Berlvis Books editorial teamPublished 1 Aug 2026Updated 4 Sep 20266 min read
The point
Cash and transfer fail in different ways.
Cash can leave the till for change or small expenses. Transfers can be delayed, reversed or mistaken for alerts that never became real credits. Combining both into one number makes a closing difference harder to explain.
Reconciliation means comparing each recorded payment type with the place where that money should actually exist.
Example
A ₦1,000 difference is easy to explain tonight and hard to explain next week.
| Check | Recorded | Actual | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash in hand | ₦21,000 | ₦20,000 | −₦1,000 |
| Bank/wallet credits | ₦47,500 | ₦47,500 | ₦0 |
If the missing ₦1,000 was used for a small supply expense and never recorded, closing the same day makes the cause much easier to find and add to the record.
Closing method
Count, verify, compare, explain.
- Count the physical cash available at closing
- Account for recorded expenses paid from cash
- Check actual bank or wallet credits rather than relying only on alerts
- Compare real cash with recorded cash payments
- Compare real credits with recorded transfers
- Investigate each difference and record the reason
Avoid these
Do not make the numbers agree by hiding the reason they differ.
- Counting customer balances as money already received
- Trusting a transfer alert without verifying the account
- Reconciling several days later after the details are forgotten
- Silently changing the record instead of finding the missing expense or payment
- Comparing one combined payment total instead of cash and transfer separately
Reconciliation helps detect differences. It is not an audit and it cannot compensate for sales or expenses that were never recorded.