Speed Up Reconciliation

Automate card matching to speed up expense reconciliation during month-end and quarter-end close periods. Reduce manual work by 95% and process expenses 80% faster with AI-powered automation.

Use Case: Expense Closing Periods | Focus: Time Savings

When month-end or quarter-end approaches, finance teams brace themselves for the familiar challenge of reconciling corporate card transactions, matching them to receipts, resolving variances, and posting adjustments. This process—traditionally manual, labor-intensive, and error-prone—often becomes the bottleneck delaying the close. Automated card matching offers a transformational solution.

The Challenge: Manual Reconciliation in Expense Close Periods

To appreciate the value of automation, we must first understand the pain points of conventional reconciliation during close periods.

Traditional Workflow and Friction Points

Here's a typical manual step sequence at month-end for expense reconciliation:

1. Collect card statements and transaction files from corporate cards (weekly, monthly, or daily)
2. Obtain receipts or expense reports from employees, often in paper, PDF, or email attachments
3. Manually match each transaction line (e.g., merchant, date, amount) with a corresponding receipt or report entry
4. Investigate mismatches or missing documentation, chasing employees, clarifying discrepancies, or requesting missing receipts
5. Manually code the transaction (GL, cost center, project, expense category)
6. Resolve splits or allocations where a card charge covers multiple categories
7. Post adjusting entries/accruals to the general ledger
8. Generate reconciliation reports, tie out totals, and validate for audit
9. Iterate on exceptions or unmatched items until "clean" reconciliation is achieved

This process is not only repetitive but also error-sensitive (typos, mis-entries, missing receipts). As transaction volumes grow from dozens to hundreds or thousands per month, the workload increases exponentially. Finance staff, rather than analyzing spend trends, are mired in low-value tasks.

How Automating Card Matching Speeds Up the Reconciliation Cycle

Automation reimagines the manual workflow, particularly around transaction-receipt matching—often the most time-consuming step.

1. Automatic Import and Real-Time Feeds

Instead of waiting for monthly batch exports, automated systems ingest real-time transaction feeds from card networks or banks. This allows reconciliation to begin continuously, not just after month-end. With continuous data inflow, finance teams can catch issues early, reducing end-of-period workloads.

2. AI-Based Receipt Processing and Data Extraction

Users upload receipts via mobile app, web upload, or email, and AI/OCR engines extract merchant name, date, amount, tax, currency, and other structured fields. This eliminates manual keying. Creodata's expense automation aims for high accuracy via AI, claiming 95% data extraction accuracy.

3. Smart Matching Logic and Fuzzy Matching

Automated systems use heuristics and rules (merchant normalization, fuzzy matching, thresholds) to link card transactions with receipt entries. Many matches are resolved automatically without human intervention. The system flags only exceptions that require human review.

4. Exception Handling Workflow

When matches are ambiguous or missing, the system routes them to exception queues with built-in workflows. Finance staff review and either approve, rematch, or request missing documentation. Since exceptions are a small share, work is far lighter.

5. Auto-Coding and GL Allocation

Once matched, the system can auto-assign GL codes, cost centers, or project tags based on merchant/expense mapping rules. This further reduces manual decisioning.

6. Seamless Export to ERP/GL

After matching and coding, transactions are automatically posted or synced to the general ledger, eliminating manual journal entries or data exports. This closes the loop. Creodata's solution integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as one example.

Creodata's Expense Management Automation for Card Matching

Creodata's Expense Management Automation is well positioned to deliver on this automation paradigm:

• Uses Azure Document Intelligence to capture, validate, and post expense data with AI-powered extraction
• Reduces 95% of manual work in expense processing
• Integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, enabling smooth posting to ERP/GL
• 80% faster processing cited as a performance improvement claim
• Microsoft Verified and available via the Azure Marketplace

By automating the capture, matching, exception-handling workflows, and posting, Creodata's solution can significantly reduce the labor and elapsed time required in expense reconciliation.

Advantages of Automating Card Matching

Massive Time Savings

Automation frees finance teams from the burden of manual matching and data entry. With most transactions automatically paired with their receipts, the reconciliation process becomes dramatically faster, helping organizations close their books in a fraction of the usual time.

Focus on Exceptions

Instead of reviewing every transaction, finance staff only handle ambiguous or unmatched cases. This targeted approach reduces workload and ensures human effort is focused where it's truly needed.

Improved Accuracy and Consistency

AI-driven matching and predefined rule logic minimize human errors, ensuring consistent coding, categorization, and data integrity across all expense entries.

Reduced Receipt Chasing

Automated reminders and built-in validation features help employees submit receipts on time and correctly. This cuts down on constant follow-ups and communication loops between finance teams and staff.

Scalability

As the organization grows and transaction volumes increase, automation easily scales without requiring additional accounting personnel. It handles higher volumes seamlessly, maintaining speed and accuracy.

Continuous Reconciliation

With real-time data feeds from banks and card providers, reconciliation becomes a continuous process rather than a month-end rush. Finance teams can monitor and resolve exceptions throughout the period, easing the pressure at closing time.

Audit Trail and Compliance

Every automated match, approval, and exception review is logged, providing a complete audit trail. This transparency strengthens compliance and simplifies audit preparation.

Faster Insight and Decision-Making

Since transactions are processed and reconciled in near real time, finance leaders gain quicker access to accurate financial data, enabling timely reporting and smarter decisions.

Employee Satisfaction

Automation eliminates tedious administrative back-and-forth and accelerates reimbursements, making the experience smoother for employees and improving overall satisfaction.

Target Audience: Who Benefits Most

1. Mid-Sized to Large Organizations

When transaction volumes (card spend, number of employees) scale beyond what manual spreadsheets can handle, automation becomes a necessity.

2. Companies Using Corporate Cards Extensively

Any organization that issues credit or procurement cards to employees will benefit from automated reconciliation.

3. Finance and Accounting Teams Under Pressure

Teams with tight close deadlines, limited staffing, or that are already overburdened.

4. Organizations Using ERPs Such as Microsoft Dynamics

Creodata's integration with Dynamics 365 Business Central makes it especially compelling for firms in that ecosystem.

5. Companies with Distributed Operations

Where employees are remote, abroad, or in multiple locations, requiring digital, cloud-based workflows.

6. Enterprises Seeking Audit, Compliance, and Governance Maturity

Automation ensures consistent control, traceability, and reduces risk associated with manual processes.

7. Organizations in Regulated Sectors

Where strict expense controls, audit trails, and documentation consistency matter (e.g., financial services, healthcare, public sector).

Summary and Call to Action

In the context of expense closing periods, automating card matching is transformational. It allows organizations to:

• Slash reconciliation time from days to hours or even minutes
• Shift human effort from rote matching to reviewing exceptions
• Improve accuracy, consistency, and audit readiness
• Scale reconciliation without linear increases in headcount
• Free finance teams to focus on higher-value work

Creodata's Expense Management Automation platform, leveraging AI and document intelligence and integrated with Dynamics 365, is well-suited to enable precisely this transformation. By taking advantage of automatic data extraction, matching, exception workflows, and seamless ERP posting, organizations can accelerate their monthly and quarterly close cycles significantly.

If your organization is still wrestling with manual card reconciliation, now is the time to explore automation. Start with a pilot, measure the match rates and time savings, then scale. The difference you'll see in productivity, close velocity, and financial clarity is well worth the investment.

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For more information, visit Creodata.com