The reconciliation hub · 15 pieces
Two records. One truth.
Plain answers on how reconciliation actually works, where a payment platform’s own reports stop, and the position that money logic stays deterministic.
Essay · the positionWhy Recouped doesn’t let a language model touch moneyReconciliation has one right answer per line. A model that is usually right is the wrong tool for it. Where the model sits in Recouped, where it does not, and what that costs.Read it
Explainers
- Why net payouts lieA payout is one number that stands in for hundreds. The books record the one number. Everything it was built from is lost unless someone goes and gets it.
- Stripe’s payout reconciliation report doesn’t cover manual payouts, instant payouts, or your booksIt is a good report, for the accounts it covers and the question it answers. Here is where it stops, from Stripe’s own documentation.
- How two-sided reconciliation worksTwo-sided reconciliation matches two independent records of the same money, what one party reported against what actually arrived or was owed, and surfaces every difference. It is how you catch payments that were short, missing, or overcharged before they get written off.
- Why deterministic matching beats AI guessingReconciliation is a determinism problem, not a prediction problem. The match between two financial records has one correct answer, and it has to be provable to the dollar. Deterministic rules deliver that; a language model that guesses probable matches does not, and in money math a probable answer is a wrong answer.
- Reconciliation: build, buy, or done-for-youThere are three ways to get reconciliation done: build it in-house, buy reconciliation software, or hand it to a done-for-you service. The right choice comes down to volume, engineering capacity, and whether you want a tool or an outcome.
- What is three-way reconciliation?Three-way reconciliation matches three independent records of the same money instead of two, so all three must tie out. The term covers two different jobs. The regulated kind is client-trust accounting and purchasing, where the third record proves money is segregated or authorized. The payments kind ties a payment platform, the bank, and the general ledger, where the third record proves the books describe what actually happened.
- Two-way vs three-way reconciliation: what is the difference?Two-way reconciliation matches two records of the same money; three-way matches three. Two-way asks whether two records agree. Three-way asks whether all three do. Most counterparty recovery work is two-way. Three-way shows up in trust accounting and purchasing, and in payments, where a platform, a bank, and a ledger all describe the same month.
- What is payment reconciliation?Payment reconciliation is matching the payments a processor or bank says it moved against your own record of what you were owed. It confirms every charge, payout, fee, and refund actually landed correctly, and surfaces the ones that were short, missing, or wrong.
- What is account reconciliation?Account reconciliation is confirming that your record of an account agrees with an independent source, and explaining any difference. It is the umbrella term: bank, payment, and balance-sheet reconciliations are all specific kinds. The goal is a balance you can prove, not just one that looks right.
- How often should you reconcile?Reconcile as often as new activity lands, so differences are caught while they are still fixable and never pile up. For most operators that means monthly at minimum; high-volume or high-risk accounts are better reconciled weekly or per payout cycle.
- What causes reconciliation discrepancies?Discrepancies come from a handful of recurring sources: timing differences, fees and adjustments, errors and duplicates, missing transactions, and outright underpayments. Some are benign timing that clears itself; others are real money to recover. Reconciliation exists to tell them apart.
- How do you reconcile accounts, step by step?Reconciling an account means gathering the two records, matching them line by line on stable keys, classifying every difference, documenting the ones that are real, and clearing the ones that are just timing. The output is a balance you can prove, with every difference explained or flagged for recovery.
- What is reconciliation as a service?Reconciliation as a service (RaaS) is an outside provider running your reconciliation for you, usually combining matching software with an operations team that works the results. It sits between building reconciliation in-house and buying software your own team operates. What varies most between providers is who works the exceptions once the match runs.
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