Architecture & capabilities

Overview

The Reconciliation Manager is built on two account-matching skills, General Ledger Account Reconciliation and Bank Statement Reconciliation, supported by a shared substantiation and evidence capability that runs underneath both. This article covers those skills, the period-close workflow they share, integration points, and how the system separates automatic clearing from the judgement calls that reach a person. Supplier Statement Reconciliation, Intercompany Reconciliation and Operational Account Reconciliation are on the roadmap as fast-follow skills and are not covered here, since they are not part of the current release.

Agentic Skills

General Ledger Account Reconciliation

Matches general ledger transactions on control and clearing accounts by rule, so the same inputs always give the same result. Reads ledger transactions and compares them field by field, grouping the ones that belong together and pairing each debit against a credit. Every group carries the evidence for why it was matched: transfer identifier, amount, voucher number, voucher date, currency and transaction code. Items that do not match cleanly are scored, and the ones needing judgement are sent to a person with the reasoning shown.

Bank Statement Reconciliation

Reads bank statements as they arrive by email and parses each bank’s format, matching statement lines to cash book transactions, including the splits and duplicates that typically stall a person. Where a line does not match automatically, the worker explains the remainder as timing, a fee, or an error rather than leaving it unexplained. A finance user can hand over a statement with a one-line, plain-language instruction, one account, one period, with no form to fill in and no rules to configure.

Balance Substantiation & Audit Evidence

Runs underneath both matching skills. Substantiation goes further than matching: each balance is proved against its supporting record, not only that the total ties, and the evidence is captured at the moment the work is done rather than assembled afterward. This skill also enforces certification with segregation of duties, so the preparer and the approver cannot be the same person, and it holds match records in the platform, writing nothing back to IFS Cloud without a person’s approval.

Reconciliation Workflow

The following table outlines the period-close process shared by both matching skills.

Stage	What the System Does	Action / Output	Channel
Period Opens	Scopes every account due for the period across entities	Accounts scoped and queued for the period	IFS Cloud
Statements Arrive	Bank and supplier statements land through the email channel	Statement content parsed and staged for matching	Email
Cleared by Rule	Deterministic rules clear the unambiguous, net-zero matches	Matches cleared automatically, no human touch	Platform
Scored & Escalated	The remainder is scored, with a reason recorded on every proposal	Judgement items routed to a reviewer with reasoning shown	Platform
Reviewed & Approved	A reviewer approves the matches and settles the judgement calls	Approval recorded; nothing yet written to IFS Cloud	Platform
Matches Recorded	Approved matches are written back	Match record created in IFS Cloud, reversible	IFS Cloud
Balance Substantiated	Each balance is proved against its supporting record	Substantiated balance with full evidence trail	IFS Cloud / Platform

Integration Points

IFS Cloud: The ledger of record. The Reconciliation Manager reads ledger transactions and open balances, and writes back only once a match has been approved, recording the reconciliation with its own identifier.

Email: The intake channel for bank statements. A statement can be sent as an email attachment with a plain-language instruction, and the worker picks it up, loads it, and begins matching without further configuration.

Collaboration (Microsoft Teams): Used for review and exception handling, surfacing items scored for judgement to the finance user responsible for approving them.

Platform (Agent Studio): The system of record for match proposals, scores, reasoning, approvals and the audit evidence trail. Match records are held here and only promoted to IFS Cloud once approved.

Human-in-the-Loop Design

The Reconciliation Manager is designed so that unambiguous matches clear without anyone touching them, and human judgement is reserved for the items that genuinely need it.

The system clears automatically when:

• A match is exact and net-zero, a debit against a credit that ties field by field

• The rule that governs the account type produces an unambiguous result, so the same inputs give the same result every time

A person reviews and approves when:

• An item does not match cleanly and has been scored rather than cleared, with the reason for the score shown alongside it

• A balance is ready to be substantiated against its supporting record and requires sign-off before the record is written

• Certification is required, and segregation of duties means the preparer and the approver must be different people

In every case, the Reconciliation Manager proposes and the finance user decides. Nothing is written back to IFS Cloud until a person approves it, and every proposal carries the evidence behind it rather than a bare score to accept on faith.

Feedback and Continuous Improvement

Because matching runs on deterministic rules, the same inputs always produce the same result, and every match can be explained and defended the same way each time, rather than depending on who reviewed it. The evidence trail behind every match, score, and approval is captured at the point the work happens, giving finance teams a consistent basis for reviewing decisions and preparing for audit, rather than reconstructing the reasoning after the fact. Certification with segregation of duties, preparer and approver kept apart, is enforced on every reconciliation, reinforcing governance across every close decision.