What Is Reconciliation?

There are many indispensable elements in modern trade. Each of these elements plays a role in forming trade, and each has its own importance. One of the key elements in trade is reconciliation. Reconciliation refers to a document based on mutual agreement between companies, covering not only the goods bought and sold but also all transactions such as payments and collections. Therefore, it represents mutual understanding at every stage of trade between two or more companies.

To carry out reconciliation, parties share forms related to contracts, account statuses, and balances with each other. After these forms are reviewed and agreement is reached, the documents are sent to each other with wet signatures. Once a common agreement is reached on the amounts, reconciliation is considered completed.

Current account reconciliation is particularly important between parties. Through reconciliation, forgotten, overlooked, or incorrectly recorded transactions are identified. For example, if a buyer makes a payment to the seller and the seller forgets to record it, this issue is identified during reconciliation, allowing errors to be corrected and unrecorded collections to be processed.

Timely reconciliation of current accounts is essential to determine the status of trade between parties and reach a mutual agreement. For this reason, companies are required to perform current account reconciliations at regular intervals. This is also emphasized in Article 94 of the Turkish Commercial Code. According to this regulation, certain details must be taken into account during reconciliation. For example, contracts and balance transfers in accounts must first be closed.

Types of Reconciliation

There are different types of reconciliations carried out between companies. The main types include current account reconciliation and BA/BS reconciliation. In addition, companies may also perform special reconciliations among themselves.

Current account reconciliation is conducted so that companies can mutually agree on their accounts. It plays an important role in verifying purchase and sales transactions and confirming movements in trade, as well as identifying possible discrepancies or omissions. This makes current account reconciliation highly significant for companies.

BA and BS reconciliations are performed to verify the accuracy of notifications regarding gross purchases and sales. These reconciliations, known as purchase notifications and sales notifications, include the reported transactions of companies. However, in recent years, BA/BS reconciliation processes have decreased. This is believed to be due to changes resulting from the widespread use of electronic invoicing systems.

What Is the Green Deal?

The European Union has introduced a plan that includes fundamental growth objectives and strategies to create a more sustainable and livable world. The EU has set strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and resource use associated with economic growth by 2050. The European Green Deal, developed to achieve these goals, aims to create a global transformation covering not only EU countries but the entire world.

The EU Green Deal initiative primarily aims to implement changes under three main objectives:

• Making the European Union a climate-neutral continent by 2050
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030
• Planting approximately three billion trees in the EU before 2030

The Green Deal works toward a more livable and sustainable world both within the EU and globally. It is based on seven main strategies:

• Sustainable mobility
• Clean energy
• New construction approaches
• Elimination of pollution
• Protection of biodiversity
• Environmentally friendly production
• Sustainable food systems

Achieving these goals aims to leave a safer and more livable world for both current and future generations. The prevalence of long-lasting products, biodiversity, and clean air increases, providing long-term positive contributions for the present and future. Led by the EU, the Green Deal makes a significant positive impact on human life by reducing carbon emissions, promoting a clean environment, and lowering energy consumption.

The Relationship Between the Green Deal and the Logistics Sector

The logistics sector is particularly notable for its carbon emissions. As a major component of global supply chains, logistics is highly active worldwide. However, the sector alone accounts for approximately 5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This makes efforts to reduce carbon emissions especially important.

Logistics consumes a large portion of the world’s total energy through transportation, storage, and distribution activities. For this reason, logistics processes also have significant potential to reduce environmental impacts by increasing energy efficiency and digitizing storage systems.

Within the logistics sector, many significant steps and transformations are implemented to support the Green Deal. The use of environmentally friendly transportation modes is encouraged, along with a shift toward electrification and faster, more efficient processes. Additionally, reverse logistics plays a crucial role. This approach aims to prevent delivery vehicles from returning empty after completing shipments. By reducing the rate of empty returns, carbon emissions are also reduced.

With the increasing use of electronic systems, reducing paper consumption plays an important role in benefiting the environment and nature. Electronic reconciliation is one of the developments that supports this effort. Through electronic reconciliation, reconciliation processes are completed more quickly while preventing paper usage and time loss. This contributes positively to companies, the environment, and the world as a whole.