Reconciliation
Make the money agree with the record
This is where nonprofit finance loses its evenings. A processor batches gifts into a payout, the bank shows one lump sum, refunds settle late, fees come off the top, and someone reconstructs the arithmetic in a spreadsheet every month.
| Transaction | Gross | Fee | Net | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ch_8812 | $1,200.00 | −$35.10 | $1,164.90 | Matched |
| ch_8813 | $250.00 | −$7.55 | $242.45 | Matched |
| ch_8814 | $480.00 | −$14.20 | $465.80 | Exception |
| Bank deposit | Feb 14 · Community Bank ····4471 | $1,873.15 | $465.80 open | |
Held for review by D. Osei · finance approval required before the batch closes
Two lines match automatically. One is held as an exception until a person accepts it — nothing is written to the close on a guess.
Bank side
Deposit
Jul 28 · Operating account
Statement ref
Imported from bank feed
Processor side
Payout PO-2261
21 gifts · gross $4,921.00
Fees
Card and ACH blended
1 exception · $51.46 unexplained
Suggested cause: refund RFD-119 settled in a later payout. Proposal awaits approval — nothing posts until a human accepts it.
Gift received
Recurring · Winter Shelter (restricted)
Processor fee
2.9% + $0.30 · card
Net to payout
Payout PO-2261 · settles T+2
Bank deposit
Matched batch of 21 gifts
Fund allocation
Winter Shelter · restriction honoured
What the system holds
The objects behind the workflow
A workflow is only as reliable as the records underneath it. These are the objects this pillar owns.
Transaction
One charge with gross, fee, net, method and settlement state.
Payout
The processor's batch: its transactions, its total fees, its expected arrival date.
Bank deposit
The line that actually hit the account, matched to a payout rather than assumed to equal one.
Exception
A difference with a proposed cause, its supporting evidence, a confidence value and an approval step.
Close batch
A period locked with its reconciled totals, its unresolved exceptions and who signed it off.
How the work runs
Four steps, in order
Read left to right on a wide screen, top to bottom on a phone. The order is the order the record moves in.
- 01 · Step 1
Bring in the money view
Payouts and deposits arrive with their transactions and fees already related to gifts.
- 02 · Step 2
Match
Deposits match payouts automatically where the arithmetic agrees, and land in an exception queue where it does not.
- 03 · Step 3
Resolve with evidence
Each exception carries a suggested cause — a late refund, a dispute, a fee adjustment — with the records that support it. A person accepts or rejects.
- 04 · Step 4
Map and close
Reconciled activity maps to your accounting codes by fund and designation, then closes as a batch with an append-only audit record.
Safeguards
What stops it going wrong
Each safeguard is server-enforced, not a UI warning.
- Safeguard
Nothing posts itself
Matching and posting require human approval. AI proposes with sources and confidence; it never completes the action.
- Safeguard
Append-only financial audit
Posted, reconciled and verified states are server-enforced and never edited in place. Corrections are new records.
- Safeguard
Exceptions cannot be hidden
Closing a period with unresolved exceptions is allowed, recorded and visible — not quietly permitted.
The boundary
Does the bank statement agree with the gift ledger, and if not, exactly why?
This is where nonprofit finance loses its evenings. A processor batches gifts into a payout, the bank shows one lump sum, refunds settle late, fees come off the top, and someone reconstructs the arithmetic in a spreadsheet every month.
This is where nonprofit finance loses its evenings. A processor batches gifts into a payout, the bank shows one lump sum, refunds settle late, fees come off the top, and someone reconstructs the arithmetic in a spreadsheet every month.
Scope honesty
What this is not
Naming the boundary is more useful than implying there isn't one.
- We are not a general ledger and do not replace your accounting system.
- We do not file taxes or produce statutory financial statements.
- We do not move money or initiate transfers.
Questions
Reconciliation, answered directly
Design-partner program
Shape reconciliation with us
We are working with a small number of US and Canadian nonprofits who feel the reconciliation and donor-data pain most acutely. Partners shape the sequence, see the honest status of every module, and are never charged for a capability that is still a prototype.