Bringing Efficiency and Standardization to the Reconciliation Process

Blog post

Headquartered in Kansas City, Commerce Bank has led the way in banking innovation, establishing the country’s first 24-hour transit department; introducing the first full-scale International Department; and offering the first bank card to have the combined feature of a credit card and an ATM card. Beyond being a financial service provider, Commerce Bank is a business in its own right with the need to perform internal account reconciliations. As a publicly traded corporation, it faces the requirement to file accurate annual reports on a timely basis and comply with wide-ranging federal regulations.

For many years their reconciliations were being performed manually using non-standardized methods, and documentation was recorded in various formats and filed in many locations. Commerce Bank wanted to have a fully supported balance sheet prepared in a consistent way. They also wanted to see automation of 80% or more of their GL accounts with reduced FTEs.

Commerce Bank selected Trintech’s T-Recs to solve its reconciliation challenges.

Trintech’s T-Recs is an all-in-one solution capable of reconciling all types of accounts using workflows that enforce standardized rules to each reconciliation type. In particular, T-Recs supports a bank’s unique internal account and operational reconciliation requirements, as well as its corporate cash management services. With T-Recs, Commerce Bank has achieved its goal of having a fully supported balance sheet. All notes and supporting documentation related to both manual and automated reconciliations are now maintained within T-Recs.

Trishia Baker, Senior Accounting Manager, Corporate Finance at Commerce Bank, states, “In moving to 80% automation, there are advantages. From an auditing perspective, there is a standardized presentation across reconciliations and one central documentation location. From an accountability standpoint, it is good to be able to see what the approver has done and the related notes.” She is pleased with the efficiencies gained and the amount of time savings that T-Recs has provided, allowing her staff’s attention to be redirected to more strategic activities.

T-Recs’ workflows have brought uniformity and standardization to Commerce Bank’s reconciliation process. Better yet, the workflows represent optimized versions of Commerce Bank’s own internal processes due to the flexibility and adaptability inherent in T-Recs. Every facet of the reconciliation process is visible via executive dashboards, which allow users to drill down to information based on their organizational role.

Download the complete case study to learn more.