MPE 2025 in Berlin wasn’t just another fintech event—it was a real meeting of minds on where payments are headed next. Between the exhibition floors and sessions, one thing stood out for us: a growing appetite for clarity. Not surface-level reporting. Not dashboards that look nice but leave teams guessing. We’re talking about actual clarity—the kind that helps you make fast, confident decisions. 

Peter Engel, our CEO, spoke with Fintech BoostUP about this need. 

Here’s the core of what he said 

If you’re a merchant processing ten or hundreds of thousands of transactions a month—and you’re working with more than one PSP—you know the mess. Data is scattered across applications/sources/systems. Definitions don’t line up. Refunds aren’t labeled the same way in Stripe and PayPal. You think you’ve reconciled the numbers, but something still feels off. 

And when is it time to close the books? You’re stuck in spreadsheets, double-checking totals, chasing “missing” payments that aren’t missing—they’re just hiding behind bad formatting and inconsistent logic. 

Peter explained how Actuals was built for exactly this kind of complexity. It’s a transactional reconciliation platform that takes all your payment data, from all your providers, and gives you one reliable version of the truth. Actuals connects directly to PSPs like Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, and others. We standardize the data. It gives you real-time insights into what’s been paid, what hasn’t, what’s been refunded or charged back, what kind of costs are involved—and where your actual money is.  

Real-world example 

Let’s say you’re running a global e-commerce business using Stripe in Europe, PayPal in the US, and a local PSP in Asia. Finance wants to know: what was our total revenue this month? What payment methods cost us the most? Why don’t the order database and bank account line up? 

With Actuals, you log in, and you can answer those questions without digging. You see what’s matched and what’s not. You see bundled patterns—say, a recurring delay with PayPal transactions over weekends. Or a spike in mismatches from one specific PSP. This pattern recognition saves hours and highlights what to fix, fast. 

“If You Understand the Cash, You Can Follow the Money” – Peter Engel

What this means for finance and ops teams 

The finance side of the house has been under-served in payments for too long. Everyone’s been focused on boosting acceptance rates or optimizing checkout flows—which is important. But there’s a shift happening. Finance and risk teams are now being asked to bring that same level of precision and insight to the backend: 

• Are we actually getting paid what we’re owed? 
• Are refunds and chargebacks accounted for? 
• Are all costs clear and where can we optimize? 
• Can we trust the data in our books? 

If the data isn’t reliable, you can’t answer those questions. You can’t optimize payment costs. You can’t run solid revenue controls. You’re just reacting. 

Peter’s point was clear: to take control of revenue, you first need to understand the cash. And that’s exactly what Actuals enables. 

What’s next 

As more merchants adopt more PSPs and sell across more markets, the complexity isn’t going away, it’s increasing. 

In the next 2–3 years, we expect a major shift in how companies treat payments data. The businesses that take it seriously (the ones who understand investing in infrastructure that gives them real visibility) will run faster, make better decisions, and stay ahead. 

Want to see how Actuals works? Let’s talk. 

𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 – 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞™