Guide · Singapore
Settlement and reconciliation
Settlement is the transfer of a period’s takings, net of fees, from the acquirer into your bank account. Reconciliation is matching what the till says you took against what actually arrived. The second one is a daily job for somebody, and its size is set by how many accounts, statements and cycles you are running — not by how much you sell.
In short
- Three questions decide what settlement is worth: which currency, what cycle, how many accounts.
- You reconcile against a batch, not against individual sales.
- Every extra settlement cycle is a permanent daily cost. It never appears on a rate card.
- Uniweb Pay settles SGD, T+1, with in-store, online and in-app in the same batch.
- Settlement terms are usually harder to renegotiate later than the rate is. Ask first.
How the money actually moves
A sale is authorised, then captured, then it joins a batch. The batch settles on the provider’s cycle, and what arrives in the bank account is the batch total less the fees for that period. The individual sale is never a payment into your account and never will be.
That is the fact that makes reconciliation what it is. Your till has a list of sales; your bank has a list of batch credits; matching them is arithmetic that somebody has to do, and how hard it is depends entirely on how the batches are cut.
T+1 means the takings for a day settle in the batch on the following day. Longer cycles exist and are common. A longer cycle is not a fee, but it is a working-capital cost — money that is yours and is not with you yet — and for a business with stock to buy or staff to pay weekly, that cost is real.
The three questions, and why the third one is the expensive one
| Question | What a bad answer costs you |
|---|---|
| Which currency? | A conversion you did not price for, on every transaction, forever. |
| What cycle, and are all methods in the same batch? | Working capital, and a reconciliation per cycle. |
| Into how many bank accounts, on how many statements? | A separate daily reconciliation per account. This is the one that compounds. |
The third is the one merchants underestimate, because it does not sound like a cost. A wallet product that settles into its own account on its own cycle with its own statement is not a slightly worse deal — it is a second set of books, opened every day, indefinitely.
Delivery platforms are the version of this that most F&B operators already live with: platform takings settle outside the merchant account entirely, on the platform’s terms, and they are a second reconciliation nobody chose. The F&B page treats it as a defining fact of the trade rather than an aside.
What a statement should let you do
A useful statement is one you can answer questions with. Specifically, these:
- Which batch does this bank credit correspond to?
- What did that batch contain, by payment method?
- What were the fees on it, and separated how?
- Where are the refunds and the chargebacks, and are they in this batch or the next?
- What were the card-present and card-not-present totals?
If the statement cannot answer those, no rate is good enough to compensate — because the alternative is a person reconstructing them by hand, every day, and getting it wrong occasionally.
Uniweb Pay’s merchant portal is where the batch, the method split and the daily statement live, and the same portal covers in-store, online and in-app because they are one account. That is the practical argument for a single account arrangement, and it is worth more to most merchants than a basis point.
The habits that make the daily count come out
- Count against the batch, not the day. A day’s sales and a day’s settlement are two different sets, and treating them as one produces a discrepancy every single day.
- Make sure the receipt names the method. A till total that does not split cards from wallets from QR cannot be checked against a statement that does.
- Handle refunds on the device, same day. A refund raised as a ticket lands in an unpredictable batch and is the most common source of a phantom discrepancy.
- Reconcile daily, not weekly. A one-day discrepancy is findable. A one-week discrepancy is a project.
- Know which of your revenue does not come through the merchant account at all — delivery platforms, marketplace payouts, bank transfers — and count it separately rather than trying to fit it in.
What Uniweb Pay settles, and what it does not
Singapore dollars, in T+1 batches, into a Singapore bank account in the registered name of the merchant entity. In-store, online and in-app takings are in the same batch because they are on the same merchant account, and the cards, the wallets and Dynamic PayNow are in it too.
SGD only. There is no multi-currency settlement, and there is no repatriation of funds to an account outside Singapore — including to a mainland Chinese account, which is the most consequential misunderstanding in one particular segment. The page for Chinese brands opening in Singapore states it plainly for that reason.
Not published: fees, and any guaranteed timing beyond the T+1 batch itself. If settlement timing is material to your decision — and for a business with weekly payroll it usually is — ask directly and ask in writing.
Questions merchants ask
What does T+1 settlement mean?
The takings for a day settle in the batch on the following day, rather than weekly or monthly. "T" is the transaction day.
Why does the amount in my bank not match a day’s sales?
Because you are paid by batch, not by sale, and the batch is net of fees for that period. Refunds and chargebacks may also fall into a different batch. Reconcile against the batch, not against the day.
Does it matter how many bank accounts my payments land in?
More than almost anything else on the contract. Each additional account is a separate daily reconciliation, permanently — and it never appears on a rate card.
Does Uniweb Pay settle in currencies other than SGD?
No. Settlement is SGD only, into a Singapore bank account in the registered name of the merchant entity. There is no multi-currency settlement and no repatriation outside Singapore.
Do online and in-store takings settle together?
With Uniweb Pay, yes — they are on one merchant account, so they arrive in the same T+1 batch and on the same statement.
Talk to us about your counter
Uniweb Pay is a Singapore merchant acquirer, licensed by MAS as a Major Payment Institution (No. PS20200612). Tell us what you sell and who pays you, and we will tell you whether we are the right fit — including when we are not.