Reconciling BSP reports, remittances and memos
How an agency with IATA accreditation reconciles its BSP sales report, remittance, refunds and agency debit memos with its own books each period.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Travel businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Once an agency settles airline tickets through IATA's Billing and Settlement Plan, one number starts to dominate its bank statement: the BSP remittance. It is usually the largest payment the agency makes each period, and it bundles together every ticket sold, every refund, every commission and every memo an airline has raised. If that number cannot be explained line by line from the agency's own records, the agency does not really know what it owes the airlines, or what it has earned.
This article sets out how BSP settlement works in outline, the items that make up a remittance, and a routine for reconciling it with the books each period, so that differences are found while they can still be queried.
One report, one remittance
IATA describes the BSP as a standardised global framework that simplifies sales reporting, remittance and settlement between airlines and travel agents, and says only agents holding IATA accreditation can access it. Under the BSP, each agent makes one sales report and one remittance, and each airline receives one consolidated settlement. IATA cites an on-time settlement rate of 99.99% for the BSP. Its Billing and Settlement Plan page explains the framework and the tools that come with it.
The simplicity for the airlines is the agency's reconciliation challenge. Sales across many airlines arrive as one net figure. The agency's job is to take it apart again.
What sits inside the remittance
IATA says ADMs, ACMs, refunds, commissions and ticketing authority are all managed in BSPlink, the BSP's tool for billing and reporting, alongside BSP data and reports. For reconciliation, the moving parts are:
- Ticket sales: the fares and taxes on tickets the agency issued in the period, which it owes the airlines.
- Refunds: tickets refunded to travellers, which reduce what the agency owes.
- Commissions: amounts the airlines allow the agency to keep, which also reduce the remittance.
- Agency debit memos (ADMs): charges an airline raises against the agency, for example where it believes a fare rule was broken.
- Agency credit memos (ACMs): credits an airline gives the agency.
The net of all five is the remittance. Every one of them should also appear in the agency's books.
A BSP control account in the ledger
The cleanest way to keep track is a single control account for the BSP. In Achekam, each business has its own double-entry ledger with a standard chart of accounts, and accounts can be added, renamed or switched off, so add a liability account called something like "BSP payable", agreed with your accountant.
Through the period, the account builds up what you owe:
- Ticket sales increase it, as you invoice travellers and issue tickets.
- Refunds reduce it, when a ticket is refunded through BSPlink.
- Commission retained reduces it, with the other side going to your commission income.
- ADMs increase it, with the other side going to an expense account for memos, or to the traveller's account if the cost is theirs.
- ACMs reduce it.
Refunds, commissions, ADMs and ACMs usually go in by manual journal, using the BSP reports as the source. A business can post manual journals in Achekam; an unbalanced journal, or one dated in a closed month, is refused, and a posted journal is corrected only by a reversal. Put the memo or document number in each journal's narration so the trail runs back to BSPlink.
Disputed memos
Do not leave an ADM out of the books because you are disputing it. Record it when it is raised, and if the airline later withdraws it or issues an ACM, record that too. That way the control account always matches what BSPlink says you owe, and the dispute is visible as an open item rather than a gap.
Matching the remittance on the bank statement
When the remittance leaves the bank account, it should clear the control account for that period. In Achekam, bank lines are matched by suggestion and a person accepts each match, and a line not yet in the books becomes a suggested journal a person approves. A reconciliation completes only when there is no difference left or every leftover line is explained.
Match the BSP payment against the control account, not against an expense. If the payment and the balance owed for the period are the same, the control account for that period clears. If they differ, the difference is a reconciling item to explain before the next settlement.
For agencies that also buy some tickets or services through other suppliers, those purchases are ordinary supplier bills: recorded line by line with VAT, held for approval if there is no purchase order, and paid in full or in parts from a chosen bank account. Keep them out of the BSP control account so it only ever holds BSP items.
Checking the control account each period
The general ledger lists every posted line, and the trial balance shows each account for all time, for a period or at a date. After each settlement, look at the BSP control account at the settlement date. It should hold only items belonging to periods not yet remitted. A short checklist:
- Agree ticket sales in the books to the BSP sales report for the period.
- Agree refunds, commissions, ADMs and ACMs to BSPlink, item by item.
- Agree the remittance on the bank statement to the net of the above.
- Explain anything left in the control account for a remitted period, and resolve it before the next one.
Differences tend to fall into a few groups: a ticket invoiced to a traveller but voided in BSPlink, a refund processed in BSPlink but not yet credited to the traveller, an ADM not yet journaled, or a commission rate that differs from what you expected. Each has a clear fix once it is found. How fares collected for airlines are kept apart from your own income in the first place is explained in keeping supplier money apart from your commission.
Make it a fixed appointment
Book the reconciliation into the diary for the day the BSP reports for the period become available, and keep it there. An agency that reconciles every period finds a disputed memo within days; one that reconciles at year end finds a year of them at once. If you are still deciding whether to join the BSP at all, IATA accreditation or a TIDS code sets out the choice.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
