Daraja Agent KitLesson D3 · Payment design
Reconciliation
By the end of this track you can design a system that never loses money.
● Sandbox only3 steps + checkpoint
0/4 finished
Step 1
The idea
Each day, match your records against Safaricom's into four buckets: matched, orphan at Safaricom, orphan in your ledger, and mismatch.
Step 2
How it works
What you compare
Your ledger for the day against Safaricom's statement for the same day, downloaded from the M-Pesa business portal. Match each line by receipt number.
The four buckets
- Matched: on both sides with the same amount. Nothing to do.
- Orphan at Safaricom: money arrived but you have no record, often a missed callback. Create the entry and find its order.
- Orphan in your ledger: you think it happened but Safaricom doesn't. Query Transaction Status (lesson O1), and escalate if it is still missing.
- Mismatch: both sides have it, with different amounts. A person decides.
Check the total too
Yesterday's balance plus your ledger's total for today should equal today's balance (lesson O3). If it doesn't, something is missing even if every line matched.
Step 3
Common mistakes
- Only reconciling when a customer complains.
- Matching by amount and time instead of receipt number.
Go deeper
Money arrived with no order. Which bucket?
Answer in your own words first.
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Orphan at Safaricom.