What is Supplier Statement Reconciliation and How Can the Process Be Improved?

In busy accounts payable departments, manually reconciling supplier statements can be a time consuming task, and presents a golden opportunity for errors to creep into the system. Missed or late payments, overlooked credits, and duplications do little to promote positive partnerships with suppliers and may even tarnish a business’s reputation.

Industry-leading Statement Matching software can automate most of the process, eliminating repetitive manual tasks (in which details are easily missed) and managing exceptions so that exceptions can be resolved promptly, preventing frustrating problems from arising later.

What is supplier statement reconciliation?

In supplier statement reconciliation, a supplier’s balance in the accounts payable ledger is reconciled with the statement the supplier issues. Supplier statements are essential documents, as they contain details of invoices, credits, discounts, and payments. Reconciliation enables AP staff to spot errors, inaccuracies, or mismatches and resolve these issues quickly.

In statement reconciliation, there are four stages:

1. The opening balance on the supplier statement is matched to that specified in the AP ledger.
2. All items on the supplier statement and in the AP ledger should be matched and removed from the reconciliation process.
3. Credits and payments on the supplier statement must be matched with the relevant invoices.
4. Any unmatched items—those on the supplier statement but not in the AP ledger, or vice versa—must be reconciled.

In an AP department that manually processes large volumes of statements, the task can be incredibly slow and intricate, with the possibility of mistakes being high. An automated solution, however, can simplify the entire process.

The advantages of supplier statement reconciliation

So, how can switching to automated statement reconciliation benefit your business?

1. Better Compliance: with supplier statement reconciliation, statement matching rules and timescales are more clearly defined and enforceable, so compliance will be easier to achieve.
2. Positive Business Relationships: increased visibility and faster cycle times will work wonders for your relationships with suppliers, who can also support credit submissions to prevent missed credits.
3. Value-Added Tasks: with tedious manual processing eradicated, AP staff can be redirected to complete more valuable activities, boosting their morale and helping to drive your business forward.
4. Quicker Cycle Times: unless exceptions occur, supplier statements can be reconciled far more quickly than would be possible with manual processing. If exceptions are automatically detected, they’ll be promptly flagged up and sent to suppliers for joint reconciliation.
5. Lower Costs and Less Clutter: with automated, browser-based statement reconciliation, the time-consuming task of processing email/excel statements is unnecessary, and there’s no need to store large volumes of hard copies, as all essential data is digitized and stored in the cloud.

Ready to enjoy the benefits of Basware’s Statement Matching?

If you’re interested in replacing outdated and error-prone manual statement reconciliation with an accurate and effortless system, Statement Matching is the answer.

With Statement Matching, you can reconcile supplier statements, promptly resolve problems and errors, improve cycle times, and reduce queries—creating an AP department that works productively for your business instead of being bogged down by time-consuming and repetitive tasks.

To find out more, simply contact us with questions or to request a free demo.