# Reconciliation Confidence Score: What the Number Means

- Author: PreciseBankFlow (https://www.precisebankflow.com)
- Published: 2024-11-21
- Updated: 2024-11-21
- Category: Choosing reconciliation software
- Canonical: https://www.precisebankflow.com/blog/reconciliation-confidence-score

> What a reconciliation confidence score measures, why low scores cluster on poor scans, and which scored lines to vouch to the source document first.
A reconciliation confidence score tells you how sure the software is that it read a field correctly from the statement: a date, a description, an amount or a check number. It is not a verdict that the reconciliation is right. Low scores gather on poor scans and handwriting, and those fields are the first to vouch to the source page.

## What does a reconciliation confidence score measure?

A reconciliation confidence score measures the reading of one field, not the truth of the transaction. When software extracts a statement line, it rates how certain it is about each field it turned into data. A low score says "check what I read here". A high score says the reading is probably faithful to the page.

That distinction matters because two different things can go wrong in a reconciliation. The software can misread the statement, or it can read the statement correctly and pair the line with the wrong ledger entry. The confidence score speaks to the first problem only. Matching errors have their own controls, such as date windows, tolerances and a review of ambiguous pairs, set out in [how transaction matching software handles rules and tolerances](/blog/transaction-matching-software#which-transaction-matches-should-a-person-always-review).

### Field scores, not line scores

PreciseBankFlow gives every extracted field its own score. That is more useful than one figure per line, because a line can have a clear date and description but a smudged amount. The amount is the field that changes the money, so it is the one you need flagged.

## Why low confidence scores cluster on poor scans and handwriting

Low confidence scores cluster on poor scans and handwriting because the software has less to go on. A digital PDF carries the exact characters the bank printed. A scan or a phone photo turns those characters into an image, and every blur, shadow and tilt adds doubt about what each one was.

Conditions that commonly pull a field's score down:

- **Low resolution or heavy compression**, which softens the edges of digits.
- **Skewed or curved pages**, where a photo was taken at an angle or a page was not flat.
- **Faint print or toner streaks** on older statements.
- **Handwritten notes** over the transaction area, such as ticks or circled amounts.
- **Stamps and highlighter** that overlap a column.

Digits that look alike under these conditions are the usual casualties: 3 and 8, 1 and 7, 5 and 6, and a decimal point lost altogether. The pattern is useful in itself. If every low score on a statement sits on one page, that page was scanned badly, and asking the client for the bank's downloaded PDF is often faster than vouching each line.

## Which low-confidence lines to vouch to the source document first

Vouch the low-confidence lines in order of risk: amounts before dates, dates before descriptions, and large values before small ones. Vouching means comparing the extracted value with the original statement page. When time is short, a ranked list puts the review effort where a misread costs the most.

### A vouching priority table

The scores, fields and amounts below are examples. The score scale your software uses may differ, so read "low" and "high" against its own thresholds.

| Priority | Example field | Example score | Amount | Action |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Amount on a check line | Low | 4,850.00 | Vouch to the page now |
| 2 | Amount on a deposit | Low | 312.60 | Vouch to the page now |
| 3 | Check number | Low | 640.00 | Vouch, then check the sequence |
| 4 | Date near month end | Low | 1,200.00 | Vouch, confirm the period |
| 5 | Description | Low | 58.20 | Vouch only if a rule depends on it |
| 6 | Any field | High | Over your size limit | Sample a few each month |

### Why amounts come first

A misread amount does the most damage, but it is also the easiest to catch, because it usually breaks the statement's footing. If the opening balance plus the extracted activity does not equal the printed closing balance, start with the low-scored amounts. The difference often equals the misread one exactly.

## Can a high reconciliation confidence score still be wrong?

A high reconciliation confidence score can still be wrong, because it only rates how clearly a character was printed. If the statement itself is altered, the software reads the altered figure with full confidence. A crisp, edited PDF scores better than an honest blurry scan.

High scores also say nothing about these risks:

1. **A missing page.** Fields that were never read have no score at all.
2. **A correct reading paired wrongly.** The match logic, not the reading, made the mistake.
3. **A real duplicate charge.** The bank posted it twice, and both lines read perfectly.
4. **An edited statement.** Someone changed the numbers before the file reached you.

This is why scores should sit next to other tests, not replace them. Footing, check sequence gaps and duplicate detection catch what the score cannot. When you trial a tool, test both: plant a blurred page and an edited line, and see which control catches which. [How to evaluate reconciliation software on your own data](/blog/how-to-evaluate-reconciliation-software) sets out that trial.

## Confidence scores on statements used in a fiduciary accounting

Confidence scores matter more when the statements support an accounting prepared for someone else, such as an agent under a power of attorney reporting to a court or family. In that setting every low-scored amount should be vouched and the vouching recorded, because the reader cannot check the source themselves.

An accounting of this kind often rests on years of statements, many of them old scans or paper copies photographed at a kitchen table. Low scores will be common. Treat them as a to-do list, not a nuisance. [Power of attorney accounting](/blog/power-of-attorney-accounting) covers what such an accounting must show, and the vouched lines become part of its support.

Smaller businesses see the same issue on a lighter scale. A firm that reconciles from client-supplied photos benefits most from a tool that flags its own uncertainty. [Reconciliation software for small business](/blog/reconciliation-software-for-small-business) discusses which features earn their cost at that size. To see field-level scores on your own statements, [request early access to PreciseBankFlow](/get-started).