Reconciliation

What does reconciliation involve?

Reconciliation matches what your records say you paid against what the bank statement shows actually left the account. Line by line, it confirms each transaction is genuine, correctly recorded, and not duplicated. It is a core financial control, but it is fundamentally a detective one: it tells you what happened after the money has already moved, not whether a payment should have been made.

A concrete example: at month end, an accountant compares the accounts payable ledger to the bank feed and finds a supplier was paid twice, or that a payment went to an account that does not match the expected supplier. The discrepancy is real and useful to catch, yet by the time reconciliation surfaces it, the funds are already gone and recovery depends on the receiving bank.

Why it matters for Australian finance teams

Reconciliation catches duplicate payments, misdirected funds, and unauthorised transactions, which is why regulators and auditors expect it. But relying on it as the primary fraud control is risky: for fast rails like Osko and the New Payments Platform, money can be withdrawn within minutes, long before the next reconciliation cycle. Finance teams get the strongest protection when reconciliation is paired with verification that happens before payment, not just review afterwards.

How ezyshield helps

ezyshield shifts the control earlier: it verifies the person, the business via ABN and ASIC records, and bank account ownership before a payment is authorised, and re-verifies on any change. That prevents many of the misdirected and fraudulent payments reconciliation would otherwise only detect after the fact. Every check is written to an append-only audit trail that is logged and never edited or deleted, giving you evidence that complements your reconciliation records. See how it works and our explainer on duplicate payment fraud.