5 Tips For A Faster Credit Card Reconciliation Process

Every sale translates into a transaction that needs to be properly reconciled. For most organizations, the amount of transactions they handle daily far surpasses what they can handle efficiently, and most of all — accurately.

Most companies today see the bulk of their customer sales in the form of credit and debit card transactions, as 75% of consumers prefer using some form of an electronic payment card for their purchases. Credit cards have revolutionized the speed and efficiency with which consumers can pay, but this leaves accounting teams struggling to manage the volume of transactions associated with this payment method.

5 Tips to Enhance Your Credit Card Reconciliation Process

1. Become Self-Aware

Problems with credit card reconciliation can be as diverse as the companies that struggle with them, and each may experience a wide variety of issues within their credit card reconciliation process, including:

• Difficulty meeting deadlines during period-end
• Issues identifying the source of the credit card transaction
• Problems with credit card processors
• Troubles with large volumes of transactions that are being handled manually
• Delays in remediating issues when they arise

2. Move Away From Old Mindsets

When most companies are asked why they handle their reconciliation process the way they do, the majority will answer with something along the lines of, “Well, we’ve always done it that way.” Having the mindset that since you’ve always done it one way you must continue doing it that way, stops you from ever innovating and improving outdated processes.

3. Trust Your Employees

You hired your employees for a reason. At some point, there was something about them that made you want to have them on your team—whether that was their problem-solving skills, work history, or their work ethic.

4. Standardize & Centralize

No matter what credit card reconciliation issues your company struggles with, the solution to the problem must have one characteristic: the ability to create standardization and centralization.

5. Adopt Current Technology

Today, most companies handle their reconciliation process by manually combing through spreadsheet after spreadsheet. Despite how inefficient this process is, it seems to be an improvement because the spreadsheet’s predecessor, pen and paper ledger books, were even more inefficient.