How an AI agent can prepare a reconciliation queue for accountant review
This workflow gives an AI agent a defined job, a bounded set of records, and a result a person can review. The agent reads the relevant Square context and matches it with Xero, applies the rules in the prompt, and keeps the source behind every recommendation. It returns a proposed handoff rather than taking consequential actions on its own.
Can an AI agent prepare a reconciliation queue for accountant review?
Yes. Start with the scope, date range, decision rules, and fields that identify the right records. The agent can collect the evidence, compare states or sources, mark conflicts and missing data, and organize the result around the outcome above. A reviewer then checks the matches and judgment calls before approving messages, record updates, bookings, purchases, publishing, or other write actions. The guide below shows the records, boundaries, prompt, and handoff needed for this specific workflow.
Match settlement and ledger records
Square supplies orders, payments, refunds, fees, and settlement context. Xero supplies ledger entries, account coding, tax fields, and reconciliation state. Together, they can explain why gross sales, net settlements, and recorded deposits differ without collapsing several records into one guessed match.
Define the Square locations, Xero organization, period, currencies, and approved matching rules. The agent should preserve batch settlements, fees, refunds, and timing differences. Match with stable identifiers when available.
Example starter prompt
Compare Square sales and settlements for [locations] with Xero records for [organization] during [period].
Match using [approved identifiers and tolerances]. Show gross sales, refunds, fees, net settlement, dates, currency, Xero entry, ledger account, tax field, and reconciliation state. Separate exact, possible, and unmatched records.
Do not create, edit, post, or reconcile entries. Return the accountant’s exception queue.Make every difference explainable
The agent can identify a fee or timing difference, but it should not choose accounting treatment. The final handoff should preserve Square and Xero identifiers, show the math behind each proposed match, and name the owner for unresolved rows.
Questions this workflow answers
Why do daily sales, processor deposits, and ledger entries show different totals?
The agent builds the bridge from gross activity to net settlement before matching a bank or ledger amount. For each location and currency, it records orders or sales, refunds, fees, adjustments, settlement batches, and payout timing. Xero entries retain their date, amount, account, tax field, contact, and reconciliation state. This makes a deposit smaller than gross sales explainable instead of treating the fee as missing revenue.
Stable batch or settlement references produce the strongest matches. Where timing crosses midnight, weekends, or accounting periods, the agent applies only the accountant’s approved tolerance and shows the calculation. One settlement may represent many payments, while one day’s sales may reach several settlements. Those relationships stay explicit rather than being forced into one-to-one rows.
Exceptions are classified as settlement timing, refund or fee difference, currency or amount mismatch, ledger-only, processor-only, possible duplicate, or accounting question. The agent can calculate a bridge and flag a tax or account value that conflicts with a supplied mapping, but it does not choose treatment or post an adjustment.
The close package includes control totals, exact and possible matches, unmatched totals, both source identifiers, and the arithmetic behind every proposed relationship. An accountant decides whether to wait for settlement, correct an entry, request support, or reconcile. The run never creates, edits, posts, or marks records reconciled.
An accountant approves corrections and reconciliation.
Daily gross sales will not equal a bank deposit when refunds, processing fees, tips, taxes, cash sales, and settlement timing are mixed together. The agent can build a bridge from orders and payments to processor batches, then to the ledger entry, showing each component and date. A weekend batch may settle the next business day; a refund may reduce a later deposit; cash may never enter the processor payout. The exception queue should distinguish timing differences from missing records and coding questions. Accountants can inspect the arithmetic instead of forcing three unlike totals to match.