What BSP reconciliation is
IATA’s Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) settles ticket sales between accredited travel agents and participating airlines. Instead of paying each airline separately, the agency receives one billing statement per period that lists tickets issued, refunds, agency debit and credit memos (ADMs and ACMs), commission and the net amount to remit.
BSP reconciliation is the check that every line on that statement matches a line in your books, and that every ticket in your books appears on the statement. It is done before remittance, because a difference found after the money has gone is far harder to recover.
Why the statement and the books differ
Most differences fall into a small number of patterns. Knowing them makes the investigation much faster.
- A ticket appears on the BSP statement but was never invoiced to the customer
- A ticket was invoiced but voided in the GDS, so BSP does not bill it
- Fare, tax or YQ/YR amounts differ between the ticket and the invoice
- The commission rate in the books differs from the rate the airline applied
- A refund was processed in the GDS or BSPlink but not recorded in the books
- An ADM or ACM was raised by the airline and not yet posted
- Timing: the sale was booked in one period and billed by BSP in the next
How to reconcile BSP, step by step
- Download the billing statementGet the statement and supporting detail for the billing period from BSPlink.
- Pull the same period from your booksList ticket sales, refunds and memos posted against BSP airlines, by ticket number.
- Match by ticket numberPair each BSP line with the book entry for the same document number and compare fare, taxes, commission and net amount.
- Match refunds and memosPair refund notices, ADMs and ACMs with the entries that record them, and with the original tickets they adjust.
- Investigate what is leftWork through the unmatched lines using the patterns above. Most resolve to a missing entry or a commission difference.
- Post the adjustmentsRecord missing ADMs, ACMs, refunds and commission corrections, and decide which ones to recover from customers.
- Confirm and remitCheck that the reconciled net amount equals the amount BSP will collect, then remit by the due date.
- Keep the trailSave the reconciled statement with your notes, so an auditor can follow each difference to its resolution.
Reconciling BSP in SYSTACC
In SYSTACC, tickets already arrive from the GDS with the document number, fare, taxes and commission attached, so the books start from the same source as BSP. BSP sales, refunds and memos are matched against the ledger automatically. Matched lines clear, and what remains is a short list of genuine differences rather than a spreadsheet to build.
