Title: “The Balance Paradox: A FinTech CEO’s Wake-Up Call”
Mr. Tunde Olabisi, CEO of one of Nigeria’s most promising FinTech startups, PayoTech, sat in his office, staring blankly at the financial dashboard on his screen. The numbers just didn’t add up. According to transaction logs, the company had processed over ₦1.2 billion in payments in the last quarter, yet the bank account balance showed a figure almost ₦150 million short. Confused, he refreshed the page—twice. The numbers didn’t change.
“Where is our money?” he muttered, tapping his desk.
He summoned the CFO, a meticulous chartered accountant with a background in banking. She walked in with a calm, almost amused expression. She’d seen this look before—the wide-eyed panic of tech founders who underestimated the back-office tasks and attendant complexities.
“Tunde, I reviewed the dashboard and the bank statements,” she said, taking a seat. “There’s no discrepancy. The gap is because of reconciliation delays and unaccounted reversals.”
“But the system says ₦1.2 billion,” Tunde argued.
“Yes. That’s processed value, not cleared funds,” she explained patiently. “You’re looking at gross transaction volumes, not net settlements. Some payments are still in transit, others failed but didn’t update in real-time, and a few are under review because of chargeback claims.”
Tunde frowned. “So, you’re saying we’re not as liquid as I thought?”
That is the haha moment when the pressure check supposed to be applied consistently makes perfect sense.
“Exactly, the CFO continued,” “real-time figures look sexy on dashboards, but true reconciliation is the boring part no one talks about. Until it bites.”
Now!!!
If you’re a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) — the person who keeps the financial wheels of your company turning—you already know that reconciliation is the backbone of accurate books. But here’s the brutal truth: If your reconciliation process is inefficient, you’re leaking time, money, and sanity and it is just a matter of time before those account reconciliation reports you sign off-the-cuff turn into get-into-jail reports.
And in FinTech, where transactions move at the speed of light, slow or sloppy reconciliation isn’t just annoying—it’s a business-killer. So, how do you know if your reconciliation process is secretly sabotaging you?
Let’s break it down.
Warning Sign #1: Drowning in Spreadsheets.
The Problem: If your finance team is still manually copying and pasting data between Excel sheets, you’re not just wasting time—you’re inviting errors… and fraud.
Definition: Manual reconciliation = Humans tediously matching transactions instead of letting software do the heavy lifting.
Red Flags:
– Your team spends more time fixing mistakes than analyzing data.
– Month-end close feels like a financial horror movie (with real loss of hair and internal screaming).
– Offering prayers to the Excel gods for a miracle.
The Fix:
Automate, automate, automate.
– Use AI-powered reconciliation tools (like CLIREC) to match transactions in seconds.
– Free up your team to focus on strategic decisions, not data entry.
Warning Sign #2: Your Month-End Close Takes Forever.
The Problem:
In FinTech, speed is everything. If your financial close drags on for weeks, you’re falling behind competitors—and regulators are side-eyeing you.
Definition: Month-end close = finalising financial records at the end of each month.
Red Flags:
– Your auditors sigh loudly when they see your backlog.
– Investors ask, “Why are these numbers late… again?”
– Your team celebrates when close only takes 10 days (it should take 2-3 days).
The Fix:
– Introduce systematisation for your account reconciliation process
– Streamline workflows with real-time reconciliation.
– Set internal deadlines (e.g., “All reconciliations done by Day 3”).
– Ditch outdated systems that slow you down.
Warning Sign #3: Your Exception Rate is Out of Control.
The Problem:
If more than 5% of your transactions require manual review, your process is broken.
Definition: Exception rate = The percentage of transactions that don’t auto-match and need human intervention.
Red Flags:
– Your team has a “Reconciliation War Room” (and not in a fun way).
– Fraud slips through because no one has time to check every mismatch.
– Your CFO’s stress level is permanently elevated.
The Fix:
– Use AI to flag anomalies before they become disasters.
– Set thresholds (e.g., auto-investigate transactions over N100K).
– Regularly audit exception trends to spot recurring issues.
