If the balance in your Checkout.com Dashboard does not match your own records or one of our reports, work through the checks in this tutorial to find the cause.
A discrepancy does not always mean something has gone wrong. The Dashboard Payments page shows payment gateway events. Financial reports show the financial actions that changed your sub-account balance. The two data sets can therefore hold different transactions and different dates. For more detail, see Why are there discrepancies between the Dashboard and my reports?.
How it works
- Confirm the affected balance.
- Define one consistent reconciliation period.
- Generate the reports you need.
- Calculate the balance movement.
- Investigate the most common causes.
- Contact us if the discrepancy remains.
Before you begin
Make sure that:
- You know the affected entity, sub-account ID, holding currency, and the approximate date of the discrepancy.
- You have your own transaction or accounting records for the same entity, currency, and period.
Note: To complete this tutorial, you need the Admin role, or a custom role with the View balances and View and generate payment reports permissions. If you cannot see balances or generate reports, ask your Dashboard administrator to grant them.
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To see where each balance appears in the Dashboard, see How to view balances.
Confirm the affected balance
A business account can hold more than one sub-account. The Available, Pending, Payable, and Collateral balances each cover a different part of your funds. Start by working out which balance looks wrong.
- Sign in to the Dashboard.
- Go to Business account > Balances.
- Find the affected entity and currency.
- Open the balance details and record the:
- Sub-account ID, shown as the Currency Account ID field in reports.
- Holding currency.
- Current Available balance.
- Current Pending balance, if shown.
- Date and time when you observed the discrepancy.
- If the discrepancy involves a reserve, also record the Collateral balance.
Success state
You have identified one specific entity and sub-account, and recorded the balances and timestamp you want to investigate.
Validation check
Confirm that your own records cover the same entity, currency, and sub-account ID before you continue. If you compare a GBP account with a USD account, or a whole entity balance with one sub-account, the result is misleading.
Define one consistent reconciliation period
Reports only reconcile when you compare the same scope. Pick one investigation period, such as September 1, 2026 to September 30, 2026, and apply it to every source.
- Choose the start and end dates for your investigation.
- Select the Settings menu in the top navigation bar, and then select Settings.
- On the Settings page, under Business settings, select Bank settlements to confirm your settlement time zone.
- When you generate a report, set Time zone to the time zone you use for your internal reconciliation. Some accounts settle in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) but reconcile internally in another time zone.
- Use the Processed On date to match financial activity to balance movements. Requested On shows when a request was made. Processed On shows when the financial impact reached your balance.
- Write down the period and time zone you chose, and apply them consistently throughout the reconciliation.
| Note: Invoices are always reported in UTC, whichever time zone you select for your other reports. |
Success state
You have a fixed entity, sub-account ID, currency, date range, and time zone for the comparison.
Validation check
If you compare a Payments report from the Dashboard with a Financial Actions Report, check that you are comparing like with like. The Payments view covers gateway events. The Financial Actions Report covers successful impacts to your balance. Use the Financial Actions Report or the Balance Report to reconcile balance movements.
Generate the reports you need
Use the report that matches your reconciliation goal:
| Your goal | Report to use |
| Reconcile the change in a sub-account balance over a period | Financial Actions by Date Range Report and the Balance Report |
| Reconcile a specific settlement or payout to the amount sent to your bank | Financial Actions by Payout ID Report and the Payouts Report |
| Understand your current balance position | The Dashboard Business account > Balances page |
To reconcile a balance over a period:
- Go to Reports > Dashboard reports.
- Select Create report.
- On the Generate report page:
- Set Report type to the Financial Actions by Date Range Report.
- Select the affected entity.
- Set Time zone and Covered period to the values you chose in the previous task.
- Select Create.
- Repeat steps 2 to 4 for the Balance Report, using the same entity, time zone, and covered period.
- Select the Download icon next to each report, and keep the original files unchanged.
- Filter both reports to the affected entity, sub-account ID, and holding currency, where those fields are available.
The Financial Actions by Date Range Report is the most detailed view of the financial actions that affect a sub-account. The Balance Report shows the opening and closing Available and Pending balances for the period, plus the fields that describe how the balance moved.
Success state
You have downloaded both reports for the same entity, sub-account, date range, and time zone.
Validation check
Check the report headers and filters before you calculate anything. Generate the report again if one report covers September 1 to 30 and the other covers September 2 to 30, or if one uses a different sub-account.
Calculate the balance movement
Compare the net movement in the Financial Actions Report with the change between the opening and closing balance in the Balance Report.
- In the Balance Report, find the Opening Available Balance and Closing Available Balance for the period.
- Subtract the opening balance from the closing balance to get the balance change.
- In the Financial Actions Report, add up the Holding Currency Amount for the same entity, sub-account, and period.
- Include every financial action that affected the balance during the period, such as captures, refunds, chargebacks, fees, adjustments, top-ups, and payouts.
- Compare the two totals.
Example
A Balance Report and a Financial Actions Report for the same GBP sub-account show:
- Opening Available Balance: 1,000.00 GBP
- Captures: +500.00 GBP
- Fees: -20.00 GBP
- Refunds: -100.00 GBP
- Chargebacks: -50.00 GBP
- Payout: -800.00 GBP
- Closing Available Balance: 530.00 GBP
The net financial movement is 500.00 - 20.00 - 100.00 - 50.00 - 800.00 = -470.00 GBP.
The Balance Report movement is 530.00 - 1,000.00 = -470.00 GBP.
The two totals match, so the balance reconciles for this period.
Success state
The net total of the relevant financial actions matches the change between the opening and closing Available balance. Allow for any Transitioning Balance recorded in the Balance Report.
Validation check
If the totals do not match, do not change the date range or remove rows to force a match. Continue to the next task and investigate the difference.
Investigate the most common causes
Use the difference between the two totals to focus your investigation.
Pending and available timing
Funds from recent sales can stay in the Pending balance before they become available. Refunds, chargebacks, reserves, and fees can also affect the Pending balance first. The Balance Report records movement from pending to available in the Transitioning Balance field. Add the Transitioning Balance to the Opening Available Balance to reconcile with the Closing Available Balance.
If your comparison includes pending, available, or transitioning balances, see Changes to balances and reports.
Dashboard payments compared with financial reports
The Dashboard Payments page reflects gateway events. It does not always show the financial impact on your sub-account. Financial reports cover the financial actions that affect balances, fees, and other account movements. Use the Processed On field to match activity to a reporting period, rather than the date the payment was requested.
Fees, refunds, chargebacks, and adjustments
Look for deductions such as:
- Processing, scheme, authorization, and other fees.
- Refunds and partial refunds.
- Chargebacks and chargeback adjustments.
- Manual balance adjustments, tax corrections, and settlement corrections.
- Minimum billing fees.
These deductions are common causes if your Available balance is negative. For more detail, see Why is my Available balance negative?.
Reserves and collateral
If the discrepancy involves the Collateral balance, a reserve can be calculated at one time and deducted in reporting at another. This creates a temporary mismatch while your account moves to the new reporting system. See Closing Collateral Balance in Balance Report does not match reserve movements.
Rounding and carried-over amounts
Balances hold more decimal places than settlement amounts. A small remainder can stay on the balance and roll into a later settlement. A payout can therefore differ slightly from the activity in a date-range report. To reconcile a specific payout, use the Financial Actions by Payout ID Report together with the Payouts Report.
Success state
You have found the financial action or timing difference that explains the discrepancy. Alternatively, you have confirmed that the mismatch remains after you checked each cause above.
Validation check
Before you escalate, repeat the calculation using the original report files and confirm that you have not mixed:
- Available and Pending balances.
- Different entities or sub-account IDs.
- Different currencies.
- Requested On and Processed On dates.
- A date-range report and a payout-specific report.
Contact us if the discrepancy remains
If the reports still do not reconcile after you complete the checks above, contact your account manager or request support and include the:
- Entity name and ID.
- Sub-account ID.
- Holding currency.
- Date range and time zone.
- Opening and closing Available balance.
- Balance movement you calculated.
- Total from the Financial Actions Report.
- Exact difference between the two totals.
- Relevant payment IDs, financial action IDs, payout IDs, or adjustment IDs.
- Original Balance Report and Financial Actions Report files, where your policies permit.
- Short description of what you expected to see and what you actually see.
Success state
You receive a support case reference. It records the scope of the investigation, and the reports or identifiers we need to reproduce the discrepancy.