31 October 2026 · By Micheal Akinkuotu, Founder
Every finance team, bank and payments business reconciles, and the work grows with every new account, channel and partner. Each morning someone downloads the statements and settlement reports, lines them up against the ledger in spreadsheets, and chases whatever does not match.
The exceptions are where the risk sits: a payment that failed but was not reversed, a duplicate, an unexpected fee, money received but never posted. The later they are found, the more they cost, and in regulated businesses many of them come with deadlines.
The work today
The files arrive from different places in different formats: ledger extracts from your accounting or core system, bank statements, settlement reports from payment processors and partners, and sub-ledgers that should agree with the general ledger. They are copied into spreadsheets, matched by formula and by eye, and the unmatched items are listed by hand. On a busy day the exceptions list grows faster than it is cleared, and items that needed action within a day are found a week later.
How MadeEasy runs it
Each morning, on a schedule, MadeEasy runs the reconciliation as one process:
| Step | What happens | Done by |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Collect | Pulls the ledger extracts, bank statements, settlement reports and payment provider files from wherever they arrive (a secure file server, email or cloud storage), and checks every expected file arrived complete. | Automatic |
| 2. Standardise | Puts dates, amounts, references and account numbers into one format across all sources. | Automatic |
| 3. Match | Matches on reference and amount first, then applies your rules for one-to-many entries, fees and timing differences. | Automatic |
| 4. Explain | Reads the description and history of each unmatched item, suggests the likely cause (a failed payment awaiting reversal, a duplicate, a fee, a timing difference) and lists candidate matches. | AI |
| 5. Decide | A reconciliation officer approves postings, reversals and write-offs within their authority; larger items go higher. | Your team |
| 6. Report | Produces the daily summary and the ageing of open items, and flags anything close to a deadline you set to the team lead. | Automatic |
Automatic: the system does it the same way every time, following your rules. AI: reads documents and writes summaries. Your team: makes every decision.
The matching rules are the ones your team already uses, set up as fixed rules and tested on your past days before go-live. AI is used only where reading is needed, which keeps the cost of each run low and the matching exact.
The same process works for bank-to-ledger reconciliation, payment and settlement reconciliation, sub-ledgers against the general ledger, intercompany balances, and payouts from payment providers.
Controls your auditors will look for
- Every run recorded: which files arrived and when, what matched and how, and who approved each posting.
- Approvals by named people within their limits, with larger items escalated.
- Any change to a matching rule tested again on past days before it is released.
- Runs in your own cloud if your policies require it, using your own storage and accounts.
Setting it up
- Connect the files. Where each file arrives, when, and in what format.
- Write down the matching rules. The ones your team already applies, including tolerances and timing differences.
- Set approval limits. Who can approve which postings and reversals, and what goes higher.
- Test on past days. Replay recent months of files; go-live is refused until MadeEasy agrees with your signed-off reconciliations.
- Run alongside your team. Both run in parallel for a period before your team switches over.
What it costs
A daily reconciliation like this is a Medium build: $500 (₦600,000) one-off if we build it, including its first year on MadeEasy Cloud. It typically takes 3 to 4 weeks to go live, mostly spent connecting your files and testing on past days. After the first year, Cloud is $10 (₦10,000) a month for the process, and self-hosted is priced for your organisation. See pricing.
Questions teams ask
Does it replace our accounting, core or reconciliation system?
No. MadeEasy reads from your systems and files, and postings and reversals are raised through your existing process after a person approves them.
Can it handle our volumes?
It is built for very large files. In our own tests, a year of transactions, 75 million records, was ready to work on in minutes.
What if a file doesn't arrive?
The run stops at the first step and tells the team which file is missing and who to chase. Nothing is matched on partial data.