Matching card settlements to till card sales
How a shop matches card settlements in its bank to the card sales its tills recorded, handles fees and gaps, and checks before closing the day.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Retail businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Cash is counted every evening, so shops tend to know when cash is short. Card money is different. Nobody counts it; it simply arrives in the bank a day or two later, in one lump per batch, with the bank's fees already taken off. If a cashier keyed a card sale as cash, or a terminal batch never settled, or the bank charged more than you expected, the card side of the business can drift for months before anyone notices.
The fix is a routine that ties three things together: what the till recorded, what the card terminal settled, and what the bank actually paid. This article sets out that routine for a shop using Achekam's till, from the cashier's slip to the bank reconciliation.
Card sales recorded from the terminal slip
Achekam's till is not connected to any card machine. When a customer pays by card, the cashier runs the payment on the bank's terminal as usual, then records the card payment at the till from the terminal's slip.
That makes the slip the link between two systems that do not talk to each other. It also creates the commonest errors:
- the cashier records the sale as cash when the customer paid by card, or the other way round;
- the amount typed at the till does not match the amount on the slip;
- a card payment declined on the terminal is still recorded at the till as paid.
Train cashiers to record the card payment only after the terminal prints an approved slip, and to keep every slip with the day's paperwork.
The card account the till posts to
Every till sale that reaches the server posts a balanced journal in the same step, with each payment method going to its own account. Card and QR payments go to account 1060.
Think of 1060 as a waiting room. A card sale puts money into it the moment the sale is made; the bank settlement should take the same money out a day or two later. If everything matches, the balance on 1060 at any time is simply the card sales not yet settled. A balance that grows steadily, or an old amount that never clears, is a sign that something in the chain has gone wrong.
Each till also gives you two reports. A live X report shows an open till's position during the day, and a Z report is frozen at cash-up. Both open as PDFs. The Z report's card total is the figure to set against the terminal's end-of-day total.
What the bank actually receives: batches, timing and fees
Card settlements rarely line up neatly with the till's day:
- Batches. The terminal settles a batch, usually once a day, and the bank pays that batch as one amount. One settlement may cover several tills if they share a terminal, or one till may use two terminals.
- Timing. Money arrives a day or more after the sale. Weekend and public holiday sales often arrive together on the next business day.
- Fees. Many acquiring banks pay the batch net of their fees, so the amount received is less than the card sales. Others charge fees separately at month end. Find out which your bank does.
- Refunds and chargebacks. These come off a later settlement, not the one for the day of the original sale.
Keep a short note for each terminal: which tills use it, when it batches, how the bank pays, and how fees appear.
Importing the statement and matching settlements
Achekam imports bank statements as PDF, CSV, Excel, OFX, QIF, MT940 or CAMT.053, and checks each import so that the opening balance plus the movements equals the closing balance. A statement that fails that check is not one to reconcile against.
Matching works by suggestion. Achekam suggests which book entry a bank line matches, and a person accepts each match. A bank line that is not yet in the books becomes a suggested journal for a person to approve. A reconciliation completes only when no difference is left, or when every leftover line has been explained.
For card settlements, the matching step is where the routine lives:
- For each settlement on the statement, find the batch it relates to on the terminal's report.
- Compare the batch total with the card totals on the Z reports for the tills that used that terminal.
- If they agree and the bank deducted fees, the difference between the batch and the amount received is the fee.
AccountingTools walks through the same comparison in general terms in its bank reconciliation process: set the company's cash records against the bank statement and adjust the books for what only one side shows.
Fees and differences as journals a person approves
Fees appear on the bank side but not in the till's journal. When a settlement arrives net of fees, the bank line is less than the amount waiting in 1060. Record the fee as a journal, card fees expense against 1060, which a person approves. After that, 1060 clears to nothing for that batch.
Differences that are not fees need investigating, not writing off:
| What you see | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Bank received more than the till recorded | A card sale recorded at the till as cash | Check slips against Z report; the cash drawer may show a matching shortage |
| Bank received less, beyond the usual fee | A sale recorded as card that was declined, or keyed wrong | Check slips for that batch |
| A batch never arrives | Terminal batch not settled | Contact the bank with the batch report |
Closing the business day freezes payments: compare before you close
A branch's business day is closed by a supervisor or manager who was not a cashier that day. Closing freezes the day's Z reports, payments, VAT by rate and differences.
That is why the first comparison belongs before the close. Once the supervisor has the terminal's end-of-day report and the Z reports for the day, check the card totals against each other. If a cashier recorded a card sale as cash, it shows up now as a card shortfall matched by a cash surplus, while everyone who worked the shift is still around to explain it. The bank reconciliation later confirms the settlement; the pre-close check catches the error while it is still fresh.
If you take card payments without a terminal of your own, the routine differs; see card slips when there is no terminal. The full journal behind each till sale is covered in what a till sale posts to your books, and importing statements in bank feeds and statement imports.
Tomorrow, before the business day is closed, set the terminal's end-of-day report beside the Z reports and see whether the card totals agree.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
