Guide

How to create a supplier statement (with running balance)

A supplier statement tells one supplier everything that happened on their account over a period: every bill, credit note and payment, with a running balance that lands on the amount currently owed. This guide shows you how to build one from an accounting export — the same process Statemint automates, so you can do it by hand or skip to the tool.

What a supplier statement needs

Whatever the source, every statement needs these fields per line:

Supplier — the account the line belongs to
Date — chronological order is the whole point
Type — bill, credit note or payment
Reference — invoice or payment number
Debit and credit amounts — bills increase the balance, payments and credit notes reduce it

Step 1 — Export the transactions

In Xero: Business → Purchases → Bills and Business → Purchases → Payments, then Export each as CSV. In QuickBooks, run a Vendor or Unpaid Bills report and export it. Keep every column the export gives you — you'll map the ones you need and ignore the rest.

Step 2 — Map the columns

Spreadsheets from different packages name things differently (Contact vs Vendor, Total vs Amount). Pick the column that plays each role. If your export has a single signed amount column, treat positives as debits and negatives as credits. Watch dates: 05/01/2026 is ambiguous — choose the export's date format explicitly rather than guessing.

Step 3 — Build the running balance

Sort ascending by date (keep the original order within the same date), then walk the rows:

balance_row = balance_previous + debit − credit

Use integer cents, never floating point: adding 0.1 ten times in a spreadsheet formula can land on 0.9999999…, and a statement that misses by a cent is a statement nobody trusts. Finally, assert the identity:

closing balance = opening balance + Σ debits − Σ credits

Here's a worked example:

Date	Type	Ref	Debit	Credit	Balance
2026-07-02	Bill	INV-1041	1,200.00		1,200.00
2026-07-15	Payment	BP-331		1,200.00	0.00
2026-07-28	Bill	INV-1088	850.00		850.00

Closing balance 850.00 = 0 + (1,200 + 850) − 1,200. If your last line doesn't satisfy the identity, a row is missing or mis-signed — fix that before sending.

Step 4 — Print and send

Lay it out as: your firm's name and logo, "Supplier Statement", the supplier's name, the period, the table, and a prominent closing balance. When printing for several suppliers, start each one on a new page and repeat the table header on every page.

Doing it by hand vs. using a tool

A spreadsheet template works, but it costs 15–30 minutes per supplier every month, and every manual step is a chance to mis-sort a date or drop a row. Statemint does the same job in about a minute: drop the export, confirm the auto-detected columns, pick suppliers, print. Everything runs locally in your browser — your client's data is never uploaded. Preview is free; printing without a watermark is a one-time purchase — $29 early bird, $39 regular.