When a client pays by card, Instinct EMR records the payment immediately—but the money doesn't arrive in the bank right away. The General Ledger (GL) report tracks this gap with Cash In Transit (CIT) rows, and understanding them is the key to accurate bank reconciliation.
Why Cash In Transit exists
Card payments must travel from the processor to the bank before they're final. Until funds land, the processor can still void the charge. The GL report only counts money as "cash" once it's confirmed in the bank, which is what makes the Cash rows safe to reconcile against your bank statement.
Settlement timing by processor:
Gravity: Typically settles within about 15 minutes
Adyen and Interacct (Canada): Typically settle about two hours after the day's settlement cutoff
A charge made late in the day on any processor can miss the cutoff and land in the next business day's settlement. Cash, check, and non-processor payments skip CIT entirely as there's no processor step involved.
What you'll see in the report
When a card payment is in transit, two rows appear together:
Cash In Transit — [Method]: The amount that's been charged but hasn't landed yet
A second row that acts as a placeholder showing where that money is headed:
Cash Credited to Invoices: If the payment is going toward an invoice
Account Credit: If the client is depositing money into their prepaid account balance
These two rows always appear together. They disappear once the money settles.
Note: These rows don't represent new money arriving or leaving—they're the report's way of tracking a payment that's mid-process.
Example
Scenario: A client pays a $500 invoice by Visa on Monday. The payment settles on Tuesday.
Date period | What you see in the report | What's in the bank |
Monday only | Cash In Transit — Visa + Cash Credited to Invoices + AR (New) | Nothing yet |
Tuesday only | Cash — Visa + Cash Credited to Invoices + CIT Settlement — Visa + AR (Prior Period) | $500 arrives |
Monday and Tuesday combined | Cash — Visa | Charged and settled within the period |
What's happening on each day:
Monday: The card was charged, but the money isn't in the bank yet. The invoice still shows as unpaid in AR (New) because the payment hasn't officially settled. Cash Credited to Invoices is a placeholder row showing that $500 is on its way.
Tuesday: The money arrives. You'll see Cash — Visa for the $500, the Cash Credited to Invoices placeholder being released, and AR (Prior Period) showing that the invoice has now been paid. CIT Settlement marks that the cash came from a prior day's charge, not today's revenue.
Monday and Tuesday combined: When you run the report for both days together, all of that settles out, and you just see a normal Cash — Visa row. The transit period is invisible over a wide enough date range.
Why the totals can look bigger on settlement days
On Tuesday in the example above, the totals on the report are $1,000 per side — even though only $500 actually changed hands. This is expected. The report records both the cash arriving and the placeholder from Monday being released, so each appears in the totals. Your actual bank deposit is just the Cash row.
Reconciling with your bank statement
To find what should have been deposited on a given day:
Expected bank activity for the day = sum of all Cash rows
Leave out Cash In Transit rows—that money isn't in the bank yet. When it arrives the next day, it'll show up in the Cash rows for that day.
A few things to keep in mind:
Your card terminal's batch total shows what was charged that day. The Payments rows show what settled. The difference is what's still in transit.
If you run the report mid-day before the settlement cutoff, you'll see more Cash In Transit and more AR than you would at the end of the day. That's normal—run it again at the end of the day for a complete picture.
Frequently asked questions
We charged a client's card, but AR is still showing as unpaid. Is something wrong?
Not necessarily. AR clears when the payment settles with the bank, not when the card is charged. Check the timing for your processor. If it's been significantly longer than the expected settlement window, verify that the payment went through on the processor side.
We took card payments today, but there are no Cash In Transit rows. Is that normal?
Yes, it means those payments were settled the same day they were charged. When that happens, they show up directly in the Payments rows, just like a cash payment.
Still need help?
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