Does Recouped do three-way reconciliation?

Yes, in the payments sense: platform to bank to books, on one month of your own data, prepared for your accountant to sign. Not the regulated kind. Client-trust and healthcare three-way work carries obligations we are not taking on.

Is three-way always about compliance?

Often, but not always. The purchasing three-way match is about control and fraud prevention rather than regulation. The common thread is that two records alone are not enough to prove the money is right.

What is the third record in trust accounting?

The sum of the individual client sub-ledgers. The bank and the overall trust ledger can agree while one client's balance is off, so the client-level records are reconciled as the third leg.

Isn't a bank reconciliation enough?

It proves the money arrived. It does not prove the books describe it correctly. A deposit can match a payout line exactly while the fees behind that payout were never posted, so revenue is overstated and expenses are understated by the same amount, every month, and the bank still ties.

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.

What the third record adds

A two-way reconciliation proves two records agree. A third record is added when that is not enough to prove the money is correct or properly controlled. In client-trust accounting, the bank balance and the trust ledger can agree while an individual client balance is wrong, so the sum of each client's sub-ledger has to tie out as a third record. In purchasing, an invoice and a payment can agree on an amount for goods that were never received, so the goods-receipt record is the third leg.

The classic examples

Two patterns dominate. Trust and escrow accounting: the bank statement, the firm's trust ledger, and the client sub-ledgers must all reconcile, and regulators require it. Accounts payable: the purchase order, the goods or services receipt, and the supplier invoice are matched before payment, so you only pay for what you ordered and actually received. Healthcare payment posting is another, where a remittance, the contracted fee schedule, and the payment are compared.

The payments version

An online business has three records of the same month. The payment platform knows every charge, fee, refund, and dispute. The bank knows what was deposited. The ledger says what the business recorded. Tying the platform to the bank proves the cash arrived, which is the leg a bank reconciliation and the platform's own payout report already cover. It does not prove the ledger is right. If a sync posted payouts at gross and never posted the fee, or issued refunds late and never posted them at all, the bank still ties and the books are still wrong. The third leg is the ledger, and it is where that error lives.

Why it is harder

With three records there are three pairs that can disagree, and a difference in one pair does not tell you which record is wrong. Three-way work also usually carries a compliance obligation, so the reconciliation has to be complete and documented, not just close. That makes it more sensitive to messy inputs and more costly to get wrong.