Account Reconciliation: Trends, Tech, and the Shift to Continuous Accounting in 2025-26 and Beyond

Reconciliation, in the past, meant long nights spent manually entering transactions, processing endless spreadsheets, and facing intense pressure to close the books on time. That picture is now shifting. Finance teams are shifting from the old month-end scramble to a continual process in which transactions are reconciled and matched every day. The result: fewer surprises at month ends and more confidence in the numbers year-round.

One big force driving these changes is technology. There are rules to automatically process the routine matches, and artificial intelligence scans thousands of entries to pick out anything unusual or explain why something doesn’t fit. That allows teams to move more quickly and puts the focus on judgment as opposed to manual checking. Meanwhile, the emergence of new global data standards like ISO 20022 provides systems with richer data to work with­, which makes reconciliation a lot easier and much less error-prone.

Another important trend is integration. Finance tools no longer function in a vacuum. Reconciliation, close, and reporting systems are being linked, reducing duplicate work and producing better audit trails. This “ecosystem approach” to dealmaking minimizes risk and allows leadership teams to see transactions through disclosure more clearly.

And the automation of the near future will go even deeper. Rather than simply identifying problems, it will draft explanations, recommend fixes, and write journal entries that satisfy company policies. That transition will give finance professionals more time to stop fixing the past and start shaping the future.

When done right, reconciliation is on its way to becoming the heartbeat of modern finance. It drives precision and builds trust, empowering people to spend more time on what matters most.