About Accounts Receivable statements

A statement, or statement of account, is essentially a report. It's a snapshot that includes all open transactions for a customer. Statements are sent directly to customers or, at the customer's request, to others such as auditors or accountants. Intacct generates the statement when you request one to be printed or emailed.

What's included in statements

Statements are based on Accounts Receivable transactions and Order Entry transactions that affect Accounts Receivable. Individual balances are listed so that you can scan the list of charges by date, item, amount due, amount paid, total due, and total received. Statements also include aging information.

About the statement types

When you print or email customer statements, there are two statement types that you can choose from: Open item or balance forward.

• Open item: Displays a list of transactions that have an open balance, regardless of the time period, and then the list of activity for the selected time period. Each line shows how much is due and has been paid.

• Balance forward: Displays the amount due as of the beginning of the period that you selected and then the list of activity for the selected time period.

How to format statements

You can assign a template to format customer statements when you print or email them.

• For printed statements, select a Printed document template.

• For emailed statements, select an Email template.

If you do not select a template on the Print or email statements page, Intacct generates statements using the default settings that cannot be edited.

Difference between statements and invoices

Statements differ from invoices in a fundamental way:

• An invoice creates an obligation of payment for products or services that a customer has purchased. It creates a transaction on the books.

Selling goods or services to a customer and allowing that customer to pay you at a later date is known as selling on credit. Selling on credit creates a liability for the customer to pay your business and at the same time creates an asset for your company, called accounts receivable. This is considered a short-term asset, because you're normally paid in less than one year.

An account receivable is documented through an invoice. You're responsible for issuing an invoice to the customer through a billing procedure. The invoice describes the goods or services that you have sold, the amount the customer owes you (including tax and other charges), and when they're supposed to pay.

• A statement of account is a detailed report of the contents of an account. An example is a statement sent to a customer showing all of the billings to and payments from the customer during a specific time period, resulting in an ending balance.

The purpose of the statement is to remind a customer of sales on credit that have not yet been paid to the supplier, including all the invoices and transactions for the period. The statement is usually a printed document, but can also be sent electronically.

When should I print statements?

Printing a statement depends on several factors, such as your agreements with the customer or your corporate practices.

Statements are not invoices. They're reminders of open transactions, or list the transactions for the period with the ending balance. Statements allow customers to make sure they received everything and contact you if there are any concerns or if they need copies of the invoice sent.

Charges are sent out as invoices. Generally, you send out invoices or adjustments at the time they’re created. Statements can be sent anytime for any period, or not sent at all if there's no need to send them.