Reconcile a supplier statement

Bring together the supplier statement and your own orders, delivery records and invoices for the account, so both sides of the ledger are in front of you.

Neden: You cannot reconcile what you cannot see side by side. Assembling both views first is what turns a vague sense that the account is wrong into a line-by-line comparison.

Match the statement lines against your ledger and flag everything that does not tie: an invoice they show and you do not, a credit you expected, a charge for a returned load.

Neden: The differences are the whole point. A statement that matches needs no work; it is the lines that do not tie that hold the overcharge or the missing credit worth chasing.

Work each difference to a conclusion with the supplier: chase the missing credit, dispute the wrong charge, raise the invoice you owe, until the account balances to an agreed figure.

Neden: An unresolved difference does not go away, it compounds into next month's statement. Clearing each one at source keeps the account clean and stops small errors becoming a tangled dispute.

Release payment for the reconciled balance, so you pay what you genuinely owe on time and neither overpay nor hold up a supplier over a figure that is now agreed.

Neden: Paying a clean, agreed balance protects your credit terms and your reputation with the supplier. It also closes the account so the next statement starts from a figure you both trust.