The challenge
Reconciliation is a matching exercise. When the payment record lacks the identifiers on the department's side of the ledger, matching becomes manual research.
Historical lookups — a payment from three months ago, a name, a ticket number — were slow enough to discourage asking.
The approach
The daily transaction email was configured to carry every field the department reconciles against: ticket number, court date, subject name and payer name.
Payment history search was enabled by name, reference number and date range so past transactions are retrievable in seconds.
Online and counter payments were consolidated onto the same ledger, removing a second reconciliation.
The results
Daily reconciliation is described by the department as much easier — a direct consequence of the detail carried in the report rather than any change to their process.
Researching older payments is now self-service, whether the question comes from a resident, a court or an auditor.
Satisfaction with the switch is unambiguous in the department's own words.