Payment reconciliation is the process of matching the sales recorded in your POS against the payments actually received from card providers and the bank. The goal is to confirm every transaction is accounted for and to find any differences, fees or errors.
Each day the POS records totals by tender type, such as cash, card and gift card. The payment provider then settles card takings to your bank account, often as a single deposit that is net of fees and may cover several days. Reconciliation compares these figures line by line, usually in the POS reports, the provider's portal and accounting software.
Retailers and venues reconcile at the end of each shift or day for cash and at the settlement stage for cards. Integrated payments make this far easier because every card sale is already linked to a POS transaction, whereas manually keyed amounts increase the chance of mismatches.
Typical causes of discrepancies include refunds processed on a different day, tips and surcharges that change the total, chargebacks, timing differences around weekends and public holidays, and cash counting errors. Keep a consistent daily routine, assign responsibility and investigate small variances before they accumulate.
Reconciliation matters because unnoticed errors become lost revenue, and clean records make bookkeeping, tax time and audits much simpler. RetailCare can help businesses set up POS reports and payment integrations so card takings are easier to match to the books.