Banks, Cards, and Payment Gateways: The New Challenge of Modern Reconciliation
For years, financial reconciliation followed a fairly predictable pattern. One bank, one main account, daily transactions, and a comparison against the ERP or accounting system. That model is now firmly in the past.
The way companies collect and move money has changed, and with it, the complexity of reconciliation.
Today, cash no longer flows only through banks. It moves through credit and debit cards, acquirers, payment gateways, digital wallets, e-commerce platforms, and intermediary services that settle funds at different times, apply variable fees, and follow their own rules. The result is a fragmented ecosystem where data arrives out of order, incomplete, or at different moments.
That’s where the real problem begins.
Finance teams may have sales, expected collections, and invoiced transactions properly recorded, but when that information is compared with what actually reached the bank account, discrepancies start to appear. Payments marked as collected but never credited, net amounts that differ from expectations, unclear withholdings, or partial settlements that are difficult to trace.
In this context, reconciliation is no longer just about comparing two lists. It’s about understanding how each data source behaves.
Card payments, for example, may settle in one or multiple installments, include promotions, discounts, or taxes, and credit net amounts that don’t match the original sale. Payment gateways add another layer of complexity by aggregating transactions, applying dynamic fees, and delivering reports that don’t always align easily with internal systems.
When all of this is handled manually, finance teams end up trapped in spreadsheets, adjustments, and constant checks. The focus shifts away from analysis and toward operational survival.
There’s also a silent risk: making decisions based on unvalidated data. Cash flow reports, liquidity projections, or monthly closings may rely on figures that haven’t yet been reconciled against actual bank movements. The numbers may “add up,” but that doesn’t mean they’re accurate.
How to Address This Complexity Without Making the Process Unmanageable
The challenge of modern reconciliation isn’t just about volume—it’s about the diversity of sources. Each bank, acquirer, and platform follows its own logic, format, and timing. Without a structured way to integrate, transform, and validate this data consistently, reconciliation becomes fragile and difficult to scale.
That’s why more organizations are starting to treat reconciliation as a structural process rather than a month-end task. A process that integrates data from multiple sources, normalizes it, and applies clear rules to identify discrepancies early.
In this scenario, Conciliac IDM helps meet today’s reconciliation needs by centralizing data from banks, cards, and payment gateways, automating matching through configurable rules, and delivering reliable data ready for reporting, analysis, or integration with other systems. Reconciliation shifts from being reactive to becoming a solid foundation for financial management.
As payment methods continue to multiply and digital operations expand, the question is no longer whether banks, cards, and gateways should be reconciled—but how to do it without the process becoming unmanageable.
Request a demo of Conciliac IDM to discover how we can help your company automate reconciliations and financial data management.