maker receives the exception on a process-controlled screen (by app, text or email link) with the image, the issued record and the reason, and decides pay or return. Where the setup requires dual approval, the second approver is asked. Reminders run as the cutoff approaches, and the case shows who has not acted.
Default at the cutoff
If no complete decision arrives by the cutoff, the account's default (pay or return) is applied, and the business is told what was applied and why.
Write back
The decision or the default, the people, the times and the cutoff are written to the positive pay system and the core; returns go out inside the midnight deadline; the business's reconciliation sees the outcome and the record.
Where it ends: Every exception reached the right decision makers with the image, every decision or default is recorded with the person and the time against the cutoff, and returns met the deadline. The Decision Trace shows the classification, the approval rule and the default; the Audit Trace shows each delivery, reminder and decision.
Runtime enforcement
What is enforcedwhile the work runs.
The regulations preloaded in Callvu Studio and the bank's own policies, applied as steps that run, not lines in a binder. A step that breaks a rule does not run, so a completed run was compliant.
The handoff
Between the front doorand the back office.
The front door
The positive pay match. The business's decision makers meet the process on their phones or in online banking.
The back office
Treasury operations sees every exception's status and handles only reserved cases; returns go out from the decision.
The Decision Desk
- A case the policy reserves (a very large item, a suspected internal fraud, a customer dispute of the default) goes to treasury operations in the Decision Desk with the item and only the allowed outcomes.
Proof
In scope.Proof at scale, not one process at a time.
The kind of process Callvu runs in production for customers in this industry. Ask for a reference on this exact process. The results below are the industry's published proof; each claim code links to its record on agents.callvu.com.
Questions
What buyers ask next,answered plainly.
How does the business receive the exception?
On a process-controlled screen, by app, text or email link, with the image, the issued record and the reason, sent to the entitled decision makers under their approval rule.
What happens if nobody decides?
The account's default applies at the cutoff, after the reminders, and the business is told what was applied and why. The record shows who was asked and when.
Can a decision be made by replying to the email?
No. The decision is captured on the authenticated screen under the entitlements, so the record holds.
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