As a business office administrator at a university, you know how important it is to reconcile transactions. The process provides checks and balances, can help identify errors and potential fraud, and is required to complete your institutional taxes. But reconciliation can be complex and tedious. That’s where reconciliation software comes in.
Reconciliation software eases the accounting process, saving your team significant time and reducing errors by providing tools to reconcile the thousands of transactions made across your campus. By aggregating data from your SIS, payments application, merchant services provider and your bank, reconciliation software helps your business or financial services office verify that their balance sheets are correct, appropriate, and compliant. It offers comprehensive reporting with the ability to drill down into details and export to a variety of formats so you understand what is happening with payments across your campus. Specific benefits include:
- Automates Processes
Reconciliation software removes the manual effort your team spends entering data and resolving inconsistencies by automating many manual and repetitive tasks. Users can log in to one system to review all payment data and drill down into details. Reminders and notifications for payers/students can also be configured for automatic delivery. The software increases efficiency and frees your staff to work on student-focused activities.
- Improves Accuracy
Thanks to automation and integration, human errors from manually inputting data can be reduced. Your general ledger is automatically updated, which eliminates paper-based, manual spreadsheets that are prone to mistakes and keeps your transaction records correct. Transparency gives your institution visibility into the process, allowing you to easily investigate and resolve discrepancies. You also have an accurate audit trail since the software catches missing or duplicate entries.
- Strengthens Controls
Management has the ability to determine user permissions, ensuring proper segregation of duties as well as designating specific views, roles, and payment activities like settling batches and restricting accounts. Tailored permissions keep unauthorized users from viewing, editing, and sharing data.
- Enables Insights
A unified dashboard coupled with detailed reports ensure you understand your overall performance. You can monitor payment activity, analyze program-to-expense ratios, and review other key metrics in real time. Institutions can then use these insights to drive business decisions.
- Protects Data
Reconciliation software only shows information needed to audit and balance accounts, protecting sensitive information as much as possible while still being able to access the needed transaction data.
- Monitors Transaction Activity
Comprehensive reports make it easy to monitor payments, failed payments, returns, and chargebacks by payment method, batch, date, merchant ID, and more. Administrators can easily manage returns and credit card chargebacks, including notifying users of status.
- Streamlines Reconciliation
Enable, track, and reconcile the flow of dollars throughout the campus enterprise thanks to data aggregation from multiple applications—from an initial application or device all the way to the bank. The software streamlines and accelerates the reconciliation process, expediting your reporting and planning. Staff can shift their time from administrative tasks to value-added analysis.
When selecting reconciliation software, look for one that includes these features:
- Centralized Dashboard: Data is consolidated into one central location so it’s easy to find and validate the details that matter.
- Integration: Connects with your Student Information System (SIS) to automatically extract data and post to your general ledger, reducing manual effort.
- Automation: Reduce manual effort and the potential for errors by automating tasks, payment returns, and communications.
- Permissions: Assign user permissions to designate who can see and perform payment activities.
- Reports: Real-time reports with drill-down functionality and export capability so you can analyze insights and make data-driven decisions.
- Communication: Set up alerts and notifications that can be automatically delivered to students based on their profile.
- Compliance: End-to-end protection built into the software to ensure data is validated and secure.
Reconciliation software removes time-consuming manual and repetitive tasks so staff can focus on insights that enable understanding of the institution’s financial health in real-time. This information makes it easier to identify where changes may need to be made and can help guide future business decisions.
