Does POS reconciliation need real-time data from the cash register?

No. Receipts from the POS system often arrive as overnight batch files, while terminal and acquirer notifications arrive in real time. Matching runs on both, using a date window rather than exact timing, so a sale entered the next day, as with mail and telephone orders, can still be matched to its payment.

Two clocks

Terminal and acquirer notifications arrive in real time, seconds after the card is tapped. Point-of-sale receipts usually arrive later: an overnight export, a batch file from the retailer's system, sometimes entered the next day for mail and telephone orders. Reconciliation that expects both at the same moment fails on the first day.

Matching on a window

• Each receipt is matched to a payment within a date window, not at an exact timestamp.
• Amount, store, terminal and card data narrow the candidates.
• A sale entered the next day still finds its payment from the day before.

What this allows

Retailers keep their existing POS exports and schedules. The platform ingests receipts whenever they arrive, matches them against payments already recorded, and raises exceptions only for receipts without a payment or payments without a receipt. Finance teams then review exceptions in the morning rather than reconciling everything by hand. Real-time POS integration can be added later for retailers that want same-day closing, but it is not a precondition for automated matching.