Blank confirmation request

A conventional confirmation letter states the balance and asks the other side only to agree or to object. In the blank form the amount field is left empty; the counterparty writes the balance its own ledger shows and returns the letter that way. Auditors know it from external confirmation practice under ISA 505, adopted in Türkiye as BDS 505, which describes the blank request as a positive confirmation with the amount omitted; outside the standards it is also called a blind confirmation. The form is chosen where a balance is contested or where unexplained differences have carried over from earlier periods. It works outside an audit too: blank requests to major suppliers at year end reveal the genuinely independent state of the two ledgers. The letter does not have to travel on paper either: it can go out as a secure link, and the counterparty needs no software of its own to answer it.

The role of the blank form is that it changes the quality of the evidence. When your figure is printed on the page, many counterparties confirm it without opening their own records, so the reply is a courtesy rather than a verification. A blank field removes that anchor: the number that comes back genuinely comes from the other ledger. If the two figures agree, the evidence is strong; if they do not, the difference is concrete from the first minute and ready to be examined item by item. The form has a price: answering takes real work, so reply times stretch and reminders become part of the process. The reply is not the end of the job either, since the two lists still have to be compared line by line.

The most frequent mistake is treating a blank request as a mechanism where silence equals acceptance. In Turkey the idea comes from Article 94 of the Turkish Commercial Code, discussed in the context of a written current account agreement and a one month objection period. Where the parties have no written current account agreement, no automatic consequence may follow from an unanswered letter. A second mistake is assuming the blank form suits every relationship; on small, low-activity accounts a stated balance gets an answer faster. A third is leaving the returned figure as raw data, since a balance written by the counterparty means nothing until it is compared with your own statement line by line. iFinances produces the reconciliation letter and archives the signed copy, and it matches the incoming statement against your records line by line; it does not keep your books and never closes a line on its own. Whether the amount field is left blank is a choice of method, and which accounts get a blank request is your finance team's call. Both routes into the platform are ready: statements can be uploaded as Excel or CSV, or read through a direct connection to the system that holds them, and the route is chosen with you during setup.