The Company
The EVZ is the largest ice hockey club in Central Switzerland. With 118 permanent employees, 297 part-time employees and 236 volunteers, the EVZ organization covers a broad spectrum: from professional sports, popular sports and youth development to catering, ticketing and event management. Behind the scenes of every home game, dozens of payment channels run in parallel: at stadium sales, in restaurants, at event sales points and via the online ticket store.
It is precisely this complexity that presents EVZ Management AG with challenges that go beyond those faced by a traditional retail company. Multiple legal entities, different payment methods, seasonal peak loads and the need for seamless traceability down to outlet level make professional payment reconciliation an operational necessity.
The Initial Situation: Manual Reconciliation Across Multiple Systems and Companies
Until the introduction of ReconHub, payment reconciliation at the ECC was largely handled manually. The accounting department worked with Excel lists, supplemented by exports from various upstream systems: Transaction data from Topas (Worldline), Swisscard reports and evaluations from the ERP system ABACUS. Payment methods such as credit cards, TWINT, online payment providers, vouchers, lunch checks and the regional payment method ProZug were used.
However, with growing complexity, more locations and a steadily increasing volume of cashless payments, the previous approach was reaching its limits.
The Challenge: One Tool Is Eliminated, the Complexity Remains
The decisive impetus for the search for a new solution came from an external change: Worldline announced that it would no longer support the Topas tool in future. The time pressure was real - a future-proof alternative had to be found, one that would not only replace Topas but also address the existing weaknesses in the process.
Specifically, the ECC faced the following challenges: The manual effort required for monthly reconciliation was high and tied up internal resources. Different data sources in combination with a very high transaction volume increased the risk of errors. And the transparency of all payment flows across multiple companies, payment methods and locations could hardly be guaranteed with the existing setup. In addition, EVZ Gastro AG and EVZ Sport AG required traceability down to outlet level.
The Solution: Centralized Payment Reconciliation with ReconHub
The contact to ReconHub and Abrantix was established by Worldline's acquirer consultant, who positioned ReconHub as a suitable successor solution to Topas at an early stage. After a careful evaluation, ReconHub proved to be the solution that met all the technical and organizational requirements.
Today, the ECC uses ReconHub as a central tool for payment reconciliation across all locations and companies. The platform automatically consolidates all data sources, reconciles transactions accurately and displays deviations clearly so that differences can be analyzed down to transaction level. A dedicated contact person at Abrantix supported the onboarding process over five months in a structured and planned manner. Despite the technical depth of the project, the ECC was optimally guided through the implementation process.
The Results: Less Effort, More Transparency, Audit-Proof Reconciliation
ReconHub has not only replaced Topas at EVZ, it has also raised the entire reconciliation process to a new level. The improvements can be seen in three areas.
What the ECC has achieved with ReconHub can be reduced to a single denominator: Payment reconciliation has gone from a necessary evil to a reliable basis for financial transparency, across match days, across companies, audit-proof."
Photo Credits: zVg EVZ
