Your stablecoin balances do not match your accounting records: how do you find the source of the difference?
Your general ledger shows 98,500 USDC. Your wallet shows 99,240. Your service-provider statement shows yet another amount.
The instinctive reaction is often to ask which source contains “the right number.” That is usually the wrong starting point.
A discrepancy can come from an unrecorded transaction, an internal transfer treated as an economic event, network or provider fees, a timing difference, an incomplete wallet perimeter, or a valuation issue even when the token quantity itself is correct.
The purpose of reconciliation is therefore not to force numbers to match. It is to explain precisely why they differ and to document how they converge.
Start by identifying the type of discrepancy
Two very different situations can create an apparent mismatch.
Type of discrepancy | How to identify it and where to look |
Quantity discrepancy | Token units differ: check perimeter, transactions, internal transfers, fees and cut-off. |
Valuation discrepancy | Token units match: check the valuation source, date, time, exchange rate and accounting method. |
This distinction matters. A quantity discrepancy points first to movements and perimeter. A valuation discrepancy points first to pricing and accounting methodology.
For French entities, the analysis must now also reflect the updated French accounting framework. ANC Regulations No. 2026-01 and No. 2026-02 were approved by an order dated 12 August 2026, published in the French Official Journal on 3 September 2026. Regulation No. 2026-01 is mandatory for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2027 and may be applied early under the conditions set out in Article 6.
French Accounting Standards Authority (ANC) — official page French Official Journal — approval order
1. Freeze the data before looking for the error
Before investigating, rebuild a coherent snapshot at a defined date and time.
For each material position, collect at least:
wallet or account;
stablecoin;
network;
observable quantity;
provider statement, where relevant;
sub-ledger balance, where relevant;
accounting balance;
reference date and time.
Comparing a wallet balance at 23:59 with an accounting export generated the following morning can create a mismatch that is not an actual economic discrepancy.
The first control is therefore to confirm that the sources describe the same perimeter at the same point in time.
2. Rebuild movements from the last reconciled position
If the balances matched on 31 July but no longer match on 31 August, there is usually no reason to rebuild the wallet history from inception.
Use the basic reconciliation logic:
Opening balance + inflows − outflows ± other movements = expected closing balance
Each material movement should then be linked to its economic nature: customer receipt, supplier payment, stablecoin purchase or conversion, redemption, internal transfer, fees, or another event.
This narrows the investigation to the period between the last reconciled point and the date of the discrepancy.
3. Eliminate internal transfers first
Assume a company transfers 100,000 USDC from Wallet A to Wallet B. Economically, the company still holds 100,000 USDC.
If the accounting system or operating file interprets the outflow from A as a disposal and the inflow into B as an acquisition, it creates two artificial economic events even though only an internal movement occurred.
The company must therefore identify the wallets it owns or controls before classifying the flows.
This is why SACF-04 — Ownership & Evidence logically precedes reconciliation: positions cannot be reconciled reliably if their connection to the reporting entity has not been established.
4. Look for transactions missing from one system only
Take the on-chain transactions and identify those with no matching accounting entry. Then perform the reverse test: identify stablecoin accounting entries that have no corresponding transaction or operational event.
This two-way analysis can reveal:
an executed transaction that was never recorded;
a duplicate accounting entry;
a transaction attributed to the wrong wallet;
a transaction booked in the wrong period;
an operation recorded for a different amount;
a wallet that was omitted from the reconciliation perimeter.
The target is a traceable relationship: transaction ↔ economic event ↔ supporting evidence ↔ accounting entry
5. Separate fees from principal amounts
Depending on the infrastructure used, a transaction can generate network fees, provider commissions or other costs. If accounting records capture only the principal amount while an operational file includes some of these fees, a discrepancy appears.
Fees should therefore be identified separately rather than buried in a global balancing adjustment.
6. Review cut-off
A transaction initiated near period-end may appear at different times across several systems. There can be an instruction time, a blockchain timestamp, a confirmation threshold, a provider booking date and an accounting date.
The accounting date should not be moved arbitrarily until the reconciliation works. The applicable cut-off rule should be identified, documented and applied consistently.
7. If quantities match, test valuation
When the stablecoin quantity reconciles but the value recorded in euros or another reporting currency does not, the investigation changes.
You should be able to reproduce: Quantity × selected price or exchange rate = accounting value
The pricing source, valuation date, valuation time and methodology should be documented.
For French entities, ANC Regulation No. 2026-01 reinforces the importance of documenting the valuation methodology applied to relevant crypto-assets.
For more on accounting classification and measurement, see SACF-03 — Accounting & Measurement.
Never clear an unexplained discrepancy with an automatic adjustment
Removing an accounting difference does not mean it has been resolved.
Element | Question |
Nature of the discrepancy | Quantity, value, timing, perimeter or classification? |
Amount | What is the exact size of the difference? |
Position or transaction | Which wallet, account, network or movement is affected? |
Cause | Has the source of the discrepancy been identified? |
Correction | What action is being taken and why? |
Evidence | What supporting document substantiates the conclusion? |
Review | Who prepared and who reviewed the correction? |
The mismatch then becomes a documented exception, rather than a difference that was merely erased.
This is consistent with SACF-07 — Reconciliation & Reporting: a reliable accounting balance should be traceable to identifiable, explained, reconciled and reviewed positions.
The BECTRA 7-control diagnostic sequence
When a discrepancy appears, investigate it in this order:
1. Date — do the sources refer to the same point in time? 2. Perimeter — are all wallets, accounts, networks and service providers included? 3. Quantities — does the mismatch actually concern token units? 4. Movements — is a transaction missing from one system? 5. Nature — has an internal transfer or a fee been misclassified? 6. Cut-off and valuation — can the date, time or rate explain the difference? 7. Accounting — does the entry correctly reflect the identified economic event?
This sequence avoids changing accounting records before checking whether the issue actually comes from perimeter or operational data.
What should reconciliation ultimately achieve?
Not simply an Excel cell displaying zero.
The expected result is an audit trail that allows a reviewer to start from the accounting balance and trace it back to the positions, movements and supporting evidence that make it up — and vice versa.
Reconciliation quality is therefore measured as much by the explanation of discrepancies as by their elimination.
BECTRA — Accounting reconciliation of stablecoin transactions
BECTRA structures the reconciliation between on-chain data, wallets, provider statements, economic events and accounting records in order to identify discrepancies, document their causes and build a reproducible reconciliation trail.
The objective is not simply to obtain matching balances. It is to be able to explain and document their convergence.
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