Three clients paid you. One smaller deposit reached your bank. Before changing an invoice or assuming a payment is missing, follow the money through the processor.
A customer payment and a bank payout are different records. The useful question is not just “Did money arrive?” It is “Which payments and adjustments explain this particular deposit?”
Team Pockets is Pocket Accountant’s journal. This guide is a general recordkeeping checklist, not a claim about a particular app’s reconciliation features or individualized accounting or tax advice.
Start with one deposit, not a month of invoices
Choose one bank deposit you want to explain. Write down its amount, currency, posting date and bank description. Then locate the corresponding payout in your payment processor. Save its reference beside your worksheet; that is more useful than a note such as “last week’s sales.”
Don’t assume a payout contains only one invoice—or all the invoices paid on the bank posting date. Stripe’s payout reconciliation report connects automatic payouts with their underlying payments, refunds, fees and other activity. Its report date follows the estimated payout arrival date, which can differ from the bank’s posting date.
Keep original downloads unchanged. Work from a copy if you need to sort rows or add notes.
Build a small payout worksheet
For your selected payout, keep these fields together:
- Payout reference and currency
- Customer payment or transaction reference
- Related invoice reference, if applicable
- Gross payment amount
- Fee shown in the processor record
- Refund or other adjustment, with its reference
- Amount contributing to this payout
- Question or follow-up needed
This is a suggested review aid, not an accounting entry template. Add fields your records need and remove those that don’t apply. Use transaction references to connect the records: two payments for the same amount are not automatically the same payment. A matching total alone does not prove you selected the right batch.
For PayPal, downloadable activity reports and monthly statements provide another starting point. PayPal’s reporting guidance describes downloads in formats including CSV. Choose a report and date range appropriate to the account you are reviewing.
A fictional $870 deposit, explained
Imagine a freelance designer receives three customer payments: $500, $300 and $200. The gross payments total $1,000. For this fictional payout, the processor report also shows $30 in fees and a $100 refund. Assume all these items belong to the same payout, in the same currency, with no other adjustments.
$1,000 − $30 − $100 = $870 paid to the bank.
These figures are invented for illustration. The $30 is not a quoted Stripe, PayPal or other provider fee. The $130 difference is explained by two distinct items. It is not automatically a customer underpayment, and the whole difference should not be labeled “fees.”
Retain the refund reference and fee detail, alongside the original payment information. Someone reviewing the records later should be able to follow the sequence. If your real payout contains another adjustment, include that actual item. Don’t invent a balancing entry just to force the worksheet to zero.
Separate timing differences from missing payments
A payment date, the date funds become available, the payout date and the bank posting date can describe different stages. Stripe distinguishes settlement timing from payout scheduling and notes that a receiving bank may need additional time. A payment near month-end therefore may not line up neatly with that month’s bank deposits.
When investigating a difference, preserve the dates rather than replacing one with another. A useful fictional follow-up note is: “Payment reference ABC appears in the processor report but not in this payout. Check its status and the next payout before treating it as missing.”
Do not treat the eventual bank arrival date as a universal rule for recognizing income. The appropriate treatment depends on the accounting method and circumstances; ask your accountant when it is unclear.
Check what your software already recorded
Before adding a deposit as new income, look for the customer payments and any existing deposit or transfer record. Recording the same activity twice creates a duplicate, even if the descriptions look different.
- Have the customer payments and adjustments already been recorded?
- Is the bank deposit the movement of those same funds, rather than another customer payment?
- Does the proposed match use the right account, currency, references and amount?
The exact workflow depends on your system. If you are unsure whether to match an existing record or create a new one, pause and ask your bookkeeper. A worksheet that explains the arithmetic is useful evidence; it is not, by itself, proof that the accounting entries are correct.
Know when to switch reports
Stripe’s automatic-payout report is not a universal fit. For ordinary manual payouts, Stripe directs users to its Balance report. Instant payouts need comparison with transaction history because Stripe cannot identify a specific included batch. See the payout report’s eligibility guidance; connected-platform arrangements can differ.
The Balance summary report shows activity and payouts over a period without assigning payment transactions to individual payouts. That supports a different check: compare the processor’s opening balance, activity, payouts and ending balance rather than forcing a batch match.
Finish with an explanation, not a forced match
- Confirm the payout reference, currency and bank deposit agree.
- Keep supporting detail for each included payment and adjustment.
- Separate fees, refunds and other adjustments instead of hiding them in one difference.
- Leave timing items visible for follow-up.
- Check existing records before adding anything again.
- Give each unresolved item a question and next action.
Save the worksheet with the payout report and bank reference. If the numbers still disagree, send that compact evidence pack to your bookkeeper or processor support. A specific question with the relevant records is a better starting point than trying to reconstruct the whole month from memory.
Checked sources and further reading
- Stripe: Payout reconciliation report
- Stripe: Receive payouts
- Stripe: Balance summary report
- PayPal: View and download statements and reports
