What closed means
A period is not closed because two totals agree. Closed means a second person can reconstruct cash, timing, and the proposed books from a packet. For payout-to-bank work, that packet has four tests. Fail any one of them and the period is still open.
- Every payout is matched, in transit, or failed. Matched means a bank counterpart is confirmed by amount, currency, and a date inside the documented window. In transit means processor evidence shows initiation and destination, with no bank posting yet. Failed, canceled, or returned means the status is current and any replacement or reversal is tracked separately.
- Every bank deposit in the period is explained. A statement credit can be a confirmed payout, a documented split or combination, a bank fee, a transfer, or an open exception. Unexplained deposits are incomplete close items, not leftovers.
- Proposed journal-entry lines are balanced and limited to confirmed cleared payouts. Debits equal credits. Placeholder names stay labeled as placeholders until a reviewer maps them. Nothing is booked from unmatched, ambiguous, or failed rows.
- Clearing ties. For booked payouts, the processor clearing account nets to zero. Gross, fees, and the bank amount must explain one another from the source numbers. If they do not, that payout stays out of the booked set.
A forced zero is not a close. Manual plugs, silent date changes, and combining unrelated amounts hide the issue the packet is meant to reveal. If the only way to finish is an unsupported plug, leave the item open.
Inputs before journal-entry lines
Journal lines are the last step, not the first. Drafting entries from a half-finished match set turns later exceptions into reversals. Collect the following and leave the original exports unchanged:
- The payout or transfer report for the entity, destination account, currency, and period, plus several business days of overlap around cutoff.
- The bank statement for the same destination account and overlapping range, with posting date, description, amount, and currency.
- A confirmed match set: payout identifier, payout date, bank posting date, currency, payout net, bank amount, and match status.
- An exception queue of unmatched payouts, unmatched bank lines, amount differences, and ambiguous candidates, each with a category, owner, and next action.
- A map from placeholder names such as Processor Clearing or Stripe Clearing to your chart of accounts.
- Preparer and reviewer names, the period label, and the date the packet was assembled.
Confirm signs, currencies, and whether the mapped amount is net or gross. Exclude subtotal rows, opening balances, and blank amounts. Keep each currency and destination account in its own packet. If those inputs are missing, return to the payout reconciliation workflow from processor report to bank deposit. The journal-entry CSV cannot repair an incomplete comparison.
Useful packet: a reviewer can pick any booked line and see the payout identifier, bank counterpart, source amounts, and why clearing nets to zero, then pick any open item and see why it was not booked.
The shape of a reviewable journal-entry CSV
A reviewable file is a generic, pasteable CSV. It is not a QuickBooks IIF or a Xero template, and it does not connect to a ledger. Booked payouts appear first. Unmatched and in-transit rows appear later, after a do-not-book banner, so they cannot be pasted as cleared cash.
Each confirmed cleared payout is a placeholder entry, usually six lines and always between five and seven. The columns a reviewer can scan are date, memo, account, debit, and credit. Use the bank posting date when it exists. The memo carries the payout identifier and the bank description. Account names stay placeholders until you map them.
| date | memo | account | debit | credit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-06 | po_fee / STRIPE po_fee | Stripe Clearing | 100.00 | |
| 2026-06-06 | po_fee / STRIPE po_fee | Revenue | 100.00 | |
| 2026-06-06 | po_fee / STRIPE po_fee | Processing Fees | 3.20 | |
| 2026-06-06 | po_fee / STRIPE po_fee | Stripe Clearing | 3.20 | |
| 2026-06-06 | po_fee / STRIPE po_fee | Operating Bank | 96.80 | |
| 2026-06-06 | po_fee / STRIPE po_fee | Stripe Clearing | 96.80 |
Read the legs as one story. Gross hits clearing and revenue. The fee leaves clearing and lands in processing fees. The bank deposit leaves clearing and lands in operating bank. When the bank line is a withdrawal, the last pair flips: clearing is debited and operating bank is credited. Fee lines still appear when the fee is zero so the shape stays consistent.
Placeholder clearing names follow the processor: Stripe Clearing, PayPal Clearing, or Processor Clearing. Revenue, Processing Fees, and Operating Bank stay shared. Map those labels to your chart of accounts before anyone enters a line. The file is a proposal, not a posting, and not accounting advice.
The clearing zero-check
The clearing account is the control that makes the packet reviewable. For each booked payout, clearing debits minus clearing credits must be zero, and the entry's total debits must equal total credits. Both tests use the source amounts. Neither is optional.
In the table above, clearing is debited 100.00 and credited 3.20 plus 96.80. The leftover is zero, and entry debits equal entry credits, so the payout can be proposed. If the report said gross 100.00 and fee 3.20 but the bank posted 90.00, clearing would not net to zero. That is evidence of an unexplained fee, refund, reserve, conversion, or mapping error, not a rounding problem to paper over.
No plug: if source amounts do not clear, do not invent a balancing line. Omit that payout from the booked set and list it for review. A supported open item is better than an unsupported journal entry.
Run the zero-check per payout, then tie the packet as a whole. Booked plus open processor items should return to the payout report. Booked plus unexplained bank items should return to the statement. A packet can pass line by line and still fail if a matched payout was dropped by a filter or an unmatched payout was left out of the do-not-book list.
Exceptions roll-forward and do-not-book
Unmatched and in-transit rows are part of the close. They are not part of the booked journal. List them after a do-not-book banner so they cannot be pasted as cleared entries. Each listing needs a date, a memo with the source reference, a classification, an amount, a currency, and a note that states why it was not booked. Useful classifications include in transit, needs review, unmatched bank, not a payout, and unbalanced.
An in-transit payout has processor evidence and no bank counterpart yet. Carry the identifier, amount, currency, initiation date, expected arrival, and destination into the next period. When the bank line appears, confirm it and then propose the journal. If status later becomes failed or canceled, reclassify it. Do not leave an item labeled in transit after the source evidence has changed.
Ambiguous matches stay in do-not-book until a counterpart is confirmed. Unmatched bank lines stay there until they are identified as a fee, transfer, duplicate, wrong account, or missing payout. Matched refunds and other non-payout kinds stay there even when a bank counterpart exists. Unbalanced matched payouts stay there because the source numbers do not support a booked entry. Roll the queue forward with stable identifiers, age the items, and remove a cleared row through a documented status change. The method for that queue lives in the guide to reviewing and resolving reconciliation exceptions.
What stays out of the books
The booked journal-entry CSV should contain only confirmed cleared payouts whose source amounts support a balanced entry and a clearing leftover of zero. Everything else stays in the packet as support, not as books:
- Failed, canceled, or returned payouts, and any bank reversal that belongs to that failure.
- In-transit payouts that have not reached the destination account.
- Ambiguous candidates that fit the amount and date rule but are not distinguished by a reference.
- Unmatched bank lines, including service charges, transfers, and deposits for another processor or entity.
- Refunds, disputes, and other non-payout kinds, even when they match a bank line.
- Matched payouts whose gross, fee, and bank amounts do not clear.
- Card-level sales, tax treatment, and revenue-recognition decisions. A payout-to-bank match does not settle those.
- Facts missing from the exports. A CSV workflow cannot invent a destination, fee, or status the source files do not contain.
Leaving an item out of the books is not the same as ignoring it. The packet still has to show the item, the reason, the owner, and the next action.
How this guide connects to matching and exceptions
This page owns the work after the comparison is complete: journal-entry shape, the clearing zero-check, do-not-book listings, and the close packet. Build the comparison with the payout reconciliation workflow from processor report to bank deposit. Classify what did not match with the exceptions review playbook. For platform export fields, timing, or fee handling, use Stripe payout to bank reconciliation steps, PayPal payout to bank reconciliation steps, Square transfer to bank reconciliation steps, and Shopify Payments payout to bank reconciliation steps. Keep processor-only export examples on those pages so this checklist stays reusable.
What the $39 unlock adds to the close packet
ReconcileCSV compares a processor payout or transfer CSV with a bank statement CSV in the browser. The free preview shows proposed matches and the rows that need attention. A one-time $39 purchase unlocks the full ledger, the exceptions export, print, and a proposed journal-entry CSV. There is no subscription and no upload of CSV contents to a matching server.
The journal-entry file follows the shape in this guide: booked placeholder legs first, then a do-not-book listing. ReconcileCSV does not post journal entries, connect to your ledger, choose the real clearing account, or decide whether an explanation satisfies policy. Use the proposed CSV as a draft after you map placeholder names, not as a finished posting.
Open the browser-local matcher when you have the two source files and want the ledger, exceptions, print, and proposed journal-entry CSV in one packet.
FAQ
What does closed mean for payout-to-bank month-end?
A period is closed when every payout is matched, in transit, or failed with current evidence; every bank deposit in the period is explained; proposed journal-entry lines are balanced and limited to confirmed cleared payouts; and the processor clearing account nets to zero for those booked items. A spreadsheet that only totals to zero is not closed.
What inputs do I need before proposing journal-entry lines?
Keep the original payout report and bank statement, a confirmed match set, an exception queue with categories and owners, the period and entity, currencies kept separate, and a map from placeholder account names to your chart of accounts. Do not draft booked lines from unmatched or in-transit rows.
What does a reviewable journal-entry CSV look like?
It is a generic pasteable CSV, not a QuickBooks IIF or Xero template. Booked payouts appear first as five to seven placeholder legs with date, memo, account, debit, and credit. Unmatched and in-transit rows appear after a do-not-book banner so they are not pasted as cleared entries. Map names such as Processor Clearing, Revenue, Processing Fees, and Operating Bank before you enter anything.
What is the clearing zero-check?
For each booked payout, clearing debits and credits must net to zero, and the entry's total debits must equal total credits. If the source amounts do not support that, do not add a plug. Omit that payout from the booked set and list it for review.
How should exceptions roll forward, and what does do-not-book mean?
Carry unmatched and in-transit items into the next period with stable identifiers, expected arrival, owner, and evidence. List them in a separate do-not-book section so they are not treated as cleared cash. When a payout later fails or a bank line appears, reclassify it. Do not keep an item labeled in transit after the source evidence has changed.
What stays out of the books at close?
Keep failed payouts, ambiguous matches, unmatched bank lines, refunds and other non-payout kinds, unbalanced source amounts, card-level sales, tax decisions, and revenue-recognition judgments out of the booked journal-entry CSV. Those items belong in the exception packet or in a later period after evidence exists. Matching cannot invent missing facts or choose accounting treatment.
What does the $39 unlock include, and does ReconcileCSV post the entries?
A one-time $39 purchase unlocks the full ledger, exceptions export, print, and a proposed journal-entry CSV in the browser. There is no subscription. ReconcileCSV does not post journal entries, connect to your ledger, or replace reviewer judgment. The file is a proposal you adapt after mapping placeholder accounts.