When a supplier statement and your payables ledger disagree

A supplier sends a statement for $18,400. Your payables ledger shows $14,900. Paying the larger amount to keep the account moving is not a reconciliation. Posting the $3,500 difference to an expense account is not one either.

The useful question is narrower: which transactions explain why the two records disagree, and who needs to correct each one?

A supplier statement reports what the supplier believes you owe. Comparing it with your vendor ledger is a different check from reconciling your total accounts payable subledger to the general ledger. Both matter, but one cannot substitute for the other. See Sage's accounts payable reconciliation guide.

Start with one supplier account, one buying entity, one currency and one cutoff date. Check whether the supplier has separate accounts for branches, delivery locations or currencies. A payment sent against one account can leave another looking overdue.

Keep the original statement and export your vendor transactions as of its date. A current balance is not an adequate comparison with last month's statement. If the statement lists only open items, also obtain activity when necessary to explain how payments and credits were allocated.

Record four control details at the top of the workpaper:

If the previous reconciliation still has unresolved items, bring them forward individually. Do not treat last month's unexplained difference as an accepted opening balance.

Match invoices and credits by document reference, amount and currency. Match payments using the bank transaction reference and remittance allocation, not merely a familiar amount. Then separate the unmatched items by the side on which they appear.

A statement-only invoice is a reason to investigate, not automatic permission to create a bill. Search the full ledger for a different supplier reference or an invoice posted to another account before entering it again.

Likewise, a payment scheduled in your banking portal is not proof that the supplier received it. Keep a true timing difference separate from a failed payment or a payment allocated to the wrong account. Those require different actions.

Consider this hypothetical reconciliation at a common cutoff date. The company has already recorded and paid $3,000, but the supplier has not applied the receipt to its account. The supplier also lists a genuine $500 invoice that the company omitted. The team obtains the invoice and supporting approval before accepting that correction.

The bridge is $18,400 − $3,000 = $15,400 on one side and $14,900 + $500 = $15,400 on the other. The starting $3,500 difference does not belong in one journal entry.

The company must not record the $3,000 payment a second time. Its action is to give the supplier the payment evidence and obtain the corrected allocation. For the $500 invoice, the accounting owner determines the appropriate posting period and coding under the company's close policy. The statement date alone does not answer those questions.

If the supplier has not yet corrected its account, show that item as an outstanding reconciling difference. An adjusted workpaper balance is not evidence that both live systems have changed.

Use an exception register alongside the bridge. For each item, capture the document reference, amount, which record needs attention, supporting evidence, action owner, target date and resolution reference.

Avoid a status such as “sent to supplier” as the finish line for a missing payment allocation. A stronger closure record is the supplier's confirmation or updated statement showing where the payment went. For an omitted company invoice, retain the posted transaction reference and confirm that the vendor report now includes it.

A disagreement about the underlying obligation needs a separate accounting decision. It should not disappear merely because someone added “disputed” to the reconciliation. See assessing a disputed supplier balance before removing the liability. A return awaiting a supplier credit also needs its own evidence trail; the return-to-vendor credit tracker addresses that narrower problem.

The reconciled $15,400 is a supported account balance in this example. It is not necessarily the amount due today. Invoice due dates, approved holds and the normal payment authorization process still apply.

Keep payment instructions outside the reconciliation decision. A statement containing new bank details should not, by itself, change the approved destination for funds.

The reviewer should be able to follow the original balances through every reconciling item, identify which corrections actually posted and see what remains open. That is the useful deliverable: not two numbers made equal, but a record that explains the difference and tells the next person exactly what still needs to happen.