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A junior accountant opens a gateway settlement report with dozens of columns and cannot tell which figure should match the bank credit or why the totals differ from sales.
Gross amount minus fee, minus GST on fee, minus refunds, minus chargebacks and holds, plus or minus adjustments, equals the net settlement, which ties to the bank credit by UTR.
For each column, record its plain meaning, its sign, and the source it should tie to: order system for gross and refunds, fee invoice for fee and GST, bank statement for net and UTR.
Every settlement report is read as a short calculation from gross to net, with each line tied to an order, an invoice or a bank credit.
A settlement report lists every payment, fee, tax, refund and adjustment behind one bank credit. The columns that matter most are settlement ID, UTR, gross amount, fee, tax on fee, refund, adjustment and net amount. Read the report as a sum: gross, minus the deductions, equals the net that should land in your bank.
Column names differ between gateways and report versions, so treat the names below as common examples, not exact labels.
What does each column mean?
| Column (common name) | Plain meaning | Sign | Should tie to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Settlement ID | The gateway’s number for one payout batch | n/a | Settlement summary |
| UTR / bank reference | Reference of the bank transfer for the batch | n/a | Bank statement narration |
| Payment ID / transaction ID | One customer payment inside the batch | n/a | Gateway dashboard |
| Order ID / merchant reference | Your own order number | n/a | Order system or invoice |
| Payment method | Card, UPI, net banking, wallet | n/a | Fee rate card |
| Gross amount | What the customer paid | Plus | Order system |
| Fee (MDR or commission) | Gateway’s charge for the payment | Minus | Gateway’s monthly fee invoice |
| Tax on fee | GST at 18 percent on the fee | Minus | Gateway’s tax invoice, GSTR-2B |
| Refund | Money returned to a customer | Minus | Credit notes or returns list |
| Chargeback / dispute | Payment pulled back by the customer’s bank | Minus | Dispute list |
| Reserve / hold | Money kept back for now | Minus (released later) | Reserve schedule |
| Adjustment | Other corrections, recoveries or releases | Plus or minus | Gateway’s adjustment reference |
| Net amount | What you actually receive | Result | Bank credit |
“MDR” stands for merchant discount rate, the percentage a business pays to accept a digital payment.
Which column should equal the credit in my bank statement?
The net amount, added up for one settlement ID. Filter the report by settlement ID, total the net column, and look in your bank statement for a credit of that amount with the same UTR. If they agree, the settlement is complete. If they do not, the difference is usually a split or merged credit, or a credit posted on a different day.
The gross column will never match the bank. That is expected.
Worked example: from ₹1,00,000 gross to ₹91,440 net
One settlement shows these totals:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross amount | ₹1,00,000 |
| Fee (illustrative 2 percent) | minus ₹2,000 |
| GST on fee (18 percent of ₹2,000) | minus ₹360 |
| Refunds | minus ₹5,000 |
| Chargeback hold | minus ₹1,200 |
| Net amount | ₹91,440 |
Check: ₹1,00,000 minus ₹2,000 is ₹98,000. Minus ₹360 is ₹97,640. Minus ₹5,000 is ₹92,640. Minus ₹1,200 is ₹91,440.
In your books, ₹2,000 is an expense, ₹360 is input GST, ₹5,000 matches your credit notes, and ₹1,200 is still your money, held as a receivable from the gateway until the dispute closes.
What do “adjustment”, “reserve” and “hold” lines mean when I issued no refund?
These lines are not refunds, so they are often the confusing ones.
- Hold: the gateway has paused part of the payout, often for a dispute, a KYC (know-your-customer) check or a risk review. It is released once the reason is cleared.
- Reserve: a set percentage kept back for a fixed period, sometimes agreed for higher-risk businesses. It is released on a schedule.
- Adjustment: anything else, such as recovering a negative balance from last week, reversing a wrong fee, or releasing an earlier hold.
For each of these, ask the gateway for the reference and the reason, and keep it with your working papers.
Turning the report into order-level lines
For one settlement a day, this table is enough. Once you have many settlements, refunds from older cycles and several gateways, you need each line matched to an order and each net matched to a bank credit. The guides below show how.
What to read next
- Next in this series: Razorpay settlement reconciliation
- Platform settlement decomposition in Google Sheets
- Payment gateway reconciliation
Payment-gateway settlement reconciliation is on the TransactIG roadmap.
Content authored by practitioners with experience at Amazon India, Intuit QuickBooks, and the Tata Group. Meet the team →