Template
Supplier statement template: columns, example and email wording
A supplier statement has one job: let someone read down a page and arrive at the same closing balance you did. Anything that makes the running total harder to follow is working against that. Here is the structure that does it, a worked example, and the two emails most practices send with it.
Header: identify everything before the first number
- Your company name and, ideally, address and VAT/ABN number.
- The supplier's name — the same one used on remittance advices.
- Statement period: both start and end date. "Statement to 31 August" is ambiguous.
- Issue date, and optionally a page number and currency.
If either party operates in multiple currencies, state the currency in the header rather than per line. Mixed-currency statements without a stated currency are the fastest route to an argument.
The columns, and why each earns its place
| Column | Why it is there |
|---|---|
| Date | Chronological order; ISO-style dates (2026-08-05) avoid DD/MM confusion across countries. |
| Type | Bill, payment or credit note — without it, a reader cannot tell whether a number increases or decreases the debt. |
| Reference | The invoice or payment number. This is what gets matched on the other side; leave it blank and reconciliation becomes guesswork. |
| Debit | Amounts invoiced to you (increase what you owe). |
| Credit | Payments and credit notes (decrease what you owe). |
| Balance | The running total after each line. Its last value is the closing balance and must reconcile. |
An optional due date column earns its keep when the statement doubles as a payment reminder, because it lets the reader see what is overdue without opening anything else.
Worked example
| Date | Type | Reference | 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 |
| 2026-08-05 | Bill | INV-2200 | 1,160.00 | — | 2,010.00 |
| 2026-08-10 | Payment | BP-402 | — | 500.00 | 1,510.00 |
| Closing balance | 1,510.00 | ||||
Two things worth copying: every row shows a balance, including rows where nothing changed, and the closing balance is stated explicitly rather than left for the reader to add up. The mechanics behind the running total are covered in the full walkthrough.
Email 1: asking the supplier for their statement
Subject: Statement request — [Your Company] — period ending [date]
Hello [name],
Could you send your statement for [Your Company] covering [start date] to [end date]? We are reconciling accounts payable as at [end date] and would like to make sure both sides agree.
A PDF is fine. If you can include invoice references rather than descriptions alone, it saves us a round of questions.
Thanks — [your name]
Being specific about the period is what prevents the common failure mode: receiving whatever the system generated, covering a period that doesn't match yours.
Email 2: querying the differences
Subject: Statement reconciliation — [Your Company] — [n] items to confirm
Hello [name],
Thanks for the statement — we have reconciled it against our records. Our closing balance per yourselves is [amount]; per our records it is [amount], a difference of [amount], which is explained as follows:
· On your statement, not in our records: [reference] — [amount]. Please send a copy of this invoice.
· In our records, not on your statement: payment [reference], [date], [amount]. Please confirm it was received.
· Amount differs: [reference] — you show [amount], we show [amount]. Please advise which figure is correct.If you can confirm the items above, we can close the period off. Happy to take these by return email.
Thanks — [your name]
The structure matters more than the wording: put closures and each difference category in its own line, and never ask both "is this right?" and "please investigate" in the same sentence — you will get whichever is easier to ignore. More background on the categories themselves is in the six usual causes of unmatched lines.
Common mistakes worth avoiding
- No closing balance stated. Everything else can be right and the statement still fails, because the reader cannot tell what you are claiming they owe.
- Payments not identified by reference. "Payment received" with no number is nearly impossible to match against a remittance.
- Credit notes shown as negative debits. Keep them in the credit column; it is unambiguous and totals cleanly.
- Periods that overlap previous statements. Choose one window and stick to it; otherwise the same line gets queried twice.
Skip the template
If you are assembling this by hand each month, the template above is most of a bad fifteen minutes. Statemint builds it from your accounting export — including the running balance and the cut-off — in about a minute, entirely inside your browser, and can also diff it against the statement the supplier sent you so the email above writes itself. Try it with your own export.