Explain why a payout does not match
What must be matched
A payout from a payment provider is one amount. Behind it sit the payments it bundles, the fees taken from each, the refunds it nets off and sometimes a chargeback or a correction. The books hold the invoices, the credit notes and the bank line. Explaining a difference means matching each item on one side to its counterpart on the other, and separating what matched from what did not.
The proposed evidence trail
- Read the payoutThe provider’s payout and the transactions it bundles, by the keys the map gives.
- Read the booksThe invoices, credit notes and bank lines for the same period in the accounting system.
- Match line by lineEach payment to its invoice, each refund to its credit note, each fee to its account.
- Separate the differenceMatched items are separated from the difference that needs review, with the evidence for each unmatched item.
- Hand it to a personAn accountant reviews the difference and decides what, if anything, changes in the books.
What an accountant reviews
A refund with no credit note
Finding one is evidence, not permission. Whether a credit note is issued, and when, is the accountant's decision.
A fee on the wrong account
The workflow would show the fee and the account it landed on. Moving it is a journal entry a person makes.
A payment that matches nothing
The unmatched payment with its date, amount and reference, for a person to trace in the provider's own records.
What Maplith can read today
| Part | Today |
|---|---|
| The payment provider’s exports | The map reads Stripe exports: the objects, their fields and how they join to the rest of your systems. |
| The accounting system’s exports | The map reads Dinero exports the same way. |
| Changing the books | Not in scope. An agent reading both sides is not permission to create a journal entry; a person makes the change. |
The finance team page shows the related situations the worked examples hold today: invoices that never matched, invoices with no payment, refunds never booked. See Maplith for finance.
Discuss this workflow
If matching payouts to the books is the job you would give an agent, tell us which provider and which accounting system you run.