For e-commerce businesses, payment gateways are an indispensable tool facilitating secure and efficient customer transactions. These gateways, integrated with a network of banks, streamline the process of collecting payments by transferring funds directly from customer accounts to merchant accounts after deducting applicable fees and taxes.
However, as businesses strive for resilience and optimal rates, they often integrate with multiple payment gateways. While this approach offers redundancy and potentially better pricing, it introduces a significant challenge for financial management: payment gateway reconciliation.
Reconciliation entails a verification process undertaken by the finance team. Its purpose is to ensure that every recorded sale on the business’s platform has translated into a successful financial settlement, meaning the transfer of funds from the customer’s bank to the merchant’s account.
This process, when performed manually across multiple payment gateways, becomes a time-consuming and error-prone endeavor. The following sections will delve into how Cointab offers a solution to streamline this critical aspect of e-commerce financial management.
Cointab: Your Navigation System
Cointab offers a sophisticated solution that streamlines the payment gateway reconciliation process, empowering your finance team to navigate this complex landscape with ease. Our system seamlessly integrates with any payment gateway settlement report, eliminating the need for manual data downloads and parsing. Cointab automates critical tasks such as:
- Data Extraction and Standardization: Cointab retrieves data directly from your chosen payment gateways and standardizes it for efficient reconciliation.
- Formula Elimination: Our system automates complex reconciliation formulas, ensuring accuracy and saving valuable time.
- Centralized Reporting: Cointab presents reconciliation results in a clear and user-friendly format, facilitating analysis, collaboration, and informed decision-making
Some Obstacles faced during the reconciliation process:
- Heterogeneous Gateway Formats: Each payment gateway utilizes its own unique report format, creating a logistical nightmare for data consolidation and analysis.
- Manual Data Extraction: Downloading data manually from individual payment gateway portals and dashboards is a time-consuming and error-prone process.
- Data Wrangling Complexities: Disparate data formats necessitate manual cleaning and standardization before reconciliation can even begin.
- Formulaic Fiasco: Applying complex reconciliation formulas further extends the time required for accurate reconciliation.
- Scattered Spreadsheets: Reconciliation results fragmented across multiple Excel files hinder effective analysis and collaboration.
- Limited Visibility, Limited Time: Sharing reconciliation results and collaborating with colleagues becomes a challenge due to the decentralized nature of manual processes. Businesses often struggle to maintain daily reconciliation frequency due to bandwidth limitations, potentially leading to discrepancies and delayed issue identification.
Setup of Payment Gateway Reconciliation process in Cointab’s automated reconciliation system:
Seamless Integration:
- Internal Report Flexibility: Cointab adapts to your existing internal sales data format, eliminating the need for disruptive changes to your current processes.
- Payment Gateway Customization: Configure your specific payment gateways within the system, including their unique report formats and charge structures.
Automated Data Collection:
Cointab eliminates manual data downloads by leveraging various secure methods to retrieve data directly from your chosen sources:
- APIs: Secure Application Programming Interfaces ensure seamless data exchange with your payment gateways.
- SFTPs: Secure File Transfer Protocols guarantee secure data transfer of reports from your payment gateways.
- Email Attachments: Cointab can even handle data received via email attachments.
Bank Statement Integration:
Configure your bank statement within the system for credit verification, ensuring a comprehensive reconciliation process.
Automated Reconciliation & Reporting:
Once the setup is complete, Cointab takes over the heavy lifting:
- Daily Data Updates: Your data is automatically loaded into the reconciliation system on a daily basis, keeping you up-to-date.
- Automated Reconciliation Engine: Cointab’s automated engine performs the reconciliation process, eliminating manual errors and saving you valuable time.
- Clear Reconciliation Reports: After reconciliation, a detailed summary is automatically emailed to your designated team members, highlighting both reconciled and unreconciled items.
Enhanced Collaboration & Analysis:
- Intuitive Dashboard: Access clear and actionable reconciliation results on Cointab’s user-friendly dashboard, facilitating in-depth analysis.
- Unreconciled Item Management: Easily identify and address any discrepancies flagged by the system.
- Improved Team Communication: Share reconciliation data seamlessly with colleagues and partners for collaborative problem-solving.
The reconciliation results consist of the following:
Reconciled Transactions:- Successful Sales: These transactions represent confirmed sales where payment has been received from the payment gateway.
- Refunds: Cointab verifies that refunds processed internally were received first from the customer before being returned. Cancelled orders correctly show no received payment and no processed refund.
- Bank Account Verification: Consolidated credit received from the payment gateway is confirmed to have been deposited into your bank account.
- Missing Sales: Cointab identifies discrepancies where a sale recorded internally is missing from the payment gateway report, potentially indicating unrecorded revenue.
- Unexpected Credits: The system flags instances where the payment gateway has credited your account for a transaction not reflected in your internal data, requiring further investigation.
- Amount Discrepancies: Cointab identifies both underpayments and overpayments by the payment gateway compared to your internal sales data.
- Refund Issues: Unprocessed internal refunds, incorrect refund amounts, or duplicate refunds are highlighted for your review.
- Payment Gateway Overcharges: Cointab detects instances where the payment gateway has charged you more than your agreed-upon contract terms.
- Bank Statement Mismatches: Discrepancies between settlements reported by the payment gateway and your bank account statement are flagged for investigation.
Streamlined Reconciliation, Empowered Finance Teams with Cointab
Automated payment gateway reconciliation system revolutionizes how your finance team manages this critical process. Say goodbye to the time-consuming tasks of manual data handling, cleaning, and applying complex reconciliation rules. Cointab automates these tedious steps, freeing up your finance team to focus on what matters most – strategic analysis and resolving any outstanding discrepancies.
Choose cointab today!
Step into the future of reconciliation. Fill out the form to request your demo now!
