Ledgers, Balances & Reconciliation challenge
Twelve questions on posting, reversal, cut-off and matching receipts to invoices.
Payments · Professional Microtool
Reconciliation Cost Calculator
Exceptions · Hours · FTE · Cost
Turn a reconciliation break rate into money: how many exceptions a month, how many analyst hours they consume, what that costs, and how the cost falls as more of them are cleared automatically.
- —Transactions
- —Exceptions
- —Cleared automatically
- —Left by hand
- —Analyst hours
- —Monthly cost
Start from an example: Two million transactions, half a per cent unmatched, nothing automated →
Full output
- —Annual cost
- —Analyst hours per month
- —Full-time equivalent
- —Exceptions per month
- —Handled by a person
- —Cost per transaction
Monthly cost against the share of exceptions cleared automatically
The line is straight, so the value of automation is set almost entirely by the break rate and the handling time behind it — halving either is worth as much as automating half.
Keep it
Both carry the figures you entered, in the part of the address that is never sent to a server. Share only where that is appropriate. To keep a copy for a project file, print the page — it lays itself out as a document.
Want to test this against your actual settlement workflow?
We can analyse your reconciliation process, work out what can realistically be matched automatically, and build the engine that does it.
Calculation basis 4 steps · view the method →
Exceptions = transactions × unmatched rate—Handled by a person = exceptions × (1 − automated share)—Analyst hours = exceptions handled × minutes each ÷ 60—Monthly cost = analyst hours × loaded hourly cost—
Assumptions & limitations Screening estimate for operations cost and automation business cases · 6 assumptions →
This is a screening estimate for building a business case, not an operating budget. Exceptions are not equal: a duplicate takes minutes and a disputed settlement can take days. Automation rates also vary by break type. Use your own measured mix before committing to a figure.
- Every exception takes the same average time, which understates the long tail.
- Automation is assumed to clear its share at no marginal cost per item.
- A working month is taken as 160 hours for the full-time equivalent.
- Chargeback and dispute handling are excluded — those are a separate, more expensive process.
- The cost of the breaks themselves — write-offs, interest, penalties — is excluded; this is the cost of the labour only.
- Supervision, quality assurance and reporting around the exception desk are excluded.
Worked examples
- Two million transactions, half a per cent unmatched, nothing automated
Open with these figures → - The same desk with 80 per cent cleared automatically
Open with these figures →
About this tool
Reconciliation breaks are usually discussed as a percentage, which is exactly the form in which they sound harmless. This tool converts that percentage into hours, headcount and money, and shows what a given level of automation is worth — the number a business case for a matching engine actually needs. Written for payment operations, finance and the engineers who build matching.
Go deeper
Payments & Card Processing challenge
Where the three-way break between authorization, clearing and settlement comes from.
FinTech & Transactions expertise
Ledger, reconciliation and settlement platforms built to stay consistent.