Begin with the daily sales detail
Obtain the till or online sales report showing gross sales, returns, payment methods and tax. Separate cash from card activity before comparing the report with a processor payout. Confirm that the reporting date and the settlement period cover the same transactions.
Where products have different tax treatment, retain that detail. A blended estimate based on the bank receipt cannot reliably reconstruct GST and PST. The following example deliberately assumes a set of products fully taxable under both systems; it is a reconciliation illustration rather than a rule for every item a shop sells.
Worked example: rebuild the expected deposit
Illustrative example: a Regina specialty shop records $8,000 of sales before tax, with $400 GST and $480 PST. It then refunds $500 of those sales, together with $25 GST and $30 PST. Net sales are $7,500, net GST is $375 and net PST is $450. The resulting customer payment total is $8,325.
Assume all of that activity was paid by card and belongs to one settlement, with total documented processor deductions of $165. The expected bank payout is $8,160. Posting $8,160 as sales would overstate the correct $7,500 revenue by $660 and lose the separate tax and fee detail; the deposit is a net settlement, not a measure of revenue. Record the sales, tax and processor deductions through the agreed clearing process.
Investigate a remaining balance by cause
If the bank instead receives $8,060, the $100 difference remains to be explained. Check whether a chargeback, reserve, prior-period adjustment or missing payout belongs to the settlement. Do not add a miscellaneous fee purely to force the clearing account to zero.
A clearing balance at a reporting date may simply represent a payout still in transit. Keep the processor report and expected settlement date with that balance, then verify receipt in the next period. Older unexplained amounts need a named follow-up rather than indefinite carry-forward.
Close with two tax controls
The sales-side GST and PST amounts remain separate from their respective filing calculations. Purchase-side eligibility and any adjustments need their own review. The tax reserve in the bank should reconcile to those records instead of being inferred from payout size.
- Match sales and settlement periods and separate payment methods.
- Preserve product tax distinctions and related refund reversals.
- Match documented processor deductions to the expected payout.
- Assign remaining differences and reconcile each tax account independently.
Put this into practice
Sources and current guidance
A practical next step
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