Performing an approximate reconciliation

You can perform an approximate reconciliation to quickly identify discrepancies in your bank receipts for electronic payments if the discrepancies are large.

You'll still need to perform the more detailed full reconciliation to make sure you have received the correct funds from your electronic-payment processor and don't risk any financial loss. 

Daily banking history check

Note: This process assumes that your bank statement shows gross deposits for card transactions without the deduction of fees.

1. Create a spreadsheet (example below) to record a running history of daily values for Vista card sales and bank deposits for card transactions.
2. Create a graph (example below) to track the daily cumulative differences.
3. Run the Electronic Payments report.
4. Record the balance from 'Total All Card Types' in the 'Electronic Payments Total (Vista)' column.
5. Record the total deposits for the day into your bank account from your electronic payments/credit card processor (acquirer).
6. Monitor the difference between the running totals of card sales in Vista and deposits into your bank account. The difference should only be a small fraction of a typical day’s card payments. If the difference is significant, it may indicate an issue that requires investigation.

Example spreadsheet:

In this example, the number highlighted indicates a discrepancy that should be investigated.

Also monitor the daily values. These are not expected to match exactly, but the difference should also only be a small fraction of a typical day’s card payments.

Approximate reconciliation example graph

Graphing the cumulative differences (which is the same as the differences in the running totals) on a daily basis may enable you to see when funds have not been received.

For example:

Each point on the graph represents a different day. The graph should oscillate near zero. Any significant departure from that indicates a problem.

In this example, one day has failed to settle. It is clearly represented by the dramatic downward trend in the graph. When the problem is rectified and the unsettled transactions become settled, the graph will return to near zero.

More subtle problems, such as a single workstation not settling transactions daily, will not show so dramatically, but will eventually be revealed by the graph trending away from the zero line over time.

See Also:

Reports and the Reports page

Performing a full reconciliation

Settlements

Diagnosing reconciliation discrepancies