Finance & Accounting Operations

Data Reconciliation Services

Bank, ledger, GST and intercompany balances agreed, evidenced and closed on schedule.

Recurring reconciliation of bank accounts, sub-ledgers, intercompany balances, GST returns and settlement files, run to a fixed monthly calendar. Each account closes with a signed statement, an ageing exception register and a documented owner for every open item.

Typical turnaround
Recurring reconciliations are delivered on a fixed monthly calendar, typically within five to ten working days of period end depending on when source data and bank statements become available. Historical clean-up is run as a separate project and generally takes four to ten weeks depending on the number of accounts, the age of the backlog and the availability of supporting documents. Weekly or daily cycles are available for high-volume bank and settlement reconciliation where cash visibility requires it.
Service code
ART-DRS-011
Engagement models
Monthly retainer · Fixed fee backlog clean-up project · Per-account or per-transaction pricing
Delivery
Virtual, secure document exchange

Indicative fee from

₹35,000

Indicative monthly fee covering a small set of bank accounts and standard sub-ledger reconciliations at moderate transaction volume for a single entity. Final fee is confirmed after a volume and complexity assessment. Historical backlog clean-up is quoted separately as a fixed fee project.

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  • Engagement letter issued before work begins
  • Named engagement lead and defined reporting cadence
  • Confidentiality and access controls on all workpapers
  • Fee adjusted if the confirmed scope is smaller

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Description

Reconciliation failures are rarely discovered when they happen. They are discovered at year-end, when an auditor asks what the suspense balance consists of and nobody can say. Or during a due diligence, when a buyer notices that the intercompany balances between two group entities differ by an amount nobody has been able to explain for eleven months. Or in a GST notice, when input tax credit claimed in the return cannot be matched to what appears in GSTR-2B, because the purchase register and the return were never systematically tied together.

The underlying problem is almost never competence. It is that reconciliation is the first thing dropped when a small finance team is under close-cycle pressure. It is invisible when it is done and catastrophic when it is not, so it loses every contest for attention against payroll, filing deadlines and the management pack. What accumulates is a slow drift: bank items outstanding for six months, a payment gateway settlement account that has never been cleared, a fixed asset register that has not agreed to the general ledger since the last ERP migration, and an inventory sub-ledger with a variance everyone has learned to ignore.

What the engagement covers

We take ownership of the reconciliation calendar. Bank reconciliation runs across every account and currency with unpresented and uncredited items tracked by age rather than allowed to sit indefinitely. Sub-ledger to control account reconciliations cover accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory, and the fixed asset register against the general ledger. Intercompany balances are matched pairwise across entities, with the reconciling side of every difference identified rather than left as a plug. Statutory reconciliations cover GSTR-2B against the purchase register for input tax credit, GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B against books, and Form 26AS and the annual information statement against TDS recorded. Where the business runs on marketplaces or payment gateways, settlement files are reconciled to gross sales, commission, logistics deduction, tax collected at source and net remittance, which is where e-commerce reconciliation most often breaks. Three-way reconciliation across purchase order, goods receipt and invoice is applied where a procurement cycle exists.

How the engagement is controlled

Every reconciliation follows a documented procedure with a maker and a separate checker, and closes on a statement that shows the ledger balance, the source balance, each reconciling item, its age and its owner. Open items are not carried forward silently: they age through defined buckets, and items crossing an agreed threshold escalate to the finance controller with a recommendation, whether that is correction, recovery, provision or write-off under an authorised policy. Root causes are logged, because a reconciling item that recurs every month is a process defect rather than a reconciliation task, and it should be fixed upstream.

How the virtual delivery model works here

Delivery is remote, on a fixed monthly calendar with named preparers and reviewers. We work in your accounting platform under read-only or restricted-role access wherever the work permits, and we do not require or request transactional payment rights. Bank data is taken from statements or read-only feeds. Personal data in customer and vendor records is handled under documented processing arrangements consistent with your obligations as data fiduciary under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. Working papers, evidence and sign-offs are retained in a structured, auditable folder tree that your auditors can be pointed at directly rather than reassembled for.

Who this is built for

Multi-entity groups carrying intercompany volume. E-commerce and D2C businesses reconciling marketplace and gateway settlements. Companies that have migrated ERP and are living with the balances the migration left behind. Finance teams preparing for audit, diligence or a funding round who need historical positions cleaned before someone external looks at them.

Engagement models

Monthly retainer · Fixed fee backlog clean-up project · Per-account or per-transaction pricing

Expected turnaround

Recurring reconciliations are delivered on a fixed monthly calendar, typically within five to ten working days of period end depending on when source data and bank statements become available. Historical clean-up is run as a separate project and generally takes four to ten weeks depending on the number of accounts, the age of the backlog and the availability of supporting documents. Weekly or daily cycles are available for high-volume bank and settlement reconciliation where cash visibility requires it.

Scope of Work

  • Bank reconciliation across all accounts and currencies, with unpresented cheques, uncredited deposits and bank-side charges tracked by ageing bucket rather than carried indefinitely
  • Sub-ledger to control account reconciliation for accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory and the fixed asset register against corresponding general ledger balances
  • Intercompany reconciliation matched pairwise across group entities, identifying the responsible side of every difference and eliminating unsupported plug balances before consolidation
  • GSTR-2B versus purchase register matching for input tax credit, with mismatch categorisation by supplier, invoice number, tax period and value tolerance
  • GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B reconciliation against books of account, including turnover, tax liability and reverse charge exposure, ahead of annual return preparation
  • Form 26AS and annual information statement reconciliation against TDS recorded, credit claimed and income recognised, with follow-up lists issued to deductors
  • Marketplace and payment gateway settlement reconciliation covering gross sales, commission, logistics and return deductions, tax collected at source and net remittance received
  • Three-way reconciliation across purchase order, goods receipt note and supplier invoice, with tolerance rules and a documented exception path for quantity and price variances
  • Inventory reconciliation between physical count, warehouse management records and the financial ledger, with variance analysis by location, stock keeping unit and movement type
  • Suspense, clearing and unallocated account analysis with line-item composition, ageing and a recommended disposition for every balance held
  • Root cause logging for recurring reconciling items, with upstream process recommendations so the same exception stops being regenerated each period
  • Maker-checker execution with retained working papers, evidence trails and period sign-offs organised for direct auditor access

Key Deliverables

Signed Reconciliation Statements

One statement per account per period showing ledger balance, source balance, every reconciling item with its age and owner, and the preparer and reviewer who signed it.

Exception and Ageing Register

A consolidated register of all open reconciling items across accounts, bucketed by age, with assigned owners, current status and recommended action for each line.

GST Reconciliation Pack

GSTR-2B against purchase register matching output with categorised mismatches, supplier-wise follow-up lists, and the input tax credit position supported by evidence.

Reconciliation Calendar and SOP

The documented procedure for each reconciliation: frequency, data source, matching rule, tolerance, preparer, reviewer and cut-off, so the process survives staff changes.

Root Cause and Control Gap Note

An analysis of recurring exceptions tracing them to the upstream process or system behaviour that generates them, with specific remediation recommendations and expected effect.

Clean-Up and Disposition Recommendation

For historical unreconciled balances, a line-by-line composition analysis with a recommended treatment, whether correction, recovery, provision or write-off under authorised policy.

Auditor-Ready Evidence File

Structured working papers, supporting documents and sign-off records for each period, organised so external auditors and diligence teams can navigate them without reassembly.

How the Engagement Runs

Assessment and account mapping

We inventory every account requiring reconciliation, assess the current state of each, and quantify the historical backlog. Data sources, access routes and cut-off conventions are established. This closes with an account map, a backlog estimate and a proposed reconciliation calendar.

Procedure design and access setup

Matching rules, tolerances, escalation thresholds and the write-off authority matrix are agreed with your controller. Read-only or restricted-role system access is provisioned and tested. The phase closes on a signed standard operating procedure covering each reconciliation in scope.

Historical clean-up

Where a backlog exists, it is worked as a defined project separate from the recurring cycle. Old balances are decomposed, supportable items are cleared, and the residue is presented with a recommended disposition for management decision rather than being written off unilaterally.

Recurring cycle operation

Reconciliations run to the agreed calendar with maker-checker discipline. Exceptions are raised to named owners during the period rather than at the end, so items with a recovery window are acted on while recovery is still possible.

Period close and reporting

Signed statements, the exception register and the ageing summary are issued as a close pack within the agreed timetable. A short review call covers material exceptions, items requiring management decision, and anything that threatens the next close.

Root cause remediation and review

On a periodic basis we analyse which exceptions keep recurring and propose upstream fixes, whether a master data correction, a workflow change or a system configuration adjustment. Success is measured by exception volume falling, not by exceptions being cleared faster.

What You Gain

Close on schedule, not on discovery

Reconciliation stops being the task that slips when the month gets busy, which removes the late surprises that push a close past its committed date.

Input tax credit actually claimed

Systematic GSTR-2B matching surfaces credit that would otherwise lapse and identifies suppliers whose non-filing is costing you cash, early enough to act on it.

Audit queries answered from file

Composition of every balance is documented as it is produced, so audit and diligence questions are answered by pointing at evidence rather than by reconstructing history.

Errors and leakage found early

Duplicate postings, missing settlements, wrong-account credits and unrecovered deductions surface within the period they occur, when recovery is still practically available.

Consolidation without plug entries

Intercompany differences are resolved to a responsible entity rather than absorbed into an unexplained balance, which removes a standing qualification risk at group level.

Segregation of duties preserved

An independent external preparer with maker-checker review strengthens the control environment, particularly in small teams where the same person otherwise records and reconciles.

Industries We Serve With This Engagement

E-commerce and D2C RetailFinancial Services and NBFCsManufacturing and DistributionLogistics and TransportationHealthcare and HospitalsTechnology and SaaSHospitality and RestaurantsProfessional Services

Frequently Asked Questions

We work in the system you already run rather than asking you to move. That commonly means Tally, Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Odoo, Microsoft Dynamics or SAP, alongside bank portals, marketplace seller panels and payment gateway dashboards for source data. Where direct access is restricted by internal policy, the process runs on scheduled structured exports instead, which slows the cycle slightly but does not change the output. During the assessment phase we confirm exactly what can be extracted, at what frequency and in what format, before committing to a reconciliation calendar.

Only view access, and often not even that. Reconciliation requires bank statements, not transaction rights. Most clients provide read-only credentials to the banking portal, a scheduled statement download, or a direct feed into the accounting system. We do not request, and will not accept, payment initiation or authorisation rights on client bank accounts, because the same party should not be able to move funds and reconcile them. That separation is a control feature, and it is one of the reasons an external reconciliation function strengthens the control environment in a small finance team.

With an assessment, not with matching. We first establish what each stale balance is composed of and whether supporting documentation still exists, because the answer determines whether the balance is recoverable, correctable or simply irrecoverable. Backlog work is run as a defined project separate from the recurring cycle so that current-period reconciliation is not delayed by historical clean-up. At the end you receive a line-by-line disposition recommendation. Balances that cannot be supported are presented to management for a decision under your write-off authority; we do not clear them on our own initiative.

You do. We prepare and independently review under maker-checker discipline, and each statement carries the preparer and reviewer name, but the final sign-off sits with your finance controller or an authorised officer. This matters for both governance and audit: an external provider cannot assume responsibility for the accuracy of a balance in your books. What we can do is ensure the reconciliation is complete, evidenced and free of unexplained plugs by the time it reaches your desk, so the sign-off is a review rather than an investigation.

Credit availability is driven by what appears in GSTR-2B, which depends on your suppliers filing correctly and on time. Matching your purchase register against 2B each period identifies four distinct situations: invoices in books but absent from 2B, invoices in 2B but not in books, value or tax mismatches, and classification differences. Each requires different action, and the first is usually a supplier follow-up that only works if you catch it early. Deferring this to annual return preparation is expensive, because the practical window to get a supplier to correct a filing has usually closed by then.

Access is granted on a least-privilege basis to named team members, with read-only or restricted roles wherever the work permits, and access is logged and reviewed. Working papers are held in controlled storage with defined retention rather than in personal drives or email. Personal data in customer and vendor records is processed under a documented arrangement consistent with your obligations as data fiduciary under the DPDP Act 2023, and comparable requirements apply for clients with GDPR exposure. Confidentiality terms and, where required, entity-level or engagement-level non-disclosure agreements are executed before access is provisioned.

Auditors test evidence and control, not authorship. What they look for is that the reconciliation is complete, that reconciling items are identified rather than plugged, that there is independent review, and that supporting documentation exists and is retrievable. We build the evidence file to be examined, with working papers, source documents and sign-off records organised by period and account. In practice audit teams tend to find an externally prepared, consistently documented reconciliation easier to test than an internally prepared one held informally in spreadsheets.

They are quantified, aged and escalated rather than quietly carried forward. Each irreconcilable item is presented with what is known about its origin, what documentation was sought, and what treatment is recommended, whether provision, recovery action or write-off. The decision remains yours and is exercised under your delegation of authority, which keeps a clear governance trail. What we will not do is absorb an unexplained difference into a clearing account to make a statement balance, because that converts a visible problem into an invisible one.

Related engagements

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