Illustrative figures, complete math — every step of opening balance, each movement, and the tie-out to the stated closing figure is shown, not skipped.
Balance-forward statement with one payment in transit
Acme Freight Co. sends a balance-forward statement each month. Two invoices arrived this period and one payment you sent hasn't posted on their side yet.
Line
Amount
Running balance
Opening balance
—
$1250.00
Invoice INV-2201 (new charge)
$480.50
$1730.50
Invoice INV-2214 (new charge)
$322.75
$2053.25
Payment sent for INV-2150 (in transit — not yet applied by vendor)
-$1250.00
$803.25
Stated closing balance
$803.25
Opening balance is $1,250.00 — the amount owed at the start of the period, taken from last period's closing figure.
Two new invoices post during the period: INV-2201 for $480.50 and INV-2214 for $322.75, both increasing the balance owed.
You sent a payment of $1,250.00 for the prior invoice (INV-2150) before period end, but the vendor's statement shows it as still outstanding — a payment-in-transit timing difference (taxonomy code TIMING_PAY), not a missing payment.
Running the math: $1,250.00 + $480.50 + $322.75 - $1,250.00 = $803.25, which ties exactly to the vendor's stated closing balance. The reconciliation is clean once the timing difference is identified and explained — no adjustment needed on your books.
Open-item statement with an unapplied credit memo
Bristow Supplies uses an open-item statement (one line per unpaid invoice, no running balance column). A returned-goods credit memo needs to be matched against your AP extract separately.
Line
Amount
Running balance
Opening balance
—
$0.00
Invoice INV-7701
$615.00
$615.00
Invoice INV-7715
$240.00
$855.00
Credit memo CM-0042 (returned goods, not yet applied in AP)
-$95.00
$760.00
Stated closing balance
$760.00
An open-item statement has no carried-forward opening balance in the traditional sense — each line is a currently-open item, so we start from $0 and sum only what's still open.
Two open invoices total $615.00 + $240.00 = $855.00.
The vendor's statement also lists a $95.00 credit memo (CM-0042) for returned goods, which your AP extract doesn't yet show applied — an unapplied-credit exception (taxonomy code CREDIT_UNAPP).
Netting the credit against the open invoices: $615.00 + $240.00 - $95.00 = $760.00, which ties to the vendor's stated total outstanding. The next action is to obtain the credit memo and apply it in AP so your own ledger shows the same $760.00 net balance.
Aged-open report making a paid invoice look 'missing'
Delacroix Manufacturing's default statement export is an aged-open-items report (paid invoices don't appear at all). Your AP extract is a full-activity report covering both paid and unpaid items for the same period.
Line
Amount
Running balance
Opening balance
—
$3400.00
Invoice INV-9010 (new charge, still open)
$1150.00
$4550.00
Invoice INV-9022 (new charge, still open)
$890.00
$5440.00
Invoice INV-8990 (paid in full this period)
$0.00
$5440.00
Payment applied against INV-8990
-$3400.00
$2040.00
Stated closing balance
$2040.00
Opening balance (full-activity view, your side): $3,400.00, which includes invoice INV-8990 from the prior period.
Two new invoices post this period, both still open: $1,150.00 and $890.00.
INV-8990 ($3,400.00, the entire prior-period opening balance) is paid in full during the period. Its own line contributes $0 net movement — the invoice and its payment are two separate ledger entries, and only the payment changes the balance.
The payment of $3,400.00 clears the opening balance exactly, since it was applied to the one invoice that made it up.
The vendor's aged-open report, by definition, never lists INV-8990 at all once it's paid — so a reconciler working only from the aged-open report would see two open invoices ($1,150.00 + $890.00 = $2,040.00) and might wrongly conclude INV-8990 is 'missing' from their own records, when it was simply paid and correctly excluded from an aged-open view (taxonomy code REPORT_FLAVOUR). Both views agree on the same $2,040.00 closing figure once you recognise that a paid invoice has no place on an aged-open report.
StatementZen Academy Team — Built from StatementZen's own vendor statement reconciliation engineering and casework — pending Michael's named byline commitment (spec.md section 7). · Last updated