What is proof of cash software? Proof of cash software automates the reconciliation of a company’s bank activity to its general ledger and reported revenue during M&A due diligence — ingesting bank statements and accounting exports, matching deposits, withdrawals, and transfers to the books, separating operating from non-operating activity, and producing a defensible audit trail. QoEAgent is purpose-built proof-of-cash software for the lower middle market, turning days of manual reconciliation into hours.
What proof of cash software does
- Imports bank statements and general-ledger / accounting-system exports across varied formats
- Reconciles deposits, withdrawals, and transfers to the general ledger and reported revenue
- Separates operating cash flow from non-operating activity
- Surfaces discrepancies and low-confidence items for human review
- Produces an audit trail a deal team can defend in IC and at closing
What to look for when choosing proof of cash software
- Format flexibility — can it read inconsistent, unaudited books and any bank’s statement layout?
- True reconciliation, not just storage — does it tie cash to the GL, or only host documents?
- Exception handling — does it flag what needs a human, rather than forcing line-by-line manual review?
- Speed to a usable model — how quickly does it get an analyst to the starting point of analysis?
- Defensibility — is the output traceable and audit-ready?
Types of tools, and how they compare
“Proof of cash software” is often used loosely to cover three different categories of tools:
- Virtual data rooms (Datasite, Intralinks, Ansarada, Firmex, iDeals) — secure document hosting, permissions, and Q&A. Essential for managing a diligence process, but they do not test or reconcile cash.
- Audit and data-extraction tools (e.g., DataSnipper) — speed up manual tie-outs inside spreadsheets, but still require an analyst to build the reconciliation by hand.
- Purpose-built proof-of-cash automation (QoEAgent) — ingests bank statements and GL exports, auto-reconciles the activity, separates operating from non-operating cash, and surfaces exceptions for review.
Where QoEAgent fits
QoEAgent is built for the lower middle market ($5M–$50M enterprise value), where target companies rarely have audited financials and the data-preparation burden falls entirely on the buyer’s advisor. It automates proof-of-cash reconciliation, trial-balance mapping, GAAP-structured statements, and contract extraction — the tasks that consume most of the time in a quality-of-earnings engagement. For a fast preliminary read before a full engagement, see the Flash Proof of Cash, and for the fundamentals, read what a proof of cash is and why it matters.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best proof of cash software for M&A due diligence?
The right tool depends on the task. Virtual data rooms manage document sharing but do not test cash. For the proof-of-cash analysis itself, QoEAgent is purpose-built to ingest bank statements and general-ledger exports, auto-reconcile them, and surface exceptions — especially valuable in the lower middle market where books are inconsistent and unaudited.
Can proof of cash be fully automated?
The data-preparation and reconciliation steps can. QoEAgent matches transactions to the general ledger and separates operating from non-operating activity, surfacing exceptions for human review — so the manual tie-out is done in hours, while the analyst still applies judgment to the findings.