This article is for: finance teams and admins.
Finance can only book a card payment once it has its receipt, category, project, cost centre and VAT, and matching them by hand at month-end is slow. With Factorial cards, each payment becomes an expense on its own and One, our AI assistant, matches the receipt and fills in the rest. Finance gets complete records, ready for accounting, without matching anything by hand.
What card reconciliation means
Overview
Reconciling a card payment means linking it to its expense context. A card payment is complete when its expense has its receipt (proof of the purchase), category, project, cost centre and VAT. Once it's complete and approved, you export it or send it to your accounting software like any other expense. See How do I export expenses?.
How it works with Factorial cards
Overview
- The payment becomes an expense. When a payment with a Factorial card issued for Expenses is accepted, Factorial creates a draft expense for the cardholder with the amount, currency, date, merchant, a category from the kind of merchant, and their cost centre.
- The cardholder sends the receipt. A New card payment notification arrives on their phone. With One, it opens Add your receipt. Without One, it opens the draft to fill in by hand.
- One matches and completes it. One matches the receipt to the payment (same amount to the cent, close in date), fills in the VAT, description, category, project, cost centre and budget, asks only for required fields it can't work out, and sends the expense for review.
- Finance reviews it through your approval flow and Expense checks, like any other expense.
Example: Anna pays £42.50 for a client lunch. The draft appears with £42.50, the date, the restaurant and Meals. She photographs the receipt from the notification; One adds the VAT, asks which project to charge, and sends it for review.
Matching rules: How are card payments matched to expenses and receipts?.
Cards from other banks
Overview
Only Factorial cards create expenses automatically. For a payment with another company card, the employee creates the expense with the receipt and chooses a company Payment method such as Corporate debit card, so nobody is paid back for it. It then follows your approval flow and export like any other expense. See Card expenses and manual expenses.
Tips and Best Practices
- Run the Factorial Card + Draft filter weekly, not only at month-end.
- Make project and cost centre mandatory in the expense form, and One asks for them when it matches a receipt. See How do I choose what the expense form asks for?.
- Ask cardholders to add the receipt straight from the payment notification: it takes seconds.
- Related articles: How do I submit expenses by sending receipts to One? · Card expenses and manual expenses · How do I close the month in Expenses? A checklist for finance
Troubleshooting and FAQ
Troubleshooting
- The cardholder sent the receipt, but the card expense is still in Draft. One couldn't match the receipt to the card payment, so it created a separate manual expense. Delete the manual draft and add the receipt to the card expense, so the purchase isn't reported twice.
- A card payment has no expense. Refunds, declined payments and cards issued for Software, Procurement or Benefits never create an expense. See A card payment is missing in Factorial. Where is it?.
- The amount of an approved card expense changed. A card expense takes the merchant's final charged amount, even after approval, and its status doesn't change.
FAQ
1. Which card payments are reconciled automatically?
Payments with Factorial cards issued for Expenses. Factorial creates the expense for each one, and One completes it when the cardholder sends the receipt.
2. Can One match a receipt to a payment made with another bank's card?
No. One matches receipts only to the card expenses Factorial created from Factorial card payments. A receipt for another card becomes a new expense: check its Payment method is a company one, such as Corporate debit card, so it isn't paid back.
3. When is the card expense created?
When the Factorial card payment is authorised, before the merchant settles it.
4. Is card reconciliation the same as bank reconciliation in Treasury?
No. Bank reconciliation in Treasury (Reconcile, Reconciled) matches invoices to bank transactions and needs Accounts Payable. Card reconciliation in Expenses links each card payment to its receipt, category, project, cost centre and VAT.
5. Does Factorial send finance a list of card expenses missing a receipt?
No. The Expenses in draft reminder goes to each person about their own drafts, every Monday at 08:00 in their time zone. Finance finds them with the Factorial Card + Draft filter.