Reconciliation

What is reconciliation?

When your customers begin conducting live transactions, it is important that all of the systems involved in the transaction are recording the same data. For example, say your customer conducts an ACH transaction from their bank account. The transaction data recorded in Synctera’s platform needs to match the transaction data from the ACH network, which also needs to match the transaction data on your Sponsor Bank’s ledger. The same is true for card transactions or any other type of money movement. 

For data integrity and regulatory reasons, it is important for the transaction data in Synctera’s platform to always match the transaction network’s data and your Sponsor Bank’s data. The process of matching all of this data is known as reconciliation. 

95%+ of your customer’s transactions are auto-reconciled by Synctera; however, certain transactions get flagged and require manual review. This manual review may occur when a transaction’s unique identifier or total amounts are not perfectly matching between systems. Synctera’s Operations team uses the Reconciliation tab in the Synctera Console to review and reconcile these transactions. 

What is my role in reconciliation?

As a Synctera user, you will only need to use the Reconciliation tab for reference. If you ever need to dive into the details on a specific transaction or review your account balances across ledgers, the Reconciliation tab will be your source of information. 

This tab is primarily utilized by your Sponsor Bank and the Synctera Operations team. These teams are responsible for manually reconciling transactions that require review and ensuring that the banks’ ledger and Synctera’s ledger are in-sync. 

What is displayed in the Reconciliation tab?

Below we provide details on what data is displayed in the Reconciliation tab of the Synctera Console, and how it is used by you and the Synctera Operations team. 

Open Items

The Open Items tab shows all of the transactions that were not auto-reconciled by Synctera’s platform. Synctera’s Operations team reviews these open items daily and performs the steps necessary to reconcile them. 

This tab displays two tables showing transaction information. The table on the left shows the transaction information received from the transaction network and the table on the right shows the transaction information posted to your account. 

The Synctera Operations team manually reconciles any open transactions by matching the transaction posted to your company’s account to the transaction file received from the network.

To easily find various transactions, users can filter the transactions displayed in the table by the following properties:

• Reconciliation type - the various transaction types that your customers conduct. Examples include ACH, card, wire, or check transactions.
• Transaction type - sub-category of the reconciliation type (if applicable)
• Amount - total transaction dollar amount
• External ID - the specific transaction ID that is generated from the core system that conducted the transaction

Daily Snapshot

The Daily Snapshot tab shows a daily snapshot of your account balance. As a FinTech you can use the Daily Snapshot tab if you ever need to reference your account balance to ensure it matches with the balance listed at your Sponsor Bank. 

The top portion displays four separate line items, indicating whether there is an account that is out of balance. These four line items represent:

• FBO balance - total balance of your customer's accounts (holdings) according to your Sponsor Bank's ledger
• Partner balance - total balance of your customer's accounts (holdings) according to Synctera's ledger
• Unreconciled balance as of {date} - total amount of the transactions that have yet to be reconciled. This amount will typically be equal to the difference between the FBO balance and the Partner balance.
• Sum of all open items - total amount "out of balance" between the FBO balance and the Partner balance, after accounting for any unreconciled items

When an "out of balance" situation arises, the Synctera Operations team begins investigating and performing the review necessary to reconcile the transactions.

Reconciled

The Reconciled tab shows a list of all of the transactions that have already been reconciled, both automatically and manually. 

To more easily find specific transactions, you are able to filter the table by:

• Reconciliation type-the various transaction types that your customers conduct. Examples include ACH, card, wire, or check transactions.
• Transaction origin - toggle between “Bank” or “Partner” to show transactions that originated at either the bank or your FinTech (partner)
• Transaction type -detailed list of all of the transaction types possible given your product functionality
• Account -customer account number that is sending or receiving the transaction
• Amount - dollar amount of the transaction

Clicking on a transaction will allow you to see further details and indicate if the transaction was reconciled manually or automatically.  

Post-processing

The Post-Processing tab displays transactions that can’t be automatically attributed to a specific customer account. When this occurs, the Synctera Operations team will review the transaction and attempt to match it to a customer account based on the transaction file data.

In the rare occurrence that the transaction cannot be matched to a specific customer account, the Synctera Operations team returns the transaction to the sender, stating that this transaction does not match any known customer account. 

To view the post-processing transactions, the user must first select the Balance base, which is the transaction category. The user can then filter the table by:

• Transaction type - sub-category of the selected balance base (if applicable)
• Amount - total transaction dollar amount
• Account -customer account number that is sending or receiving the transaction

File Viewer

When transaction files are received by Synctera, they arrive in a NACHA format which is difficult to access and read. The File Viewer tab translates these NACHA transaction files into versions that are readable, allowing the Synctera Operations team to dive into transaction details during review of a specific transaction.

Users are able to filter the table by:

• Ledger - specific account or payment rail
• Account number -customer account number that is sending or receiving the transaction
• External ID - the specific transaction ID that is generated from the core system that conducted the transaction

The table displays the following data points for each transaction:

• Posting date -the date that the transaction file was received
• Description - transaction type
• Account -customer account number that is sending or receiving the transaction
• Amount - dollar amount of the transaction
• External ID -the specific transaction ID that is generated from the core system that conducted the transaction