The power of automatic reconciliation

Bank statement reconciliation is a critical activity for the financial management of any company.

Put simply, it is the comparison of a company’s internal record of transactions with the records provided by the bank statement. It is essential to keep track of cash flow and liquidity. When performed manually, however, it can be extremely time‑consuming and error‑prone.

Reconciliation is not only about “balancing the books”. It plays a strategic role in finance departments. When automated, this back‑office function speeds up treasury operations, streamlines the entire administrative workflow and frees up time for more value‑adding work.

Manual reconciliation is still widespread

Despite all the talk about digital transformation, finance teams still spend a remarkable amount of time on manual work.

• Almost 80% of treasury departments still rely on manual or fragmented processes. [1]
• 94% of companies say they struggle with repetitive, time‑consuming tasks that could be optimised through automation. [2]

Bank reconciliation is one of the clearest examples. Matching payments, invoices and bank statement lines by hand is not only tedious – it also diverts resources away from more strategic activities.

The real cost of manual reconciliation

Manual reconciliation is expensive in ways that are not always visible at first glance.

• 22% of total finance department capacity is, on average, absorbed by manual bank statement accounting, without generating any direct revenue. [3]
• When manual matching is replaced by automation, the error rate drops from 4.2% to 0.3%. [4]

In other words, more than a fifth of finance capacity is often tied up in low‑value tasks – and a significant share of errors is driven by manual handling that could simply be removed.

What automation changes

Recent data highlight how powerful automation can be when applied to reconciliation:

• Finance teams using automated reconciliation tools report a 95% reduction in errors compared to manual methods. [5]
• Companies that integrate these tools with their ERP systems report 87% faster access to financial information than those using separate platforms. [5]
• Businesses that automate reconciliation flows reduce processing time by 75%, bringing average month‑end close from 8.4 days down to 2.1 days, and recover on average 94,000 USD per year in labour costs. [3]
• Automation can enable finance teams to complete reconciliations up to 100 times faster than with manual approaches. [2]

These are not marginal gains. They directly impact:

• The speed and quality of reporting;
• The ability to monitor liquidity in real time;
• The capacity of finance teams to focus on analysis and decision‑support rather than data entry.

All of this explains why a company’s digital transformation cannot stop at sales and customer‑facing processes. It must also include administration, back‑office and finance.

MyBank: automatic reconciliation built into every payment

Integrating a payment solution that provides automatic reconciliation by design creates immediate value for any business.

MyBank, the pan‑European payment solution based on online banking, enables customers to pay via an irrevocable bank transfer with immediate confirmation triggered directly from their bank’s online banking service. When a customer selects MyBank, a pre‑filled payment form is presented for a final one‑click approval.

This form already contains all the relevant order and payment details:

• Amount;
• Beneficiary;
• IBAN;
• Structured references.

These data are generated automatically and cannot be changed by the payer, unlike traditional bank transfers (including standard online transfers), where references and amounts can be modified or entered manually – with a higher risk of mismatches and errors.

In addition, traditional transfers can often be recalled or cancelled within a certain timeframe. MyBank payments are irrevocable once authorised, and come with a real‑time confirmation of the completed transaction.

The result for businesses is:

• Immediate payment certainty;
• 100% automatic reconciliation between orders, internal records and bank statements;
• Reduced credit‑related risks.

What companies say: efficiency, certainty, better use of resources

Several companies using MyBank highlight automatic reconciliation as a key benefit.

“MyBank has enabled the end‑to‑end (customer–bank–car dealership) automation of our payment process, it eliminates rollbacks and allows us to get immediate confirmation of the irrevocable payment. Real‑time information is a crucial element for the 100% automatic reconciliation we benefit from with MyBank, which contributes to process efficacy and efficiency. Not only is MyBank even more performing than an instant bank transfer in terms of reach and reconciliation, but it also enables payments with no scheme-based amount limits, a truly key feature in our business. Last but not least, the immediate payment collection provided by MyBank supports our company cash flow.”
— Eugenio Di Vita, Accounting & Treasury Manager, Mercedes‑Benz Financial Services Italia S.p.A.

For companies with high transaction volumes, the impact on internal organisation can be significant:

“With the implementation of MyBank, our administration department has successfully optimised human resources duties’ distribution at back‑office level, by eliminating a few tasks that were previously done manually. We have been able to offer a better quality of service to our customers, and have achieved better time management as well as streamlined processes.”
— Camilla Caporusso, Marketing & Communication, VIM.

And for those looking specifically at cost and time optimisation:

“MyBank caught our attention when we were trying to extend time‑cost optimisation to our financial and administrative activities: the two key features that brought us to integrate MyBank were the certainty of the immediate irrevocable transaction and the 100% automatic reconciliation it provides, from which we started benefitting straight away.”
— Sergio Testi, General Director, Gattinoni Travel Network.

Conclusions

Bank reconciliation is crucial for effective financial management in any company. It is also one of the clearest areas where automation can deliver immediate, measurable benefits.

Manual reconciliation:

• Consumes a large share of finance capacity;
• Introduces a higher risk of errors;
• Slows down access to reliable financial information.

Automated reconciliation, combined with payment solutions that carry structured, immutable data, frees up time, reduces errors and improves visibility on cash flow.

By adopting and integrating a payment and collection solution like MyBank, businesses can:

• Eliminate most of the effort linked to manual data matching;
• Monitor liquidity in near real time;
• Optimise cash‑flow management;
• Improve the quality and timeliness of the service they provide to customers.

In short, by streamlining accounting activities through automatic reconciliation of MyBank payments, the entire business can benefit – from finance teams to customer service, all the way up to strategic decision‑making.

[1] Treasury teams struggle to automate as manual processes persist — TD Bank survey via CTMfile.
[2] Finance Automation: Trends and Statistics — Solvexia.
[3] Accounting & Bank Reconciliation Workflows: ROI Analysis (2026) — USTech Automations.
[4] Accounting & Bank Reconciliation Workflows: ROI Analysis (2026) — USTech Automations.
[5] 17 Statistics That Prove Automated Reconciliation Slashes Month-End Close — Resolve Pay.