Supplier statements get treated one of two ways in most small businesses. Either they're filed unread, or — worse — they're entered as invoices.
They're neither. This is what they're actually for.
What a statement is
A statement is a summary of your account with that supplier, as at a date. It lists invoices they've raised, credits they've issued, payments they've received, and the resulting balance.
Every line on it refers to a document that already exists. It creates no new liability. That's the whole point of the distinction, and the reason entering one is a problem.
Why entering one is a problem
If you enter a statement as an invoice, you record a liability for the total — while the individual invoices making up that total are also on your ledger. The same debt now appears twice.
It's an easy mistake. Statements look like invoices: supplier letterhead, a list of amounts, a total at the bottom, sometimes the word "due". Some suppliers make it worse by using near-identical templates for both.
The tell is that a statement lists other document numbers. An invoice has one reference of its own. A statement enumerates several, each with its own date.
The other tell is the wording: "amount due" or "balance" on a statement, versus "total" or "amount payable" on an invoice.
Telling them apart
| Invoice | Statement | |
|---|---|---|
| Reference | One, its own | Lists several others |
| Wording | "Total", "amount payable" | "Balance", "amount due" |
| Creates a liability | Yes | No — summarises existing ones |
| Enter it? | Yes | No |
What they're actually good for
A statement is the only routine check on whether your purchase ledger is complete.
Your ledger tells you what you've recorded. It cannot tell you what you should have recorded and didn't. A missing invoice is invisible — there's no gap where it should be, because you never knew about it.
The supplier's statement is an independent list of what they think you owe. Comparing the two finds:
- Invoices you never received. Sent to the wrong address, caught in spam, or lost in someone's inbox.
- Invoices you received and didn't enter. They exist in an email and never made it to the ledger.
- Credits you're owed and haven't taken. Money in your favour, sitting unclaimed.
- Payments they haven't applied. You paid; they've allocated it to the wrong invoice or not at all — which is what a remittance advice is meant to prevent.
- Duplicates. The same invoice entered twice, usually because it arrived twice.
That's a real control, and it costs a few minutes per supplier.
How to reconcile one quickly
Work from the statement, not the ledger. Go down their list and tick each item against yours. Their document is the one containing things you might not know about.
Note differences rather than resolving them as you go. Resolving each one immediately turns a ten-minute job into an hour. Mark it, keep going, deal with the list at the end.
Sort differences into three types:
Timing — invoices raised after your cut-off, payments in transit. Not errors. They resolve themselves next month.
Missing on your side — an invoice you don't have. Ask for a copy. This is the category that justifies the exercise.
Genuine disagreement — they think you owe something you dispute. Rare, and the one worth raising promptly.
Do it monthly for the suppliers that matter. Your ten largest by volume, or anyone where a missing invoice would be material. Reconciling every supplier every month is more work than the risk warrants for most small businesses.
When to do it
Before the close, not during it.
A missing invoice found on the 10th of the month is an email and a copy attachment. Found on the 2nd of the following month, during the close, it's a problem with a deadline attached — and possibly an accrual you now have to reverse.
Weekly is better than monthly if volume supports it, but the timing matters more than the frequency. Any reconciliation done before the close beats one done inside it.
The filing question
Statements don't need attaching to transactions, because they aren't transactions. They do need keeping long enough to answer "how did we arrive at this balance" — a few months is usually sufficient.
What's worth keeping properly is the outcome: if a statement reveals a missing invoice, the note about chasing it belongs somewhere findable.
The short version
Don't enter them. Do read them. They're the only routine check you have on whether your purchase ledger is complete, and the check takes minutes.
Cribble handles statements as their own document type — read and available, not posted as invoices. Along with credit notes, delivery notes, receipts and remittances.