Reconciliation isn’t accounting — it’s operational truth
Reconciliation is about matching reality across systems: gateway, bank, ledger, and user-visible state. The hard part is exceptions.
Where reconciliation breaks
- Gateway shows success but settlement is delayed/failed
- Duplicate webhooks / retries create mismatched records
- Partial refunds / partial settlements
- Timezone/cutoff issues (T+1/T+2), weekend delays
What a good product provides
- 3-way matching: provider vs bank vs internal ledger
- Exception queue with reason categories
- Evidence: references, timestamps, raw provider payload links
- Resolution workflow + audit trail