Are you really getting everything you sell?

When it comes to financial management, many entrepreneurs immediately focus on expense control. And while this is essential, does managing costs alone guarantee the business's financial health? There's another equally important aspect: ensuring that sales are actually being received.

Payment inconsistencies: a more common problem than it seems

Recently, a footwear franchisee reported an unexpected situation. While reviewing her operations, she realized that not all sales were being deposited into the company's account. But how was this possible? Although the transactions were recorded in the point-of-sale system, the amounts were not appearing in the card payment report. Manually verifying the large volume of daily transactions was unfeasible, leading her to seek a technological solution.

The answer came with the implementation of card reconciliation software, which automatically identified recurring discrepancies between what was sold and what actually went into the bank account. It was discovered that some sales, although recorded in the store's system, weren't reflected in the acquirers' reports, meaning amounts simply went unpaid.

After eliminating the possibility of internal problems, thoroughly reviewing the store's operations with the receipts from the card machines in hand, the franchisee found that the problem lay in operational failures on the part of the acquirer itself.

Cases like this are more common than you might think. To give you an idea, between 2022 and 2023, F360, through its card reconciliation functionality, helped customers recover R$1,401,590,000 in funds that otherwise might have been lost.

Automation: the key to avoiding financial losses

In addition to identifying unpaid sales, reconciliation systems also detect undue charges in applied fees, which may differ from the amounts negotiated with the card companies. This represents another source of significant losses for retailers.

In retail, where sales volume is high, manual reconciliation is nearly impossible. Technology, in this context, becomes a powerful ally, allowing discrepancies to be identified quickly and ensuring that amounts are not lost amid the complexity of financial flows. Even seemingly small inconsistencies, such as 0.1% of sales, can result in significant losses over time. There are cases of retailers who have recovered thousands of reais by correcting errors detected using software.

Although credit and debit cards are considered secure payment methods, retailers must be attentive to every step of the process. This includes not only checking sales made but also the fees applied. Franchisors, for example, often negotiate special terms with card brands for their networks, but it's crucial to verify that the agreed-upon amounts are being charged correctly on a daily basis.

Automating financial reconciliation is an indispensable strategy. Small daily errors, if ignored, can accumulate and have a significant impact on the year-end closing. Imagine a miscalculated rate applied to each installment of a credit sale: without a tool to identify these discrepancies, the retailer would hardly notice the problem, but the impact on revenue would be real.

So, don't let money slip through the cracks due to reconciliation errors. In retail, every penny counts, and ensuring that all sales are properly received is essential to the sustainability of your business.