Guide
Match Orders, Settlements and Bank Credits Every Day and the Gaps Surface Early
A bank credit rarely equals the day's sales, and most of the difference is legitimate. Daily matching of orders, settlements and credits shows the part that is not, while the evidence is fresh.
4-minute read5 November 2026
In Brief
- Fees, settlement timing, refunds and late authorisations all separate sales from credits. A month-end comparison treats them as one lump and hides the few real errors, by which time the support ticket has gone cold.
- We see four actions: read the settlement clause in your agreement, match three records daily by identifier, give each exception an age and an owner, and give cash on delivery its own line.
- Thinqmesh connects payments, couriers, stock and accounts so each order moves without retyping. A first working store is live in four weeks, taking real orders by six.
An online seller's bank credit rarely equals the day's sales, and it is not meant to. The difference is usually made of fees, timing and refunds, all legitimate. Mixed in with them, in small numbers, are the real errors: an order shipped against a payment that never completed, a refund paid twice, a settlement that never arrived. Our view is that these should be found daily, by the people who can act on them, and not once a month in a single unexplained figure.
Month End Turns Small Breaks Into One Large Puzzle
Settlement follows a cycle that depends on your gateway and your agreement. Refunds reduce the balance that settles. A payment can be marked failed and then succeed later at the bank. A courier remits cash on delivery by another route altogether. Each cause is ordinary, and together they mean a credit differs from both the sales and the sales less refunds.
When the comparison happens only at month end, finance meets one figure it cannot explain. The customer has moved on, the support ticket is cold, and tracing a single break takes days. Matching orders, settlements and credits each day by identifier, with an owner for each exception, brings the real breaks forward while the evidence is fresh.
Four Actions That Turn a Month-End Puzzle Into a Daily List
A first pass can be done this week with one settlement report and one bank statement.
Read the Settlement Clause in Your Agreement
Under the Reserve Bank's Payment Aggregator Directions, settlement timing follows the agreement between aggregator and merchant.
That clause gives you the due date for every captured payment, so it is the clock your reconciliation runs on. We read it with your finance lead, work out the due date for each captured payment in a batch, and flag anything that arrives later.
Get started
- Find the settlement clause in your gateway agreement.
- Calculate a due date for each captured payment in last week's batch.
Match Three Records Every Day, by Identifier
Orders, gateway settlement reports and bank statements are matched once a day, using references and not amounts.
Refunds, fees and holidays mean credits seldom equal sales, so amounts alone will fail. We connect orders, payments and the accounting record so the chain from order to payment, payment to settlement and settlement to bank credit is followed automatically, and people see only the exceptions.
Get started
- Download one settlement report and tie its total to the bank credit.
- Trace each line back to an order and note the cause of each difference.
Give Each Exception an Age and an Owner
Paid but not fulfilled, fulfilled but not paid, captured but not settled, refund not processed, fee not as contracted.
Each exception carries its age and a named owner. The cause of a break usually lies in operations, in a cancelled order, a courier remittance or a support refund, so the person clearing the list sits close to orders, working to finance's rules.
Get started
- List the five exception types your business meets most.
- Name an owner in operations for each.
Give Cash on Delivery and Direct Refunds Their Own Lines
Money collected by couriers and refunds paid by your team do not follow the aggregator's route.
Under the Directions, cash on delivery is not operated through the aggregator's escrow account, and refunds you manage directly sit outside the gateway's records. We give each its own match, by courier and by consignment, so the clearing account for gateway receivables explains itself.
Get started
- Take one courier's latest remittance and match it to consignments.
- List the refunds your team paid directly last month.
How Thinqmesh Solves This
We begin with what happens after an order arrives. Most stores start on an established platform, and we connect payments, couriers, stock and your accounting system according to what each one allows.
- Week 1
What Happens After the Order
We walk through payment, settlement, courier and accounts for one real order, and stand up the first working store on an established platform.
- Week 2
Payments and Accounts Connected
We check what your accounting system allows, then connect orders, stock and invoices so that each moves once, with no retyping.
- Week 3
Couriers, Tracking and Returns
Shipping, tracking and returns are connected, and marketplace orders sit beside your own. Cash on delivery gets its own line.
- Week 4
A First Working Store
The store works and your team can update it. Connecting payments, couriers and accounts completes by week six, when the store takes real orders.
You finish with a store taking real orders, orders and accounts that move without retyping, and analytics showing where customers drop off. The code and the data are yours.
