Billing statement
A periodic summary sent to a customer showing charges, payments and the balance owed on an account.
In short
- A billing statement summarizes an account over a period: previous balance, new charges, payments and the amount due.
- An invoice bills one sale; a statement can cover several invoices and payments at once.
- For expenses, keep statements that show the charges and taxes, or the invoices behind them.
A billing statement is a document a business sends a customer at regular intervals, usually monthly, to summarize the account: the balance carried forward, new charges, payments and credits received, and the amount now due. Phone, internet, utility, medical and card accounts are billed this way.
Billing statement vs invoice
An invoice requests payment for a specific sale or service and is usually issued once per transaction. A billing statement covers a period and may list several invoices, payments and adjustments together. Many service providers combine the two: the monthly bill from a phone carrier is both the invoice for the month's service and a statement of the account.
What a billing statement shows
- Customer name, account number and statement date
- The billing period
- Previous balance, payments received and credits
- New charges, with taxes shown separately
- Total due, due date and how to pay
- Aging of any overdue amounts
Statement of account
In business-to-business accounts, a statement of account lists every open invoice for a customer with its age. It isn't a request for new payment; it helps the customer reconcile what they owe. Receiving one from a supplier is the start of supplier statement reconciliation.
For the business receiving it
A billing statement that includes the month's charges and the supplier's tax details can support the expense in the books. One that only summarizes the balance needs the underlying invoices. Keep them as long as other tax records: three years in most US cases, six years in Canada.
Many billing statements never arrive by email: they sit in the carrier or utility customer portal. Bill fetching in Smartbills signs in to the supplier portals it supports each cycle, downloads the statement and sends it to accounts payable with the amount, dates and tax read.
Worked example
One carrier, three numbers
A contractor's monthly statement from its mobile carrier shows a previous balance of $412.60, a payment of $412.60, new charges of $365.00 plus $47.45 of tax, and a total due of $412.45 on the 18th. The statement is the month's invoice, and the $47.45 of tax is what the contractor claims back as an input tax credit.