Roofing materials arrive on a delivery ticket, get signed for on the driveway, and show up weeks later as an invoice. Somewhere between the ticket and the books, paper gets lost. The supplier's statement is the one document that lists everything they believe you bought. If you never compare it to your own records, you are guessing at your material cost.
A $1,735 Gap, Explained
All figures below are illustrative. Assume the month-end statement from your main shingle supplier shows $18,640. Your accounts payable for that supplier shows $16,905. Nobody disputes the supplier's math. The difference is $1,735, and it breaks down like this:
| Reconciling item | Job | Effect on books |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice delivered and signed, never entered | 2291 | +$1,420 |
| Invoice for a repair job, ticket left in the truck | 2304 | +$695 |
| Return credit entered by you, not yet issued by supplier | 2287 | -$380 |
| Total difference | $1,735 |
Add $1,420 and $695, subtract the $380 credit, and the books agree with the statement. Two of the three items are real costs that no job was carrying.
How to Reconcile a Statement
- Request a statement dated the last day of the month. Most suppliers send one automatically. If yours does not, ask your rep for it.
- Pull your vendor balance as of the same date. Use an open-invoice report by vendor, not the general ledger total, so you can match line by line.
- Match invoice numbers. Tick every invoice that appears on both lists. Whatever remains on either side is a reconciling item.
- Classify each leftover. The usual causes are an unposted invoice, an unapplied credit, a payment sent but not yet received, a duplicate entry, or a keying error in the amount.
- Post what is yours to post. Enter missing invoices to the correct job and cost type. Record the payment in transit with its true date.
- Send back what is theirs to fix. Email the supplier a list of missing credits and disputed charges with ticket numbers, and follow up at the next statement.
- File the signed-off reconciliation. One page per supplier per month is enough.
Pair this with your payment terms review. A supplier offering a 2% early-pay discount only helps if the invoice is in your books before the discount window closes.
What the Gap Does to Job Costs
Suppose job 2291 is a $13,200 reroof with $4,600 of estimated materials. Without the missing $1,420 invoice, the job shows $3,180 of materials and looks $1,420 better than it is. Your closeout review, and any crew or salesperson bonus tied to margin, runs on bad numbers. The cost does not disappear. It lands in whichever month you finally post it, usually against the wrong job or in overhead.
This is why a closeout review only works when the underlying postings are complete. Reconciliation is the control that makes the review honest.
Common Mistakes
- Paying from the statement without checking it. If you pay the $18,640 balance, you cover costs the books never recorded, and the expense appears nowhere.
- Posting the whole difference to one account. Dumping the gap into cost of goods sold or miscellaneous hides which jobs were under-costed.
- Reconciling only quarterly. By then, delivery tickets are gone and no one remembers which truck went where.
- Ignoring small suppliers. Fastener, flashing and gutter suppliers send fewer invoices, which makes a lost one easier to miss.