Reconcile a deal from signed quote to collected payment
Compare deal, contract, invoice and payment records to reveal missing or inconsistent handoffs.
How this works
Use this when a closed deal passes through a CRM, signature service and accounting system that do not share a dependable status view. The workflow links commercial intent to executed terms, billing and cash, then highlights where the chain breaks.
Keep quote approval, signature completion, invoice issuance and payment settlement as separate facts. A paid-looking CRM note does not prove cash receipt, and an unsigned draft does not authorize billing. Missing records remain unknown until an owner supplies evidence.
Before you start
Stable record mapping
Define customer, deal, contract and invoice identifiers, including how split invoices and renewals are represented.
Finance scope
Agree which statuses, currencies, date window and materiality rules the reconciliation covers.
Prepare the inputs
- commercial_records
- Required
Quote and deal export
Include identifiers, approved amounts, currency and record timestamps.
- executed_terms
- Required
Signed agreement and signature status
Distinguish executed versions from drafts and expired links.
- billing_and_cash
- Required
Invoice and payment ledger exports
Include partial payments, credits, reversals and settlement dates.
Implementation, step by step
Freeze the review window
- Capture timestamped exports from the authorized systems or accept local files with their extraction times. Document known source gaps.
- Establish a cut-off and stable record keys. Keep different customer legal entities distinct even if they share a trading name.
Checkpoint: The reconciliation has a defined period and evidence inventory.
Link the commercial chain
- Match explicit deal and contract references before suggesting fuzzy customer or amount matches. Preserve ambiguous candidates for review.
- Allow one deal to map to several invoices and one payment to settle several invoices when the ledger supports that allocation.
Checkpoint: Every linkage has an explicit reference or remains unresolved.
Compare obligations and billing
- Extract the executed billing schedule and compare invoice currency, quantities, dates and amounts using deterministic arithmetic.
- Explain differences from the approved quote when a signed amendment exists. Do not rewrite contract terms to make the totals agree.
Checkpoint: Expected and actual billing are separated with sourced variances.
Reconcile collections
- Sum settled payments, credits and reversals against each invoice using ledger allocations. Mark pending transactions separately.
- Identify invoiced-but-unpaid, signed-but-unbilled and cash-without-invoice cases. Use the approved due-date rule rather than a generic overdue assumption.
Checkpoint: Cash status can be traced to ledger entries.
Create owner actions
- Group exceptions by sales, legal operations or finance owner. Draft concise questions stating the affected identifiers and missing evidence.
- Refresh changed records before any separately authorized reminder or posting action. Retain the previous exception and its resolution receipt for audit.
Checkpoint: The queue distinguishes unresolved, corrected and externally applied actions.
Decisions along the way
A payment matches several invoices
Hold the allocation and request the remittance reference rather than selecting the nearest amount.
A contract amendment changes billing
Use its effective date and preserve both original and amended schedules.
What you will produce
deal-cash-review.csv
CSVA linked status and variance register.
Include: deal_id · contract_id · invoice_id · payment_refs · expected · actual · exception · owner
handoff-questions.md
MarkdownTargeted internal follow-up drafts.
Include: record_ids · question · evidence_gap · next_action
Check the result
- Recompute invoice balances including credits and reversals.
- Verify currencies never merge into one unlabelled total.
- Sample clean rows for false customer and payment matches.
When something goes wrong
One system export is stale
Mark affected status unknown and refresh before clearance.
An action receipt is missing
Read the target record before retrying a reminder or ledger mutation.
A worked example
SYNTHETIC EXAMPLE · NOT A REPORTED BUSINESS RESULT
Request
Synthetic: reconcile one signed service deal.
Inputs
An executed agreement requires two 500 USD invoices. Only one invoice exists and its settled payment is 300 USD, with no credits.
Expected result
Flag one missing 500 USD invoice and a 200 USD outstanding balance on the issued invoice; do not report the whole deal as paid.
Run a small pilot
Start small
Review a small closed-deal cohort including split billing and refunds.
Record the baseline
Measure manual linkage time and known missed handoffs.
Agree success criteria
Require traceable balances and owner acceptance of exception accuracy.
Stop or revise
Stop clearance if settlement or executed-contract evidence is incomplete.
Keep the scope clear
- This register does not authorize debt collection, payment capture or accounting entries.
- Restrict customer and financial data to the authorized review audience.
Check before using
Finance and the deal owner resolve discrepancies; no collection or ledger change is implied.
Business activities
- Deliver recurring client work
- Manage finances and accounting
FROM A RECIPE TO YOUR WORKFLOW
Bring the company context together.
This workflow needs reliable inputs before it needs a better prompt. Moat8 Vault brings working information into a readable archive for the AI tools you use.
For this recipe: Approved quote · Contract status · Invoice register · Payment ledger
Start with one recurring task, agree which sources to use, and review the first result with your team.
Discuss this workflow