Checking a supplier statement

Summary

Every month your factors send a statement listing what they say you owe. Checking it by hand is slow and it is where invoices go missing. Purchases > Supplier statements does the comparison for you: it reads the statement and tells you which lines you already hold, which are sitting unentered in your scan inbox, and which you genuinely need to ask the supplier for.

Nothing is posted to your books. Capturing a statement only records what the supplier says. No invoice is ever created from one, because a statement line has no VAT breakdown and you cannot reclaim VAT off it.

Prerequisites

• Your suppliers set up. See Supplier management.
• Invoice-capture permission to capture a statement. Without it you can still read one and copy the chase list.

Steps

Get a statement in

There is no manual entry. A statement has to arrive as a document.

1. Upload it with the document type set to Supplier statement.
2. Give the supplier a scan address for statements, and they land automatically. See Scan addresses.

A long statement is read one page at a time, so it can take a few minutes. Nothing is missing while it says Reading the statement, there is just nothing to show until every page is in.

Capture it

1. Open the statement from To capture.
2. Check Which supplier is this?. Torqueflow often matches it for you, from the name, the VAT number, or your account number on last month’s statement, and says which it used.
3. The coverage list appears underneath. Review it.
4. Select Capture statement.

The confirm step tells you the shape of it in one line: how many lines, how many already entered, how many sitting in your scan inbox, and how many are not in Torqueflow at all.

Read the groups

This is the part that does the work. Lines are grouped by what you need to do about them.

1. Already entered. You have the invoice and the amount agrees. Nothing to do.
2. Amounts do not match. You have the invoice, but the statement disagrees with what you entered. The group header shows how much you are out by.
3. Ask the supplier for these. Not in Torqueflow, and not in your scan inbox either. These are the ones to chase.
4. In your scan inbox, not entered yet. You already have these. Enter them, do not chase them. They are never included when you copy a list for the supplier.
5. Not yet entered. You hold the paperwork but have not captured it.
6. Not chased. Payments, finance charges, rebates and brought-forward balances. These are not invoices, so there is nothing to ask for.
7. Needs a look. The reader could not tell what the line is. These are never counted as missing and never sent to the supplier.

Groups 3 and 4 are the ones people get wrong. Both look like a gap. One means ring the supplier, the other means do your own filing.

Chase what is missing

1. Select the copy button on the Ask the supplier for these group.
2. Paste the list into an email to your factor.
3. Confirm you have copied it. The lines are stamped Chased with the date and drop below the rest of the list.

Nothing is marked as chased until you say you have copied it. Lines with no number or no amount are left out and the dialog tells you how many.

Expected Outcome

• A statement captured against the right supplier, with nothing posted to your books.
• A clear split between invoices to chase and invoices to enter.
• A chase list you can paste straight into an email, with a dated stamp on what you have already asked for.

Notes

• A statement that does not add up cannot be chased. If the lines do not come to the statement’s own stated total, Torqueflow says so and switches chasing off, because a mis-read line would mean chasing an invoice you already have. Correct the lines first.
• Older statements re-list the same items. A statement is a running-account snapshot, so last month’s will show the same open invoices. Only the current one can be chased, and older ones are badged Superseded with a link to the current one.
• Some suppliers do not print a total. Then there is nothing to check the lines against, and Torqueflow says so rather than pretending it verified anything.
• The totals cover the whole statement. Filtering the list does not change them, and does not change what you copy.

Troubleshooting

Problem: Why did my statement not create any invoices? Cause: By design. A statement line carries no VAT breakdown, so an invoice built from one would be unreclaimable. Fix: Enter the invoices themselves, by scan or by hand.

Problem: “This looks like a supplier statement, but it was not read as one.” Cause: It arrived without the statement type set, so the invoice reader looked at it. Fix: Select Read it as a statement. That runs the page-by-page reader and uses credits.

Problem: An invoice is in “Ask the supplier for these” but I know we have it. Cause: Either the document number on the statement differs from the one you entered, or it is filed under a different supplier. Fix: Use Edit the document number on the line. Check the filter box by number or registration first.

Problem: “You have already sent this statement.” Cause: It is a byte-for-byte copy of one already in Torqueflow, so it was not read again. Fix: Open the original.

Problem: A page could not be read, so nothing was captured. Cause: Deliberate. A partly-read statement would show gaps that are not real. Fix: Try reading it again, which re-runs every page and uses credits.

Problem: The list says some invoices may be shown as missing when they are not. Cause: The statement covers more invoices than can be compared in one go. Fix: Check the ones you doubt by hand before chasing them.