Systems and methods are disclosed for assisting a check-cashing entity to efficiently and accurately locate relevant positive pay information or other reconcilement information regarding a check or other negotiable instrument that has been presented to a check-cashing entity in association with a request to cash, deposit, use as payment or other otherwise accept the check or negotiable instrument. In various embodiments, when a plurality of potentially useful sources of reconcilement information are identified for querying in association with a proposed check-cashing transaction, a decision regarding how many of the sources to query and/or how long to continue to query may be based at least in part on factors relating to the transaction, factors relating to characteristics of the information sources, and factors relating to preferences on the part of the check-cashing entity.