The need for smart transaction reporting
Payments and banking companies process huge volumes of transactional data daily—covering everything from authorisations and settlements to chargebacks and refunds. As businesses grow, so does the complexity of this data, spanning multiple payment providers, internal systems and compliance frameworks.
Attempting to report on transactions using spreadsheets is slow, unreliable and full of risk. Manual data prep and validation only add friction, creating delays and increasing the chances of errors or missed regulatory requirements.
To keep pace, businesses need transaction reporting software that offers more than basic report generation. A robust solution should deliver accuracy, real-time insight and full visibility across all sources, empowering teams to report confidently and stay compliant at scale.
Before you choose a reporting platform, it’s important to first understand what makes a solution truly effective, especially in a space where errors, delays and compliance risks can have serious consequences.
Why reporting software matters: What the data tells us
According to Kani’s 2025 Reconciliation & Reporting Survey, reporting remains a major challenge across the industry:
- 56% still rely on spreadsheets for core reconciliation and reporting
- 82% have missed reporting deadlines due to inefficiencies
- 53% say that creating reports is too time consuming
- 28% say that reconciliation errors delay reporting outputs
These operational issues represent compliance risk, inefficiency and lost strategic potential. A robust transaction reporting solution can help reclaim that time, ensure accuracy and give teams the clarity they need.
To help you evaluate your options, here’s a checklist of the key features to look for in modern transaction reporting software:
Multi-source data consolidation & standardisation
Transaction data originates from a wide range of sources—banks, payment processors, card schemes and internal ledgers. Without a way to consolidate and standardise it all, reporting becomes fragmented and difficult to trust. A strong solution should:
- Ingest structured and semi-structured files (CSV, PDF, XML, settlement files, etc.)
- Standardise transactions across currencies, providers and time zones
- Reconcile inputs across ledgers and banks to ensure accuracy before reporting
Effective transaction reporting software automates upstream data handling to reduce manual overhead, ensuring you’re reporting on a single source of truth.
Streamlined reporting workflows
Large-scale transactional data can be overwhelming to manage. Your reporting platform should simplify the process from ingestion through to submission, with:
- Pre-built templates for common reporting outputs (e.g., card scheme, safeguarding, chargeback summaries)
- Configurable reports tailored for internal teams, execs or regulators
- Scheduling and automation tools to remove last-minute scrambles
Whether for operational monitoring, client SLAs or regulatory deadlines, the right tool delivers accuracy and consistency without the manual lift.
Real-time dashboards & variance tracking
Static reports offer little visibility into what’s changing right now. The best solutions offer live monitoring and deep interactivity, with features like:
- Custom dashboards to track KPIs and transaction volumes
- Drill-down capability to investigate individual entries
- Alerts for anomalies, delays or reconciliation breaks
With real-time insights, your teams can proactively manage exceptions and act on trends, rather than reviewing them long after the fact.
Predictive analytics & fraud detection
Modern regulators want firms to identify and prevent fraud before it escalates. That’s why transaction reporting software should go beyond historical summaries and provide:
- Pattern recognition across payment flows
- Early warning signals based on predictive analytics
- Alerts for high-risk transactions, duplicate charges or unusual behaviours
This gives finance and compliance teams the edge they need to prevent fraud, reduce chargebacks and protect customer trust.
Multi-currency & multi-entity reporting
For companies operating across markets or regions, managing transaction data at scale can be painful. Look for software that:
- Automatically converts and reconciles multiple currencies
- Consolidates reporting across subsidiaries, business units or platforms
- Offers filters by region, merchant type or transaction channel
A unified reporting approach reduces silos and simplifies oversight—no matter how complex your operational footprint becomes.
Security, access & audit-readiness
Transactional data is sensitive, and so are the reports built from it. A true enterprise-grade solution should protect data integrity with features like:
- Role-based access controls for users, auditors and third parties
- Formal sign-off workflows and version tracking
- Read-only links for regulatory access
- Full audit trails for every report edit or user interaction
This is essential not only for compliance, but also for building trust in your reporting practices both internally and externally.
Final thoughts: Aim for control
If you’re still relying on spreadsheets or siloed systems to manage transactional reporting, the risk is real: slower processes, regulatory exposure and preventable errors.
The best transaction reporting software gives you complete control. It automates the hard parts, flags issues early and ensures every number you share is precisely what it should be.
Before you commit, benchmark your current process against these six features. Because when it comes to reporting, accuracy isn’t optional—it’s everything.
Ready to see how Kani can power your transaction reporting?
